Martin Fuxa
Summer Student Story
Understanding investment banking today requires more than looking at one country. Deals cross borders, currencies and regulations. The Investment Banking and International Finance summer program at HEC Paris showed me how much of that complexity sits underneath work that looks straightforward on paper.
I am an undergraduate student at the Prague University of Economics and Business, studying International Business. I applied to HEC for three reasons: I wanted to understand how corporate finance really operates in a globalised economy, I wanted to experience the campus before deciding where to do my master's, and I wanted to put myself somewhere I would be properly challenged.
The teaching was what struck me first. Every professor tied the theory back to something they had lived through in banking, so nothing ever stayed abstract. During one M&A case, my team chose a German and a British company, mainly because we knew those markets well. Our professor pointed out that the foreign-exchange exposure would change everything we had just built. That was exactly what I was looking for at HEC: a practical insight that I could not have gained from a textbook alone.
Before I arrived, my biggest worry was not the coursework, but whether I would fit in. That turned out to be completely unfounded. Walking onto campus felt like walking into the World Expo: people from everywhere, several languages in every corridor, and everyone genuinely wanting to talk to you. Some of the people I met there have since visited Czechia, and we are still in touch.
I would also tell anyone considering any summer program that the core program is not all there is. HEC layers additional challenges and competitions on top, with real prizes attached. I took part in a research project on family businesses, and the strongest submissions are about to be published on the school's website. Almost nobody arrives knowing these opportunities exist, and the people who got the most out of the summer school were the ones who said yes to things that were not on the timetable.
There was one effect I had not planned for, and it showed up on paper. Having an experience from HEC Paris changed the conversations I was having. Recruiters who had not replied before started replying. I do not think the line itself is magic. What I understand now is why a place like this carries weight: a room where every student arrives from somewhere else, with a perspective you would not have reached on your own, forces you to keep widening your own.
I came to Paris to sharpen my technical skills, and I left with something broader: a clearer sense of how finance works across borders, friendships across a dozen countries, and the confidence to apply to the HEC Paris Master’s. I am now about to start a new position in finance, and during my final interview, my interviewers spent a significant amount of time asking about my experience at HEC. I did not expect the summer program to have such a direct impact on my career. HEC Paris opened many more doors than I could have imagined.
I would recommend the program to anyone who is not completely sure where they want to take their career yet but knows they want to challenge themselves. You arrive at the campus for the program, but you leave with a much broader perspective on what you can do next.