It’s well known that studying for an MBA with CBS means expanding your skillset and your professional network. But by also taking an internship you can also gain insight into the possibilities that lie ahead after graduation. It’s an opportunity to showcase your skills and practically apply your MBA learnings – you could even find yourself getting a full-time job offer.
Louise not only gained her MBA qualification and a wealth of experience, she’s now the Project Manager in Strategy Execution for Large Corporates and Institutions at Danske Bank.
Right place
Louise grew up in Helsingborg Sweden, with Copenhagen being the closest capital to her home. Despite this, she didn’t spend a lot of time in the city and so was interested in seeing what it had to offer.
As Louise explains, “After living abroad for 12 years – from the UK to the US and from Switzerland to France – I wanted to return home to Scandinavia and find a city that had the international aspects that I really liked about living abroad. It also needed to have the Scandinavian flair that I had missed. That’s why Copenhagen felt like the right place for me.
Quality education
For Louise, when choosing an MBA programme, location as well as quality was really important. As she explains, “The Copenhagen or specifically CBS MBA is triple-accredited, is well ranked in Europe and it’s located not too far from my hometown which was a nice little twist for me.”
Programme pace
The structure of the CBS MBA was another deciding factor for Louise, “It’s both fast paced but also very intimate,” she adds.
As a result of this structure, Louise developed enduring relationships, “We got really close as a cohort, and that didn’t just contribute to feeling a sense of belonging, but it also really enriched our experiences in the classroom. We weren’t afraid to push each other out of our comfort zones (as and when the environment called for it) and that added a layer of personal development that was really enriching and invaluable for us as participants.”
Internship availability
Louise worked with career services to uncover what the right role for her looked like after her MBA placement.
“I organised a lot of meetings and eventually narrowed down and reached that Danske Bank would be an interesting organisation,” Louise explains, “On the same day that I told my career contact about Danske Bank, she came back and said they now have an internship available!”
The interviewing process for Danske Bank was a rigorous one, but she took it in her stride saying that, “It very much mirrored the real interview to become a full-time employee and that was an aspect I really appreciated.
Practical application
Louise’s internship explored strategy execution in large corporates and institutions in Danske Bank. She was struck by how relevant the skills she had acquired during her studies became.
“I reflected on my MBA experience several times during my internship,” Louise says, “Whether that was my finance course, because I’m now working in a financial institution; the Marketing course, because of the interview and research structure that I had to design for my project; or the leadership discovery process and thinking about those scenarios of development that I had identified throughout the year and then started to apply during my internship to see how it played out in a workspace.”
The experience
While Louise is Swedish, she hadn’t worked in Scandinavia since she was a teenager and interning at Danske Bank gave her the opportunity to experience the local work culture.
