CEMS Master’s in International Management

MOL Group is a leading integrated Central Eastern European oil and gas corporation headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. It has operations in over 30 countries and employs 25,000 people worldwide.

Its integrated business model provided stable and robust profitability in recent years. However, oil & gas is a mature industry and is encumbered with the risk of decreasing demand for its main product, fossil fuel. At the same time, consumer habits and needs are rapidly changing. Therefore, MOL Group has developed and implements an ambitious strategy to diversify its activities. It transforms the business to chemicals (plastics) from fuels, establishes a new approach in Retail, with the consumers in the heart of the business as well as it aims to be a key player in the low carbon circular economy in CEE region.

To further strengthen the implementation of its transformation, MOL Group is looking for top talents to join its team. There are already 20-30 CEMSies working at the company in both junior and senior positions, and MOL Group will strive to build its internal CEMS community further and help CEMS students succeed in their academic journey.

MET Group is a multi-commodity wholesale and trading company headquartered in Switzerland with activity in natural gas, power, oil and power generation. MET is currently undergoing a fast expansion in Europe via mergers and acquisitions and greenfield investments. MET Group is represented in 14 European countries, with 1700 permanent staff in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

How can MET benefit from the connection with CEMS?
MET Group HR policy is to develop its managers internally and to identify high potentials to provide human resources for both existing entities and new subsidiaries, which is rather a complex challenge. MET has high expectations and requires talented graduates with excellent language skills; besides high level of English, other European languages are an asset. CEMS students on average seem to outperform their peers in skills such as analytical and logical skills, ability to solve problems in groups as well as independent working attitude – skills appreciated by MET. Consequently the alliance of CEMS and MET seemed to be a fit from the very beginning and we do consider this cooperation as an integral part of our HR strategy.

How can MET contribute to the development of graduates?
Acquiring and retaining talents is unquestionably one of the biggest HR challenges at MET. As far as the ideal student profile, we highly value extracurricular activities, such as case study competitions and being member of additional educational platforms, like colleges for advanced studies. MET provides a Talent Development Program that accelerates the career steps of our most talented employees. The focus of the program is developing cross-functionality by rotating participants among several business areas in different countries semi-annually. The program is completed by soft skills trainings.

Which are the typical positions that MET can offer to fresh graduates?
Business Development Analyst is probably the most common graduate position requiring outstanding numerical skills, logical thinking and synthesizing skills. In this role you are responsible for supporting business development activity including comprehensive market, competitor and new market entry analysis. Wholesale and pricing activities provide also a large overview of our energy trading activity and serve as a solid basis for developing both your hard and soft skills, becoming an accomplished energy professional.
MET endeavors to continuously provide professional courses indispensable for professional career development and personal career growth, such as IFRS, ACCA or CFA courses. We offer large scale skills development programs for our employees to achieve their career goals and short-term placements in our headquarters in Switzerland to facilitate efficient knowledge transfer from one part of the organization to another.
We also encourage you to contact us for consulting in writing master thesis. Our managers have remarkable experiences and projects to share with you.

Biggest challenge in Hungary
We realize that graduates are less familiar with energy sector in Hungary and therefore we have to make more efforts to be attractive. Probably it is rather difficult for students to recognize how energy sector can be innovative. Nevertheless the energy sector is a highly competitive and turbulent business in Europe facing sustained growth in energy demand and extensive liberalization of the markets. As a CEMS Global Corporate Partner, MET takes part in various CEMS activities: we are present at the Career Forum, use CEMS Job Market to post vacancies, offer internships, we held a Skills Seminar at St. Gallen University, and managed a successful Business Case with Corvinus University this year. We are committed to be active in CEMS MIM Curriculum Involvement and enhance our corporate image among students. You are all welcome at our coming events! We also invite you to visit our website.

Interview made by Renáta Fehér and Dávid Csik in September 2016.