Internships at HEC Paris: preparing your search between exploration and project

Understanding where internships sit in the Grande École course

Before writing to an employer, you need to know which experience you are talking about. In HEC Paris's Master in Management – Grande École, the school's public pages describe several distinct moments: a field internship in the first year, a professional or personal project year between M1 and M2, then experiences chosen according to the specialisation you are aiming at. Each follows a different logic, and mistaking one for another leads to badly calibrated applications.

Your first reflex should therefore be to identify your current stage. A first-year student does not have the same goals as a student preparing for M2 who wants to confirm a sector. The validation rules, lengths and administrative arrangements depend on this positioning, and only the school can confirm them for your year group.

This first sorting also avoids a common mistake: piling up prestigious assignments with no common thread. The value of an experience lies less in the fame of the organisation than in the question you want to clear up through it.

The field internship: a hands-on experience, not an office placement

According to the public presentation of the scheme, the field internship is a three-week, full-time, hands-on placement for first-year Grande École students. It was launched at the start of the 2023 academic year by the school's Purpose centre. The idea is to experience work from the point of view of the person doing the job, within teams of employees, on assignments defined and validated in advance.

The sectors mentioned are varied: industry, logistics, agriculture, consumer goods, catering, hotels, facility management, construction, personal care. The locations are in mainland France. According to this presentation, students do not approach the company themselves: they rank their preferences from a list of available places. Each is followed by two tutors, one in the company and one at the school, and writes up a reflection on the experience.

Keep in mind what this means for you: here, preparation is less about the CV than about mindset. It is about listening, learning the gestures of a trade, and understanding a hierarchy seen from below. As the exact arrangements change from year to year, have them confirmed by the school.

The professional project year: choices to weigh before applying

The professional project year takes place between M1 and M2. It is presented as optional, and the school says that a very large majority of students take it in its professional form. Internships last from six weeks to six months, so that you discover at least two different organisations. Hosts can be companies in any sector, international organisations, charities, NGOs or public bodies.

There is also a personal project year, close to a gap year: voluntary work, civic service, work experience or starting a business. The two forms can follow one another.

To decide, ask yourself a series of concrete questions:

• Are you trying to confirm a function (finance, consulting, marketing, HR) or to rule one out?
• Do you want to compare a large organisation with a smaller one?
• Is a stay abroad a goal in itself?
• What experience is missing from your file for the M2 specialisation you are aiming at?

Your answers determine the number of assignments and their length, far more than the fashion of the moment.

Using the Careers centre to refine a target

The programme's careers page presents a centre devoted to building a professional project and showcasing opportunities around the world. The menu of the recruiters section also mentions major recruitment events and student clubs. These resources serve first of all to narrow the field: it is better to leave a consulting interview with three sectors and ten employers identified than with a list of fifty names.

Prepare these appointments like interviews. Bring an up-to-date CV, a short account of your background and two project ideas to discuss. An adviser can then help you test them against the reality of recruitment, without you expecting a promise of a post, which neither the school nor this site can guarantee.

Student clubs and alumni complete the picture. The graduates' association offers in particular a directory, professional clubs and a mentoring programme: a short, precise and polite message to a former student working in the function you are aiming at is often more useful than an unsolicited application sent with no context.

Internship agreement and legal framework to check

In France, an internship forms part of the educational programme and rests on a three-party agreement signed by the student, the host organisation and the institution. No start should come before the signature. The agreement sets out the dates, the tasks, the location, the tutor in the company, the supervising teacher and the terms of the stipend.

A few general markers, to be confirmed for your situation: the length of an internship in the same organisation is limited by law and cannot exceed six months per academic year; beyond a certain length, a minimum stipend (gratification) is compulsory, its amount being set by regulation and changing over time, so check it before signing. For internships under the field scheme, the public presentation mentions optional pay, since the duration stays short.

If the assignment takes place abroad, the agreement may take a particular form and local law partly applies. Ask the school's relevant department which documents are expected and by when, because an incomplete file delays the signature.

Building a file that proves more than it claims

An employer reads dozens of applications that cite the same school. What makes the difference is proof. Rather than writing motivated and rigorous, describe a fact: a student-society project run with ten people, a study done as a team, a responsibility held for a year.

Here is one way to structure your documents:

1. A one-page CV that leads with measurable achievements.
2. A letter that links a precise need of the team to an experience you have lived.
3. A short paragraph explaining why this experience comes at this point in your path.
4. Two or three references whom you have warned in advance.

For the letter, adapt the content to each team: the same letter sent to twenty companies is spotted at once. For the interview, prepare three short stories, situation, action, result, that you can draw on depending on the question asked.

Illustration: two scenarios for a project year

Take a fictional example, with rounded durations. Léa is finishing her M1 and is torn between market finance and strategy consulting. She plans two assignments: four months in the finance department of an industrial group, then four months in a mid-sized consulting firm. At the end of the eight months, she will have been able to compare recurring analytical work with project-mode work.

Yanis, for his part, knows he wants to set up an organisation in the social economy. He chooses three months in a charity, then a personal project year devoted to testing his idea. His file is different, but just as coherent.

In both cases, what reassures the school and the employer is the logic: why this assignment, why now, what you expect to learn. These profiles are invented and bind no rule of the school, which alone judges validation.

Common mistakes to avoid

Certain slips come back every year and are easily corrected.

• Accepting an assignment before having it confirmed that it meets the programme's validation rules.
• Stacking up very short internships without being able to explain what each brought.
• Counting on the school's name alone to get an interview.
• Neglecting the follow-up: a thank-you message after an interview and a polite reminder ten days later are part of the game.
• Forgetting to keep a log during the assignment, which later helps in writing the review and preparing M2.

Finally, do not underestimate the time a search takes: allowing several weeks to target, make contact, follow up and go through interviews avoids accepting the first reply you receive by default.