How the global network has fueled this globe-trotting career
Northeastern University graduate Baudouin Roos explains how his alma mater connections have helped him build an international career covering industries varying from pharmaceuticals to aerospace.
LONDON — Without the Northeastern community, business graduate Baudouin Roos says it is unlikely he would have experienced the globe-trotting career that he has enjoyed.
Roos, a business development manager at online retail giant Amazon, has worked in the United States, Spain, Germany and now the United Kingdom since graduating as part of the Class of 2017.
In his day-to-day work, he often speaks face-to-face with potential clients, explaining to them what the Amazon platform could do to boost their business. A big part of his role is ensuring that the sellers receive a quality service and working out how their experience could be improved.
The Frenchman says that tapping into the global network of contacts he made while studying in Boston helped him secure both his current job and a previous position working for a technology startup in Munich.
“It’s been massive for me,” says Roos. “I think with this current job that I have at Amazon, I can say I got it thanks to the support of the Northeastern community and the Northeastern network that I built over the years.”
The 30-year-old recalls how he contacted friends from his time at Northeastern University, having spent two years completing a double degree in international business, when he saw the opportunity to work in Amazon’s London office. Former classmates based in Seattle, Paris and Luxembourg all offered advice on what the Silicon Valley firm looks for when bringing in new recruits.
“I spoke to a lot of Northeastern friends who were working for Amazon,” he says. “I basically reached out to them and asked them, ‘Hey, what are the rules of the game? Can you explain them to me?’ And then they did.
“And to be very honest with you, without their help, I probably would never have gotten into Amazon.”
That approach, he says, helped him land his position at a company that he believes has had a bigger impact on people’s daily lives than any other in the past 20 to 30 years. From same-day deliveries to providing media subscription services, Amazon has been leading the way in retail advancements since it was set up in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore.
The job is both exciting and offers a sense of satisfaction, says Roos.
“It’s a very rewarding place to work,” he continues. “Amazon is probably the only company that has changed the way people live in their daily lives so much. I think that is extremely rewarding to be part of. And being part of a place that wants to put customers at the center of everything they do is rewarding as well.”
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Roos is fluent in three languages, speaking English, French and Spanish. His language skills have been a driving force in being able to work across Europe and the U.S.
Previous career incarnations have seen him work in strategy consulting for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in New Jersey, helping a French aerospace company expand its business to Western Europe and being part of a small team behind a startup accelerator in Barcelona.
Roos spoke to Northeastern Global News about his career journey after being the first guest of the Industry Insights series, a new weekly initiative on Wednesdays during the fall term that is designed to connect students on the London campus to high-flying alumni.
After studying for the first part of his degree in his native France, Roos in 2015 moved to Boston, where he studied for two years at Northeastern. During his time on Huntington Avenue, he completed two co-ops, including one at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Boston and another at a startup in his home city of Paris.
His time at the startup, especially, he recalls, helped prepare him for working for similar operations after graduation that were scaling up at pace.
During the networking event held at One Portsoken, Roos told the students that startup life can involve working in chaotic environments that are “completely unstructured” and that have “no rules.” They can also go from boom times to being forced to slash costs in a matter of months.
Spending time in business environments while studying helped ensure he had the right mindset and skillset to deal with such fluid situations, he explains.
“Having moved a few times from very different places and doing the two co-ops during my time at Northeastern,” Roos says, “it became natural to be like ‘OK, yes it is not structured but I don’t really need to know how we do this — I will just look at it, get started and figure it out along the way.’ I think that’s probably the number one thing that helped me.”
