“I had a lot of prejudices about business schools, Maxime Banlier admits straight away. For me, it was a daddy's boy's path. » His father is an automobile salesman and passed on his passion for cars and sales to him. This is why, after his baccalaureate, he joined the Institute of Business Administration (IAE) in La Rochelle, one of the 38 university management schools in France. Management training that is much less expensive than a business school bachelor's degree and which has the advantage of being close to his native island of Oléron. With, as a bonus, strong supervision and high demands from teachers on personal work.
It is at the end of your degree that the question arises whether or not to take the entrance exams for the Grandes Ecoles. “I had enormous doubts because I couldn't see myself paying more than 13,000 euros per year and I really wondered about the return on investment of these establishments. I gave myself a year of reflection before registering for the parallel admissions exams”confides the young man, now 25 years old.
Time for him to dissect the programs, specializations and professional opportunities. It is on this last criterion that the business schools convinced him. “I wanted to start directly in positions of responsibility within human resources departments at headquarters level. It was the best option to achieve this, university masters having less developed career services. »
In 2020, in full confinement, he applied to several of them and chose Kedge Bordeaux for his HR specialization – because it is “the most complex problem to manage in the business world” – and a conclusive interview with one of the major's managers. Upon his arrival, he joined a class of around forty students from both preparatory classes and university. “A pleasant crossroads of cultures that worked well”far from its original preconceived ideas.
Four years after joining the Kedge high school program, he does not regret his choice. What he particularly appreciated was the personalization of his course. He notably opted for the “Associative Management” course during his gap year which allowed him to invest, for a semester, in his photography association. And this, while being coached on project management or management.
Which did not prevent him from also going on an internship in Sweden, then following a one-year apprenticeship in Cultura's HR department. And thus, to only have to finance one year of schooling out of the two. Whether it is this apprentice position, his first permanent contract as a consultant at Sopra Steria Next in Bordeaux, or his student job as a teaching assistant in the school, “Each time, I found these opportunities thanks to external speakers who gave us lessons.” “It was a real professional springboard, I didn’t realize how lucky a school network is”greets the young blond man. He is now counting on this asset – and on his employer – to launch his video and photo content project for businesses.
