Annouk Horion, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and is a Junior Product Manager at L’Oréal, spoke about her professional experience and her time as a college student
-What is your role at L'Oréal?
-I joined L’Oréal as an intern in the Active Cosmetics division, working as a Marketing Assistant. Today, I work as a Junior Product Manager in that division, handling the Vichy and La Roche-Posay brands. My job involves increasing the visibility of these brands’ products in the local market through marketing and PR initiatives, as well as other related tasks such as supporting the sales division, brand training, and medical visits.
-What's it like to work at such a large company?
-Working at a large company is a lot of fun for me! There are so many people doing different things, and that creates a really unique dynamic. It’s also true that the processes are very well defined, and even though that can slow things down sometimes, you learn that things need to be done a certain way to ensure clarity and efficiency in the processes. You have to keep everything very organized and under control because you never know when headquarters is going to ask you for information.
-Do you think your bachelor's degree in management prepared you for your current job? In what way?
-My bachelor's degree prepared me to tackle unfamiliar cases and figure out how to handle them. It gave me a wide range of opportunities to choose the specialization that appealed to me most, and that's how I discovered marketing—a field that allows me to create, analyze, implement, and monitor each action individually.
-Which of the skills you learned in college stand out the most?
-I really appreciate the way they teach you to work and achieve your goals by setting a clear and well-defined objective so you can reach it.
-What has your career been like? How did you land your current job?
-I started working during my junior year of college through a personal connection. I handled purely administrative tasks, such as paying vendors, recording expenses, and providing administrative support. It was a small family business, and I wanted to work at larger companies to learn more about their processes and operations.
So I applied to Tea Deloitte, where I learned what it’s like to work at a large, nationally recognized company. What surprised me most at the time was the number of people working there and the way they communicated with one another. It was an incredible experience.
When I was looking to make a change—because I was focusing more on marketing through my elective courses—I mentioned to the Graduate Affairs Office that I was interested in working at a French company, since I had attended the French High School and thought it would be a chance to reconnect with the language.
I think that’s when they called me—almost eight months after that conversation—to schedule an initial interview. At the time, for various reasons, I didn’t accept the position they offered me, but a little over a year later, they called me again.
It turns out I had applied for a six-month internship with the option to extend it to a year, and when the position opened up again, they remembered me and got in touch. That was almost two years ago; I accepted the six-month position, and I’ve been here ever since.
-When you started your degree program, what were your goals? Did you ever imagine you’d be where you are today?
-When I started college, my goals were to explore new horizons, meet people, and have different experiences. I wanted to graduate early and start working so I could combine my academic growth with professional experience. I don’t know if I ever imagined I’d be where I am today; business administration seemed like a training ground for managers, but I discovered what a company really is and how it works.
-What are your next career goals?
-As for my professional goals, I hope to work abroad someday, but one step at a time. I discovered marketing relatively recently, and I’ve been working in the field for even less time. I feel that experience is just as important as academic training, and finding a balance between the two is essential.
For now, I plan to tackle this challenge with hard work, dedication, and sacrifice; later on, I will continue my education to overcome these obstacles.