Like most master’s degrees, the program is targeted at pre-experience students and designed to provide career starters with the skills and diversity of experience to grow. But ESCP Europe’s MiM stands out for its focus on customization.
While other programs might force students to take majority ‘lock-step’ courses—where every student takes the same course with no alternative to doing so—ESCP Europe students can tailor most of their master’s experience to suit their own career needs.
Customizable master’s degree
First year students take core courses with an emphasis on Intercultural Management. But these are combined with at least two integrated internships throughout the program and the option of gap years and apprenticeships for real-life work experience. These options—a ‘flexible study track’—mean students can even decide to extend the two-year program for up to four years.
The second-year of the course in fully-customizable. Students choose one or two of 38 semester-long specializations and can even create their own semester, choosing from a variety of electives including varied topics like Design Thinking in Management and International Capital Markets.
ESCP Europe also offers MiM students the option to obtain a double degree, spending the second year of their master’s abroad at a partner university. The school offers 30 double degrees, ranging from business (MBA, finance, accounting) to engineering, fashion, luxury, and hospitality.
The whole MiM program is based around the idea of ‘dual expertize’—that students graduate with all the fundamentals of running a business plus a major in the form of a specialization or dual degree and a more nuanced insight into an industry or area of interest in which they can build their career.
Entrepreneurship
For Céline, this was music and entrepreneurship, and because the Master in Management at ESCP Europe gives students the independence to choose the projects they work on within any given module, she was able to wave it in throughout her studies.
Choosing a module in Strategy & Organization provided Céline with the chance to work in the music industry, interviewing producers and artistic directors at Mercury Records, part of Universal Music, about how industry business models best function.
As part of the first class to test an entrepreneurship module, she visited China. Céline met with top business leaders, creating a personal startup model with the aim of launching her own enterprise post-graduation.
It is this that she is now spring-boarding off for her latest music business venture—a digital platform which promotes young classical musicians to a new millennial audience and helps organize secret gigs in London. She’ll be running this alongside her first company, a financial recruitment firm which she founded after 10 years of experience in the industry.
“My entrepreneurship specialization has been, and continues to be, extremely useful,” Céline beams.
Amazon & Startups in Berlin
Manish Chawla (pictured below, right), too, chose the Master in Management at ESCP Europe because the specializations meant he could get a taste for different career paths. Perfect for him, as he isn't yet certain about what he wants to pursue post-graduation.
Already, through the program, Manish has interned as an operations analyst in Amazon’s EU head office in Luxemburg. “There were lots of ESCP Europe alumni in the city so I felt at home instantly,” Manish smiles.
He spent time in both finance and marketing teams at Amazon, his work overlapping with in-house consultancy, and the experience developed both his problem-solving and soft skills. The internship motivated Manish to pursue a specialization in marketing, and the Entrepreneurship track in September.
But, first up, entrepreneurship. Manish is interested in startups and will soon take up the Entrepreneurship: Technology and Digital Economy specialization in Berlin. Through it, he aims to gain insight into the tech startup culture rife in the German capital and get a better idea about whether starting his own business is something he wants to do after his masters.
Manish explains that the ability to customize his masters experience—choosing from specializations and electives—has given him a real sense of ownership over his education, and a new direction in his career.
“I like how the power is in my hands,” he says. “It’s perfect for someone starting out in their career like me.”
