I work as an Expansion Manager for Lendo, which means that I evaluate new markets in Europe and see if the company can expand there or not. I get to travel a lot, meeting potential partners, assessing business opportunities and setting up new offices in different countries.
Salar Roshandel, Former Student, International Management
After I graduated I met with many companies in order to get a good idea of what I wanted to work with. Studying at JIBS, and being around international students and staff perhaps set the stage for what I ended up doing. I studied at Tec de Monterrey, and the City University of Hong Kong as part of my bachelor’s programme. I met a lot of people from all over the world, who I’m still in contact with to this day. All this experience gave me a realistic idea of what working in an international company would be like.
Working at Lendo as an expansion manager means that I travel a lot to develop and adapt our product to fit the new markets we are investigating. I also meet a lot of people in these new markets, for example banks and potential partners from other companies. If we get a ‘go’ from our board, then I’ll also need to start up an office abroad - recruit an initial team as well as office space.
Since this job involves meeting so many new people, you need to be good at sales and networking. I think the environment at JIBS gave me a solid grounding in this. But you also need to be good at market analysis and pitching for capital, with a sound understanding of macroeconomics, and international rules and regulations.
For anyone who is aiming for an international career, my advice would be to try different roles, meet different companies and travel as much as possible before you settle down in a career. I am a pilot who studied business administration, was thinking of becoming a management consultant, but ended up in sales and business development! I’ve had a really interesting international career!
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