"To start with, Société Générale is a French multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Paris. The General Inspection is a 3 to 6 years’ program which consists in a broad variety of missions, in France and abroad, covering the bank’s various business lines. I got very interested in this position because of it is a generalist role which offers a lot of variety in the nature of the work to be performed.

A part of the job would be to analyse the business line and the actions of its main managers (risk control, efficiency, governance and strategy, etc.), as well as perform fraud detection (big data approaches, investigation).

What differs from a pure auditing position is that from the mission, the inspectors would highlight the main observations, recommendations and strategic orientations, detailing them in written and oral presentations. Some missions can consist of the examination of (or contribution to) projects at the heart of the Group’s newsflow (assessment of acquisition targets, etc.)."

"At the beginning of the master I was thinking of applying for consultancy positions. My “career strategy” was not well defined, I was grabbing information here and there, and getting to know a very large panel of recruiters.

I got interested in Finance by getting more familiar with the industry. Studying a large range of subjects at IE enabled me to see finance as a catalyst needed for any value creation. I always knew I had a calling for logics and showed interest in extra-curricular activities which demanded organizational and analytical skills. As I went back to my initial Career Leader assessment I realized I showed strong competencies within the fields of finance contrary to my first appeal for consultancy. So finance was not a first choice but it ended being the right career strategy. I took the Finance Management and Control specialization and so far, I am very satisfied!"

"I found out about this job opportunity at a company presentation organised by IE Talent and Careers, not to long after the Financial Services Talent Forum. I just went there by curiosity as it was one of the first French companies on campus. The speakers were very dynamic and convincing, most of us left the room thinking of applying for the position. The application process was online, very straightforward."

"I had an appointment with my Career Advisor Elina Tretiakova at the beginning of the year to define my goals and strategize my job researches. Then, I contacted Career Advisor Beatriz García-Bernalt, specialized in the Finance sector, before going to the assessment center to have an opinion on my preparation and to get some tips on what I should put forward.

Teachers were helpful as well as general advisors on how to define your value added, what to expect during the recruitment process, etc.

Finally, the IE community help was the decisive vote. At school, I got to know students that previously worked for SocGen who gave me precious insider information about their experience in the company. I contacted some former IE students on LinkedIn that are now in the position, same thing.

All in all, IE is like an ecosystem, to make the most of it, you need to look for resources beyond the classroom."