Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Marine Bembekoff, I am 28 years old, I am a graduate of the Bachelor International Business class of 2020/2021. After 7 years of experience in luxury retail in Paris, London and Milan, I chose to take a year of study as a Business Development Representative in the Account Manager team of the EMEA market at Digimind, which allowed me to reconvert to the technology sector, more precisely SaaS (Software as a Service). Today I am Customer Success Manager at Talkwalker, a Luxembourg-based company that specializes in social media and web monitoring for strategic purposes.
Why did you choose a business school and more specifically the INSEEC Bachelor?
The INSEEC Bachelor seemed to me to be an obvious choice for my return to school, beyond its good ranking in the rankings. For me, a company is more than an offer or a service in response to a demand, it is a brand identity, value creation, with in the most successful cases an opportunity to convey a message to a large audience while creating profit and imposing itself on a competitive international scene. When I went for the oral interview to join the school I had a good feeling, I felt that the people were caring and inclusive. The fact that my age was valued and not a hindrance convinced me that I was making the right choice.
In your opinion, what is the particularity of the Bachelor ?
What makes the bachelor’s degree special is undeniably the faculty that brings the program to life. They have a professional vision of teaching and combine their expertise with modern learning techniques. This is a winning combination when you want a professional and less theoretical training than you might find in higher education. Then there is also the reputation, everyone knows INSEEC from near or far, and that is a real strength. This is an important criterion to consider when choosing a school because you are linking your value to that of the school you choose.
Why the International Business program?
In “International Business” there is international, which implies openness to the world, mixing, curiosity and sharing of cultures, but also in a purely business vision, the challenge of this multiculturalism in a company, whether externally or internally is essential. In a relatively globalized and digitalized world where physical borders are disappearing, how to build and develop while adapting to the specificities of each market? This is a question that must be existential for any company with international ambitions. In my job and in my past experiences, I have always been confronted with foreign clients. Speaking English has become natural for me, so this course of study seemed to be a good fit with my background and a good gateway to take me where I wanted to go, developing strategic skills focused on B2C and B2B2C.
What is the specific skill of the INSEEC Bachelor that you use on a daily basis?
The team spirit and the cooperative approach is very developed at INSEEC, it is a pillar that in my opinion characterizes it because it is put forward in all the courses and throughout the program, like the famous sentence of Claire Souvigne which resounds undoubtedly in the head of each student of INSEEC Bachelor “you are the managers of tomorrow”. Firstly, it simulates corporate life and secondly, it develops trust in others and this is crucial when you want to manage a team. In my experience, I have often taken the role of leader in group work, and this has revealed an aptitude and appetite for leadership that I had not fully grasped before. Being a leader is not only about leading, having or giving responsibilities or giving instructions, it is above all about knowing how to transmit an inspiring vision, while motivating a team to reach a common goal and letting each one contribute with his own personality. Of course, it is necessary to know how to identify the strong and weak points of each member in order to optimize the success of the project but I insist on the last point because I think it is essential, how can we expect our collaborators to give the best of themselves if we dictate to them what it is supposed to be?
What advice can you give to the Bachelor students ?
Don’t be afraid to strive for more, to get the best out of yourself in everything you do. Never give up, no matter your age, your barriers, your doubts. Don’t wait for the opportunity, dare to create it. As I proclaimed when I spoke at the graduation ceremony “Just do it, just dare it!”.
Updated 4 September 2023