LUCAS SORNIN

Lucas Sornin is a third-year student on the Business Management track, specialising in Finance. He received his baccalaureate, with honours, from the Lycée Saint-Marc in Nivolas-Vermelle in Isère.

FORGING A CAREER PLAN WITH THE BBA

Lucas embarked on the EDHEC International BBA “with a view to getting a work-oriented education that was firmly anchored in hands-on apprenticeship”. The Business Management track gave him the opportunity to tailor his career path in the way that he wanted. “It is an education grounded in realism and adapted to constructing a well-considered career path,” he says. In addition, Lucas sees the BBA as a chance to become professionally qualified in a way that gives him a “real opportunity to develop my career plan”.

Now in the third year of his Finance specialisation, he is hesitating over his choice of sectoral specialisation in the fourth year – banking and wealth management or audit and financial management. “I need to take more time to talk with the right people and choose the specialisation that will best serve me in the professions of financial analysis and innovation financing,” he says.

Lucas’ first professional experience came through his membership of the EDHEC BBA Junior Consulting student society, a student consulting firm at the heart of the School. Here, he discovered how to put what he learned in the classroom into practice, as well as to “become more assertive and take on the role of manager in a company with real challenges”. His responsibilities for marketing and media helped to develop his appetite for business development, digital media and strategy. “I discovered the importance of working passionately,” he says. “I understood that we must always aim to excel in whatever we do and systematically make choices that are right for us.”

[The 2017-18 EDHEC BBA Junior Consulting team. Lucas is on the far left in the middle row.]

AN ACADEMIC EXCHANGE IN HONG KONG

In August 2018, Lucas left to spend a semester on an academic exchange at the City University of Hong Kong, College of Business. He prepared for this long-awaited exchange by attending preparatory meetings organised by EDHEC Business School’s Study Abroad Office. At the Office’s Beyond Borders day, he met students returning from exchanges in Asia, as well as fellow students who would be going to Hong Kong at the same time.

Before travelling, he chose the courses he would take once he got there: Trading Room Workshop, Corporate Financial Policy, Experimental Methods in Economics & Finance, Asian & Pacific Capital Markets & Standard Practices, and Environmental Challenges in Asia & the World. “The volume of work turned out to be substantial, to the point that I spent most of December in the library,” he says. “Even so, I really enjoyed the work and felt that I learned an enormous amount, which was extremely encouraging.”

This has been a rich learning experience for Lucas. “I took a step back from my professional ambitions and the path that I would have to take to achieve them,” he says. “An academic exchange is the ideal time to ask yourself questions about your academic and professional future.” The exchange has confirmed Lucas’ professional goals and he believes it will make a significant difference to his CV, “not only the destination, but also the prestige of the university. Hong Kong is a global financial hub and the College of Business of the City University of Hong Kong is ranked fourth in Asia in the UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™. These choices are very much in line with my professional aspirations.”

College of Business, City University of Hong Kong

INTERNSHIPS FOR A FUTURE CAREER IN FINANCE

Lucas’ professional ambitions in finance have taken shape through the various corporate internships he has completed since his first year. In his first placement, Lucas initially explored the world of digital marketing at Hello Wat, a company that provides innovative, tailored solutions to help consumers reduce their energy usage and switch to the energy sources of tomorrow. “I was a business developer in charge of digital marketing, two subjects I was familiar with thanks to the interest in entrepreneurship and growth hacking I had developed during my first year of the EDHEC International BBA,” he says. “I took away tangible knowledge and skills, both soft skills, such as how to present myself and the art of selling and pitching, and hard skills, such as the concepts of coding (HTML and CSS) and digital marketing (SEO, SEA, etc).”

Lucas began his adventure in finance with an internship in his second year, at Sharpstone Advisory, a financial and operational consulting firm. “The positioning of this company is highly original, as it concentrates for the most part on innovative technological companies,” he says. “I worked as a pre-project consultant, with the main task of putting the commercial strategy into action and approaching and meeting the decision-makers in these types of company. This was a very exciting experience at an intellectual level, as I had to understand R&D projects, for example, but also in terms of the responsibilities I had to take on.”

For his final placement, he would like to secure an internship as a financial consultant or a capital analyst, “ideally in an advisory, venture capital or investment funds company”.

Lucas hopes to continue his studies with an MSc in finance and corporate strategy or to attend an engineering school to acquire dual expertise.

Find Lucas on LinkedIn.