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Published: 27 October 2020

On the occasion of our Shasta Month, we decided to collect some testimonials from our Shasta students.

What does Shasta program and mentorship mean for our students?

Jules Ehrbar (Me 216): “My mentor helped me find good start-ups or companies which could hire me. Positive aspects of this mentorship were his experience of being an expat in the US for long years and his knowledge of the American employment market.”

Omar Najid (Bo 217): “SHASTA program is a good opportunity for young engineering students to widen their network and build an international project abroad. AFAM provided me assistance in my internship search and in adapting my CV to the American standards, so I was able to apply for any opportunity within US with a good apprehension of the expectations. Getting an internship in the US is challenging but with AFAM’s help the process is intelligible and the international experience you have always been dreaming of is much more attainable"

Antoine Gurtler (Bo 217): “I had to do my 6-month internship between July 2019 and February 2020. Highly motivated working in aeronautics and traveling around the world, I had set such a target as find an internship in the US. I contacted the AFAM and particularly Albina Patou-Chebykina explaining my project. The AFAM helped me and advised me in my internship search allowing me joining the Shasta program. I have had Jean-Christophe Boulon as a mentor, an Arts et Métiers engineer working at Safran in California. After four hard working months, I managed to get a 6-month internship at Dassault Falcon Jet Little Rock, Arkansas. I was involved in the Tooling Engineering team and responsible to design aeronautics tools (Catia V5) to support the production. I managed the projects for its life cycle including determine the real need, study the concept, design a tool to match the requirements and make the delivery. Before going to Little Rock, I made an application for a financial aid from The AFAM and the association gave me a $2000 grant and $2000 loan allowing me starting my life in Little Rock buying a car for example. I would like to thank the AFAM for everything. By the way I would like to come back to the US finding a one-year VIE in New York City.”

Jordan Mbeleg (Li 216): “I am very appreciative of the mentoring offered to me by Yacine (mentor)  and Albina (AFAM community manager) through the Shasta Program. Thanks to them, my mindset on how to apprehend the US job market has drastically changed. I am confident that I will be able to secure a Full-time job in the US next year after my graduation at Georgia Tech. Go Shasta!”

Sébastien Sequeira (Bo 216): “As I had been selected for Georgia Tech dual degree with Arts et Métier, I wanted this academic experience to be enhanced with an internship in the US. However I had no contact within the US at all. Thus, I started to email heads of international studies at Arts et Métiers administration who eventually led me to Albina Patou and after several discussions with her, I finally obtained my mentor, Jean Pommier. He helped me a lot defining my objectives since I had no fixed professional project. I worked with him for my motivation letters. He gave me different advises which helps me have an insight of American demands regarding internships. Moreover, he reached out some friends from different companies I had apply to, especially Tesla. Even though it doesn’t work for me, I am really grateful for his support. It made me learn a lot about myself, how to highlight my advantages and how to adapt my applications to different fields and type of companies. Now that I have a better idea of American companies’ expectations, I will try again to find an internship in January 2021. I would like to thank Albina as well, since she spent a lot of time to help me improve my resume and get some contacts in different companies. She is always eager to push me and find new opportunities.”

Marius Moreira (Bo 216): “I would like to thank a lot the AFAM for the support I received during this tricky phase of internship search. Mrs. Patou was really available to answers my interrogations, she gave me real valuable advices. Thanks to my participation to this program, I know now a lot on recruitment process in the US, and I will be well trained if I want to apply again in the coming months or years.”

Saint Just Adhémar  (Cl 218): “SHASTA helped me a lot to understand the American system and to adapt my applications.”

 
Salim Gaci ( Li 217): "My mentor was really available, eager to help and benevolent.”

To be a part of our Shasta program, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. today

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Published: 14 October 2020

October is internatioanl month at Arts et Metiers. To celebrate it, an article about AFAM has been published in internal Arts et Metiers magazine "Inside Arts et Metiers":

 Inside-octobre-alumni.pdf 

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Published: 02 October 2020

AFAM: Hello, JB, and thank you for this interview. Your Linkedin profile says that you are a Strategist and Data Scientist, currently working out how to help small businesses out of the COVID-19 crisis. What is your every day job? Could you tell us more, please?

