Career Day I, 9th of November, Vlerick Business School Brussels – The Vlerick master students got the opportunity to experience 4 big companies, potentially future employers, in a more interactive way. Read more about our meeting with AB Inbev, Hilti, Nestlé, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilin below.

First on the agenda for both of us (Kaat and Gabrielle) was Nestlé. The HR Manager kicked the presentation off with an introduction about the company. Next Pieter-Jan and Simon, two Vlerick alumni, took the stage. They shared their experience at the company, being enrolled in the Young Graduate Program. Apparently, if you’re lucky to work at the pet food department you’re allowed to bring your dog to work sometimes! In general, the guys spoke about Nestlé with great passion and enthusiasm. After listening carefully to their presentations, everyone in the room was invited to participate in a little Kahoot-quiz about Nestlé. The winner would receive a bag full of Nestlé products so it was all hands on deck.*

After a short coffee break it was time for the second presentation. Gabrielle attended a session of Unilin, who decided to take a different approach and gave the students a case to work on. Starting of with a short introduction about the company, they then talked a little bit more about one of the challenges they were currently facing. In groups of 4 to 8 people we got 20 minutes time discuss the case and come up with a conclusion. Three groups had to present their conclusions in front of the group. It was really interesting to work together with the other master students and get more insight in how B2B markets work!

Kaat’s second session was that of AB Inbev. Like Unilin, AB Inbev asked to think about a real case, namely the launch of Cubanisto in the Belgian market. After the story behind this new beer was told, we had 15 minutes to come up with a creative, fresh approach to introduce the beer in the nightlife scene. This exercise gave us a short impression of what it would be to work for a brewing company as AB Inbev; It made us reflect on the on trade and off trade market and what’s it like to create an experience around a product. For this case we worked in groups of 5 from different Vlerick master classes. It was an interesting experience to work with some of my fellow students with their own perspectives and see it come together into a rough first Cubanisto-campaign.

Afterwards, it was time for the network reception. Here we had the opportunity to talk to the companies of whom we could not attend the presentations. Also, we could have a personal conversation with the people we already met during the presentation.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Kaat Lavaerts
Gabrielle Burghouwt
M3 Students

*Gabrielle got lucky and now has a year supply of Nescafe and hot chocolate.