Earlier this month I was rudely awoken by my alarm at 5.00am – it was time to head to King’s Cross to get the 7.10 Eurostar to Paris for the inaugural Energy & Retail and Luxury Goods Career trek. Accompanying me were 41 students, from a variety of programmes, along with a colleague from Career Services. As well as being amazed at the speed and ease of Eurostar, I was pleasantly surprised that all the students (& staff) were on time!
Although this may sound like the start of a holiday I can reassure you it was not! Yes, it was lovely to see the Eiffel Tower and eat macaroons (courtesy of Galleries Lafayette, one of the companies we visited), but ultimately career treks are an important part of students career searches, and for the trek leaders an excellent opportunity to practice and develop their leadership skills.
To take it back to basics, a “trek” involves a group of students travelling to a particular region to meet recruiters on-site at their offices. Students volunteer to take on the role as trek leader, organising everything from company visits to the nitty-gritty logistics. Treks tend to last 2 – 3 days, with up to 3 company visits a day. There are currently about 12 annual career treks spanning the globe from Dublin to Singapore, crossing all sectors and companies from small start-ups to established banks.
Trek objectives vary from student to student but tend to include:
- Meeting & networking with recruiters, regional alumni & like-minded peers
- Building knowledge about the area of interest, both sector and geography
- Helping to build the London Business School brand abroad – which started on the Eurostar for me. I was perusing the branded trek book, when the gentleman sat next to me asked ‘What is LSE like?’ I quickly corrected him and launched into a great sales pitch about London Business School!
The Student Activities team works closely with trek leaders throughout, from scheduling the date, to linking them up to sector managers in Career Services. We also connect students with Advancement, encouraging them to organise alumni mixers during the treks.
It is great to see the impact the treks have. For example, all of the Chinese students who went on the Shanghai Industry trek received interviews with J & J medical, with 2 receiving offers for summer internships. A visit to the European HQ of Fast Retailing during the Paris trek has led to the company opening up and advertising their new Global Leadership Program to our students – a big step in the retail sector. Finally the Swiss Healthcare trek last week came back with over 25 internship and project opportunities!
If you want to find out any more about career treks or think there are any ways we can collaborate do not hesitate to get in touch!
Marion (mbuggins@london.edu)
Singapore Trek
Dublin Technology Trek