What a last week!

Hey Guys,

What a crazy last week! Basically 3 interviews were set up in a span of 24 hours (Mon-Tues). I got an email from the Yoox Group on Monday, email from Inditex (finally) on Tuesday, and a call from LVMH Southern Europe on Tuesday. Therefore the interviews went as so:

Wednesday – Inditex
This interview was via videoconferencing in their Milan office. The first 3-4 minutes I didn’t have any audio and they couldn’t hear me, so that was a tad messy. Then they wanted to conduct the interview in Spanish and I had to tell them that my Italian has taken over my brain given since I had been immersed in Italy for the past 5-6 months. The interview was going fairly well until they explained more about how they had changed the General Management Program. This meant that instead of fast-tracking to Country Manager in 2-3 years, they were looking more at the functional level (Logisitic, Finance, HR, etc) to stay in their home office. They happened to be looking to fill their finance function and thought I would be a great candidate for the role. When they said finance, I gagged. You all know how I find it quite difficult to mask my emotions (everything is written on my face). I think they noticed it and noticed that I was a bit turned off by the thought. Anyway, the interview lasted all of 25 minutes. That’s the shortest interview I have ever had. I tried to save my behind with the follow up thank you email but I think it was too late. I haven’t heard anything from them yet. We shall see next week (either way) as they were looking to secure that position rather quickly. We will see. What I learned from that whole experience is that sometimes you have a dream company but not the dream job, or vice versa in the case of the Yoox Group. I later researched the financial track at the Inditex group and say that it had the potential to become a Country Manager after 3-4 years, which is not bad at all.

Thursday – Yoox Group
After the somewhat disastrous trial with Inditex, I was well prepared to kill my Yoox interview. I first meet with the Interim HR Director who is a Columbia Alum, so the pressure was kinda on. We spoke candidly about the role, the company, and being an MBA. We then started talking about the business and its metrics, like Average Value of Customer or conversion rates. Lets just say we were drawing graph lines on top of each others while discussing the business.. It could have been a b-school or math class, and I loved it. I then met with the commercial director who basically does what I would be doing but for the entire business. He was a definite academic who had other dreams about saving the world instead of selling discounted luxury items. He also tested my math/statistics skills for a while, and then my potential boss came in the room and it was three on one, but I held my own quite well and was giving it to them straight no chaser as my family says. It reminded me how much of a math dork I am. The downsides to this position are that 1) it is located in New York and I wanted to be in Europe after graduation, and 2) the want to start training me in March and then give me a slight 2-3 week break in June instead of the normal 3 month break for an MBA. It would totally ruin my Paris plans. Again we will see but I can say that the interview stretched me in good ways and I felt comfortable with the group.

Friday – LVMH Southern Europe
The last interview was at 10am with the HR Director for all of Southern Europe. He was actually a very cool guy, even though he was about 15 minutes late. He explained to me that 70% of open positions are not even posted to the public and that LVMH is truly a great company with great international mobility. He explained working in the stores in a way that no one else had done so which made me more excited about the opportunity. I could potentially enter as a sales manager in complete charge of a department (probably either leather goods or mens RTW and shoes) and have 15 people working for me and have actual P&L responsibility. I think I could do that for 3-6 months before becoming a Store Manager (although if I can avoid it or shorten the time, I would like to). He then explained that Milan is going to become the South Europe Headquarters for LVMH and it is a great time to join the company. Give my profile and experience with Tom Ford, they are seriously considering me for the Merchandising Manager for Mens RTW/Shoes for all of the Southern Europe territories. This includes Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Northern Africa, all of the Middle East and India. I think it would be an amazing opportunity and something I would love to do, he did however mention that he did not recommend me going straight into the position. I think once I get the offer we can discuss the nuisances of my career plan for the next 5-6 years. I definitely want to be in the Global Headquarters in Paris at some point after my stint as the Merchandising Manager. Also, I heard from the SDA Bocconi Career Director that the salaries of LVMH were somewhat low. I am hoping they respect the Columbia MBA and pay me according, also because I was actually making a good salary before Business school.

Right now I have ranked the opportunities
1) LVMH
2) Inditex Group
3) Yoox Group

Yes, I did an analysis that I learned in b-school and this is how everything turned out. I am excited about the opportunity to live and work in Europe and feel so grateful that I stayed an extra two weeks from my original plan so that these interviews could happen. Everything happens for a reason. I’m boarding the plane now. Much Love. A

I will write a last post about lasting thoughts and takeaways from the experience here.

(BTW, I just had a run in with some Italian Police who thought it was cute to stop me and have my baggage put through a conveyor belt even though I hadn’t checked in. I called them racists and idiots and they gagged, but they couldn’t do anything because I’m American. Thank the Lord for that!)