“I always tried to get more results than what was expected” – Interview with Ferenc Ivanics

I’ve seized every opportunity in which I saw a chance to compete.

Ferenc Ivanics is a graduate of Commerce and Marketing at the Corvinus University of Budapest, which he chose out of interest in the business world. He stated the following about the indispensable knowledge he has acquired about marketing here:

Many identify marketing with advertisements only, while it is important to understand the market, the consumers, and the companies, and to know what steps the manufacturing of products are made up by, for that’s the basis on which the branding and price fixing are made upon.

Over the course of his studies, he was a member of the Student’s Council, he worked at CIAS (Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies), thanks to which he got to work at the European Parliament, where he tackled the themes of media and public life while participating in the intern programme in Brussels. Furthermore, he worked as a professor’s assistant at the Department of Tourism alongside  Melinda Jászberényi, PhD. He loves and seeks challenges, for instance, he is an intern at the Hungarian Touristic Agency at the moment, contributing to the country-image marketing of Hungary.

At the Department of Tourism, I helped to organize conferences, research, background work of education, and, this too has helped me to land at the Hungarian Touristic Agency

– emphasized Ferenc.

His maximalism helped to kickstart his academic career. The way he sees it, the essence of a university first and foremost, is to give theoretical knowledge, so his wish was to deepen his knowledge of theory with his entry for SSRC. For him, it was a great possibility that SSRC papers could be written with a co-author, so he made his first work with his friend, Martin Artúr Horváth. They were contemplating many ideas, but finally, Katalin Ásványi, PhD. – by whom they attended a course together, and in the end became their consultant – recommended the topic of sustainability aspirations of firms and universities, with which they ended up winning their category. In their competition essay, they systematically reviewed the scientific literature and drew parallels between the chosen studies and their own experiences.

As a result of his success at the SSRC, among other things, Ferenc won the Scholarship of Excellence of the Hungarian National Bank, alongside the scholarship of the New National Programme of Excellence, both of which have spurred him to prepare a new entry about inclusive education and sustainability-management, this time on his own. His efforts did not go unrewarded, as he finished first at the following SSRC, so now he is eligible to apply for the National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference.

As to what he finds the most useful experience about SSRC, he mentioned how his critical way of seeing things has evolved and also the interdisciplinary perspective that came along with it. It is also important that all the soft skills that a student acquires until the beginning of the entry-writing process are synthesized throughout the workflow.

I think it’s worth it to get started with something academic besides the usual lessons because applying for SSRC and my job as a professor’s assistant has helped me obtain such diverse knowledge, which I can also use in my current field of work.

Along with the activities mentioned above, he appeared as a joint author in one of the publications of the Department of Tourism, as well as writing an article in the journal Sciencia et Securitas about tourism safety, also as joint author.

For students interested in SSRC, his advice is to choose a topic close to their heart, and it’s also essential to hold on to their ideas and papers. Planning and foresight are also key elements, so he thinks finding a consultant in the autumn is worthwhile if one plans to apply in spring and devote enough time to preparation. In his opinion, the adequate arrangement of the working process greatly lowers the pressure on the entry itself. And lastly, he advises all to choose an innovative way of research methodology, and to opt for a co-author to face the challenge together with. As Ferenc puts it:

two heads are better than one.