JB: That is the beauty of corporate strategy, there is no such thing as a typical day. I usually say that we do three things:

- Answer critical, strategic questions from our C-suite (what is the impact of COVID on our clients) to help their decision-making process

- Identify and create data assets that can bring value to the company

- Evangelize and train the organization to root their decision-making process in data and science. In a not-so-distant future, every analyst will wake up in the morning and fire up a tool that will tap into millions of rows of data. They won’t need me anymore when we get there. Until then my job is not done.

AFAM: How and when did you develop interest in finance?

JB: Around the time I was graduating, I met a group of consultants that worked on some niche financial products called weather derivatives (basically financial products except the underlying asset is the number of days of rain in Nice and not the S&P500). It was fun, quirky and math-heavy. I then went on to do Corporate Strategy, then Data Science, all in the banking sector.

AFAM: Why did you choose working in finance? What inspires you in this sector?

JB: I work in Small Business Banking. In the USA, 30 million small businesses make up for half of the employment. They are a critical part of our economy and one of the last places where people get to live the American dream. Helping them through the COVID crisis, watching the incredible resilience of the sector and the business owners is awe-inspiring. On top of that, the revolution that is underway in the financial sector, with data becoming front and center of all decisions is amazing. I really think that a few years from now, everyone will be all equipped with the tools of data science. We will look back and won’t believe how archaic the pre-big-data ages were, just like we pain to imagine a world without laptops and cellphones.

AFAM: What challenges do you face in your job?

JB: We are leading a revolution in a sense that traditionally, IT and data science operate in a silo from decision makers. While a CEO or a strategist needs an answer in the next couple of weeks to steer the company in the right direction, traditional IT and data scientist tend to stretch projects over months. And traditional strategists usually have a very shallow understanding of the data landscape, meaning they will ask for data that might not even exist. We get people out of their comfort zone, pushing IT and Data Scientists to understand the real-life impact of their work, and forcing strategists to really dive into the data and the science to get answers. Once they see what they can achieve, the impact they can have, they never look back. But getting them there is sometimes a daunting task.

AFAM: Are there any promising fintech startup in the US or in France you are following?

JB: I follow very closely the big (usually payment centered) startups, such as Square, Paypal, or Intuit. I find their move upmarket and into traditional banking products very interesting. While they are not fully equipped today to deal with complex clients, they undoubtedly have some competitive advantages around client experience, and integration of products that keep us on our toes.

AFAM: What piece of advice could you give to our students willing to get started in finance, for instance, those who would like to come to the US in 2021 to pursue a financial internship?

JB: Push yourself to find your differentiating factor, for the right crew. It might sound cheesy but I found the only way I can be motivated is if I believe in what my team is doing (helping small businesses) and I am contributing in a way no one else is (transitioning the organization to a data-and-science-driven one) Also find something fun to do. Not necessarily the most prestigious or highest paid job, but the one that is fun. Prestige will come later.

AFAM: and we would add, dear students, do not forget to contact AFAM and apply for our Shasta program. Thank you, very much Jean-Baptiste, for this inspiring conversation about your job and the future of finance.

Photo: courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Commans

More interviews in our "Financial Engineering" series:

Interview with Sacha Ghebali (Bo 211)

Interview with Jean-Rodolphe Guis (Bo 99)

Interview with Imane Sanhaji (Cl 211)

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Published: 18 September 2020

On Sunday, September 12, 2020, NYC-based groupe on the initiative of its president Sacha Ghebali, organized a picnic in Central Park.

5 gadzarts came to enjoy last days of summer and first days following lock down and drastic limits setting on social gatherings.

AFAM asked Sacha Ghebali to provide a few details about the first NY-based gadz's gathering: "Following the reopening of terraces and museums, we had a survey asking our NY members if they wished to have an in-person event and with what degree of comfort with respect to social distancing, group size, having beverages, etc. The goal was to be as inclusive as possible whilst ensuring everyone would feel at ease. It was such a beautiful day to gather in Central Park, the conversation was lively and concluded on a set of elbow checks, already looking forward to the next one!"

On the picture: Imane, Paul-Emmanuel, Sacha, Yacine and Jean-Baptiste during the picnic