Juliette Macret has accepted the role of Patron to the ESILV class of 2022. This mentorship program aims to forge special links between the engineering students and IBM France, a leading technology company. The goal is to prepare them to develop their employability and successfully integrate into the world of work.
On 3 December, ESILV students currently in their 4th year (first-Year students entering Fall 2016) welcomed their mentor, Juliette Macret, Director of IBM Global Financing and President of IBM France Financement, via Zoom. It was an insightful and memorable event, as this digital transformation expert is committed to supporting her mentees enrolled in the 9 ESILV majors until their graduation in 2023.
At the Pole Leonard de Vinci, the mentorship programs are an opportunity to strengthen ties with the professional world. It is an opportunity for the mentoring company to be in direct line with new generations of engineers and highlight its image and culture.
Engineering students are given the right tools to be in tune with the reality of the working world. The company that accompanies ESILV’s graduating students shares the school’s values and brings its vision to the school’s educational project.
Juliette Macret, an inspiring personality
Juliette Macret first presented her company and its challenges, describing her career path and her missions within IBM’s subsidiary in France and answering numerous engineering students’ multiple questions.
“IBM has made it possible for me to change jobs several times due to the diversity of its divisions and the positions it offers. I started as an IT project manager, for about eight years, and then I managed project leaders and managers in technology departments.
As you can now see, I am a long way from chemistry (my initial background). I have acquired knowledge of how a bank works, of its regulations, but I also know the corporate and social aspects of the company since I now chair a fully-fledged business”.
As a representative of one of the world’s most innovative technology firms, Juliette Macret shed light on the qualities expected of an engineer.
“For you, it’s all about cultivating your curiosity and enriching your perception of the world to put into perspective the technologies you are acquiring and implementing. How to live tomorrow? Better, healthier, together, in harmony with the environment, with others, on what planet?
The soon-to-be engineers that you will be must respond to these vital and urgent needs of humanity. In 2 years, society will expect a lot from you.
In the meantime, be curious, fuel your thinking, go into your subjects as profoundly as possible, take a stand, become the best of what you want to be: with boldness, modesty, perseverance, tolerance, respect for others and, if possible, a great deal of humour. Remember that your ability to manage, to overcome this period will be significantly valued when you enter the job market”.
Despite the crisis generated by the pandemic, many companies are interested in the profiles of engineers from the Leonardo da Vinci Engineering School.
“Some schools will do better than others, and ESILV will be one of them, thanks to your teachers, your directors, your administrative teams, and above all, thanks to you. You are the actors of your lives, don’t forget that,” Juliette Macret concluded.
A rich programme for the 2022 class
On this program schedule, lectures, visits to companies, internships. A rich programme for the students of the class of 2022 to help them explore the professional world.
- Visits to the IBM Centre for Solutions and Innovation, which includes spaces for each industry in Bois-Colombes.
- Meetings with ESILV alumni working for the French subsidiary
- Invitations to events organised by IBM France
- Internship opportunities in the final year of the engineering cycle
- Participation of IBM in the Showroom Jury for industrial innovation projects
The mentorship program also includes lectures on a range of subjects covering all the engineering cycle majors.
- The 5 in 5: the five essential technologies in the next five years
- Is sustainable digital technology possible?
- Blockchain, some practical examples
- The implications of cybersecurity
- Ethics and finance
- Quantum computing in its many states
- Digital technology at the service of health
The IBM Project Debater is among the technologies that will be discussed. This artificial intelligence can gather information on a topic of debate, organise it in a constructed discourse, and adjust its responses in real-time according to its opponents’ arguments.
The Mayflower autonomous ship, full of IBM-supplied AI and IOT, which is to cross the Atlantic in 2021, is also on the agenda.
Career opportunities within IBM France
One of this mentoring scheme’s objectives is to present more than 600 students from the class of 2022 with internship and job offers within IBM’s subsidiary.
“We hire both technical profiles, who will work on projects with our customers, on AI, concrete company projects, and we also have consultancy positions: young graduates who will support the clients in their reflection through the implementation of agile, design thinking, reflection, specification methods.
We are also looking for young graduates for the sales positions, to assist the sales engineers”, explained Juliette Macret.
“For engineering internships, the top priority profiles will be 5th-year students. Our objective is to hire them,” adds the Patron of the class of 2022.
ESILV’s engineering students are also encouraged to focus on their soft skills, to maximise their chances. Claire Herrenschmidt, head of Grandes Ecoles and University Relations at IBM France, explains that these human skills are a significant asset on the job market.
“Soft skills training is as vital as the know-how, and I know how fortunate you are to have the cross-disciplinary weeks that you benefit from, so soft skills training is a real opportunity. These are probably the qualities that will be most useful to you during your professional career, because technological skills, sadly, become somewhat outdated a bit quickly.
The know-how-to-be knowledge, adaptation and team spirit, collaboration, creativity, all the qualities you have the opportunity to develop at the Pôle, will be as useful to you as the technical skills you acquire during your studies”.
Within the setting of this programme and outside of the engineering studies cycle, ESILV students can also train for free on the IBM Academic platform including free access to the IBM cloud and many software applications made available to them by IBM.
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