Yes, of course! Once I had my diploma, my first job was as a Night Auditor at the Royal Savoy Hotel in Lausanne. During my time at EHG, I had noticed that most directors of large hotel establishments had passed through this key position, hence my choice. My goal was to develop my skills to one day, perhaps, join the hotel’s financial department and, later on, why not, become the director of a prestigious establishment.

However, my six-month fixed-term contract (FTC) started in the spring of 2020, right when the pandemic hit. After just over a month of work, we had to close the establishment due to Covid-19.

As you know, 2020 was a tough year for the hospitality industry. My employer at the time could not, of course, promise to keep my job or transfer me to the financial department once my contract was over. So, I quickly started looking for a new job. I sent out about forty applications in various fields such as oenology, tourism, and marketing. My applications were nonetheless targeted at jobs or roles that matched areas or skills I believed I had or wanted to develop and that interested me particularly.

At the same time, I noticed that some banks were looking to recruit private client advisors. During my time at EHG, I had tried to apply to banks for internships in semesters 4 and 6, but without success, partly because our internship dates didn’t match theirs. So, I simply tried again. And that’s when my adventure in the banking world began, thanks to UBS, but also to my first manager at the bank who believed in me!

My role involves managing a portfolio of private clients and advising them on topics such as real estate financing, retirement planning, investments, and basic products (accounts, cards, etc.).

I assist my clients throughout their life cycle, trying to provide them with the most suitable solutions at each stage of their lives. My position therefore requires skills in various areas and also the ability to manage risks well.

Without a doubt, the position I currently hold is the one I am most proud of! I thoroughly enjoy every task. This is certainly due to the accumulation of work during my academic journey, internships, continuing education, and personal experiences.

I believe that any career, regardless of the field, should be driven by deep desire and strong motivation. Personally, I’ve always wanted to do a job that I considered “useful”: lawyer, mechanic, doctor, or insurer. As you can see, the range was wide!

The job of a client advisor requires knowledge and skills primarily in two areas: finance and relationship management. EHG has always emphasized the latter. This is one of the reasons why graduates from this school are generally appreciated by financial institutions.

As for finance, I taught myself. Indeed, since EHG is not a business school, it primarily offered general courses with a focus on hospitality and catering at the time.

So, I took online courses to earn banking certifications. I borrowed course materials from my friends and colleagues who either had a vocational diploma in banking or were graduates of HEC Lausanne. In my view, passion and continuous improvement are the keys to professional fulfillment. These are the pieces of advice I want to give current students.

My goals are to continue developing my skills and gaining more experience in client advising to advance further in this field within my current company.

Covid and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence have disrupted many sectors, including finance. Banks are heavily developing digital services and remote advising. Artificial intelligence also provides us with very useful tools for advising, whether remotely or during in-branch meetings.

I believe that EHG enables its students to become versatile employees skilled in client contact. The very general education opens many doors in areas such as human resources, marketing, finance, tourism, and, of course, hospitality and catering.

To be completely honest, after finishing high school, I wasn’t sure which career path to follow. So, it was quite natural for me to turn to EHG, as the curriculum seemed very interesting to me.

I also took the opportunity to do internships in areas where I knew I would not pursue a career after my studies, simply out of curiosity and to broaden my general knowledge. And I quite enjoyed it!

Some of my classmates chose the opposite strategy: they only selected internships in their chosen field. I believe this is also a good strategy for easily landing a job in a specific field after graduation.

Overall, I really appreciated the courses offered, the advice professors gave based on their professional experiences, the various internships, and, of course, the moments spent with my classmates, whether in practical courses or, for example, during my seasonal internship at a ski resort with three of my classmates. Some became friends. Even though we received the same education, we do different jobs, but I find it very interesting to compare our different perspectives and discuss improvements we could make in our respective fields. Moreover, EHG tends to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in us (laughs).

In my opinion, and I believe that other alumni share this view, our Alumni network could be developed further, as is done in other hotel schools.
And I take this opportunity during this interview to wish all students the best of luck with their exams and success in their future careers!