Easing Into a Dream Job

This Hautes Etudes Commerciales grad is in heaven with a job at her top choice, Nike, and the experience and learning to flourish in it

by Ebele Okobi-Harris

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Ebele Okobi-Harris
HEC - Paris
Class of 2007

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So here's the thing about a 16-month program—it's over before you know it. Especially if you decide, as I did, to spend the last six months doing an "Individual Professional Project." At HEC, students have the option of spending the last segment (after two core periods and one elective period) at an internship, returning to school for monthly seminars that last two or three days.

I chose the IPP option because I must admit that I was ready (desperately anxious is probably not putting it too strongly) to get back to work! I also got my dream job, but more on that later.

I think the IPP is a wonderful idea, particularly for elderly and impatient students like me. It's a great way to combine the focus of a full-time MBA during the first 10 months, with the flexibility of an executive or part-time program. I really, really enjoyed being able to learn specific, concrete concepts that I could directly apply at work, the Monday after learning them!

Perfect Timing

As a bonus, one of the IPP professors (Walid Malouf, who happens to be a recent HEC alum who founded HEC's Net Impact chapter) taught a course on corporate social responsibility. It turned out to be one of the best and most useful courses of the MBA.

My IPP host company ended up being…Nike! I was chosen as a member of the first-ever class of their new Management Development Program (MDP) in their Europe, the Middle East, & Africa (EMEA) headquarters in the Netherlands.

At the beginning of Core 2, I'd already decided I wanted to follow the IPP track. I knew I wanted to do an internship with Nike (NKE), and serendipitously, Nike decided to launch the MDP program in the summer of 2006.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to try out, and after two days of extensive panel interviews (one of which took place on my birthday), case studies, some sort of group assessment activity that I've been sworn to secrecy not to reveal, and weeks of nerve-shredding waiting, I got the offer! It was a bit tricky, since HEC's IPP program had been designed for internships, and the MDP program is a full-time, permanent position, but with a bit of flexibility on both ends, it all worked out.

Rotating Like Crazy

The MDP is Nike EMEA's attempt to attract high-potential experienced talent to the organization, both to benefit from fresh ideas and to groom individuals for leadership roles within the company.

The program requires at least 6 to 10 years of post-university work experience as well as a graduate degree. It is a rotational program, lasting between 12 and 18 months, depending upon the individual program plan. Participants are expected to join the company with a specific area of expertise, and to be assigned to a pre-selected department at the end of the rotations.

The rotations are meant to give participants a broad understanding of the business and to teach them to work cross-functionally. The rotations are also meant to teach how to navigate and influence across Nike's relatively flat, mind-bogglingly complex organizational structure, affectionately referred to as "The Matrix." Or, as I have come to refer to it under my breath, "Oh, the Insanity."

A Fighting Hero

If you've followed my past entries, you may have been struck by the fact that I am passionate about, among other things, social change, living and working cross-culturally, about getting the chance to create better opportunities for women, and about sports. In case you're wondering, my favorite teams are: my beloved alma mater USC's Trojans (Fight On!), my birth city's San Francisco 49ers (it's a rebuilding year!), and Nigeria's Super Eagles.