The ENM London winter trip (feb. 2018)

These last few years, some students from the “Economy and Market” (ENM) program went to London at the beginning of February in order to visit some companies of the energy sector. We decided to repeat the experience this year and 9 of us went to London from January 31^st to February 2^nd. Soon to graduate, we were looking forward this opportunity to deepen our understanding of the challenges the energy sector faces today.

The first company we visited was EDF trading. After quickly reviewing how the electricity market works, we then had time to broaden our discussions with questions to the traders, among who was an alumnus of the ENM program. We finally visited the trading floor and its numérous screens. The following day, the visit of Total trading was similar. We also visited WoodMackenzie .This was the opportunity to discover an energy consultancy group and the broad spectrum of jobs it offers. From researchers who are in charge of updating the data bases and writtting reports thanks to close links with their clients, to the consultants hired by clients to help them deal with special issues. We really enjoyed this insight of WoodMackenzie as it was for many of us our first time in a consultancy firm.

We also had the opportunity to meet with Alumni of the IFP School economic centre. Jin Qian, Charlie Bouvier, Geoffrey Legrand, Niels Dejong and Thomas Friedrich all shared with us about their professional and personal experiences in London. It was interesting for us to get the opinion of these young professionals who had been in the same situation as us a few years ago.

In addition to these professional visits, we went to the design museum, and discovered its two temporary exhibitions. The first one, the Beazley Designs of the Year presented different categories of innovation such as Architecture, Transport or Design, within which we could vote for the best one. The second one was a Ferrari exhibition focused no only on cars themselves, but on Enzo Ferrari, the great innovator he was, and the modernity he brought in the car sector.

Finally we decided to stay in London for the weekend, to enjoy London culture, have a first look of its districts, and be more familiar with them when the time of our job researches has come.

Theophile Schurra

Energy & Markets Program