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A serendipitous encounter
Lucie Corfias’s future was written in the stars. Initially considering a career in the wine industry, she was interning at a restaurant in her hometown Bordeaux as part of her bachelor’s at EHL when the US rock band Guns N’ Roses walked in.
Lucie served them and they got chatting. “I got to talk with them, crack some jokes, but mostly I talked to their manager who explained his job to me, and it sounded so interesting. After meeting him, I really wanted to do that.”
It was a serendipitous moment, putting Lucie on a new path towards a career in arts management, and giving her the opportunity to do her second internship at the London branch of the US talent agency that represents the band.
How was the experience of working at the agency?
It was amazing because it was the first time that I really worked in an artistic environment. I felt like I found my people – people that shared the same passions and values and way of living as me. It was a really enriching experience, and I got to learn so many things.
Do you think your bachelor's at EHL provided a good basis for going into arts management?
Yes, definitely. At EHL, we have many courses that we can use in other fields than hospitality. That's the hard skills. But what is very important is the soft skills that we learn there. I think it's very important in any type of career.
Why did you decide to do a master’s at HEC Paris after EHL?
I felt like I had all the right tools in my box, but I had to learn how to use them in an artistic environment. I needed to concentrate on the specific areas that interested me, such as cinema.
HEC offered classes such as cinema financing or managing creativity, and I needed to use the tools that I learned at EHL and to apply them to the cinema industry. But it's very broad, actually. I had many people in my class interested in music or theater or video games, many things that apply to the artistic environment. It was very enriching to exchange and learn about all these possibilities after.
After HEC, you worked in communications at the Cannes Film Festival. How did your master’s help you get that role?
I think it helped me change departments, because actually in 2022 I did an internship at the Cannes Film Festival, but I hadn't done my master’s at the time. So I was pretty familiar with that company. But then my master’s gave me the opportunity to switch department and access communication, which was very interesting for me.
Then when I was in the job, it was really important for me because I had the knowledge about the cinema industry. Also, it's a very fast-paced environment and EHL and HEC have a very fast-paced way of teaching and living, so it was really important for me to be able to do that.
I think it's about the soft skills that I developed during my bachelor’s and master's, to be able to communicate with everyone, to be a chameleon in any environment.
What was like to work at such a famous festival?
My office was located in a very strategic place in the Palais des Congrès. The celebrities had to pass by every day. Sometimes I would go out to take some air or go to the toilet and bump into Meryl Streep or Selena Gomez. So it was very funny. But it's a small part of the job, actually, because I wasn't directly in contact with the celebrities.
You lose track of time and you work all the time, but with your colleagues, and that's a very great energy. We don't have weekends, we don't have a day off, we don't really have our nights, but everybody's working towards the same goal. It's very rewarding at the end when everything went smoothly – almost!
You’re now at Les Arcs Film Festival. Is working in the cultural sector everything you hoped it would be?
Almost, yes. It has its downsides because it's a bit hard to find a steady job at the beginning of your career. But I wouldn't see myself in another environment because this is such an amazing chance for me to work in the sector that I'm passionate about.
I think I've discovered many upsides and some downsides. When you go into that sector, you don't really know what you are going to live until you get to live it. It's such an amazing field.
What's your biggest wish for your career now?
I hope to keep the same energy to do what I do for a long time and to be always passionate and enthusiastic. I would really like to work in an international company. Maybe Netflix or a French company that can work with other countries. I would like to work in film production, from the beginning of the value chain and directly with the artists.
Check out the full list of student profiles and their diverse career paths.
