Studying for one year in China is a great opportunity for me.
We have amazing professors from all around the world. Most of them work in nearby Shanghai and have their own companies. They share with us their knowledge and experience.
Studying one semester at Suzhou was an opportunity to discover China, the second-largest, and fastest-growing, economy in the world.
During a previous internship experience at L’Oréal I realised how understanding the Chinese market is important in the cosmetics industry, tourism industry and in so many other markets. A Chinese experience would be added value for my future career.
After a few months here, I decided to enrol for one more semester here. I was so surprised by this crazy country, the amount of technology they live with, the dozens of services that we daily enjoy and that does not exist in Europe: the 24-hour delivery, the tailor-made clothing, the online shopping, the e-payment, all those things that make your life easier. Discovering all the culture was a challenge, it is so rich and different from ours.
This “culture shock” is great for me. You do not come to Suzhou for the beautiful beaches or for the American dream, you come to Suzhou for the culture shock I would say.
Being the president of the SKEMA Suzhou Sports Club was a great opportunity for me to transmit this message to the students. At the same time, it was a professional experience in China as we have to negotiate partnerships and activities with local people. This also gave me the opportunities to extend my network. Doing this, I managed a team of 18 people. I had some difficult moments but I learned to handle them with the help of my team. It has helped me so much in defining what kind of manager I want to be in my future career.