When I was at school, I was made to feel like I would never make it to university. I was only bright because I spent all of my time studying, and I wanted to have a better life. I was determined to make something of myself, but university didn’t feel accessible for me, as I suffered with a health condition growing up. I felt that if I could become qualified in something, life would be easier for me. I also grew up in a single parent household and none of my family had been to university. It was always my mum’s dream to see me achieve something despite all the adversity we faced, but I did not know how we would afford for me to go. The fact I not only graduated from my undergraduate degree with a First-Class, but I graduated from a Russell Group university with a Masters degree too, is just unbelievable to me. It was the best decision I ever made- I’m now able to define myself in new ways and work in a job that I love everyday.

I was lucky enough to be accepted onto a Home scholarship with Birmingham Business School in 2021. This award changed my life and enabled me to study my Masters degree without worry of how I was going to fund it. Working consistently alongside my studies meant I was able to form a part-time income quite quickly, which supplemented my scholarship award.

During my postgraduate studies, I worked various ambassador roles with the central postgraduate team, Birmingham Business School and the College of Social Sciences. I loved working on events, content creation and written work, so I applied for a role in Student Recruitment full-time in 2022. I now work as Postgraduate Marketing Officer at the university, which is my dream job role. I get to work on university-wide campaigns, particularly across our social media. It feels amazing to work on something that goes on to gain thousands of views or that helps people enroll in a postgraduate degree. I remember finding the University of Birmingham through a random Facebook advert in 2021 – I often think if I had never seen that advert, I wouldn’t be where I am today!

My biggest achievement while studying my Masters was my internship with Birmingham Business School and the BBC. I applied to take part in the Future Leaders Certificate in my first term, an 8 month programme dedicated to leadership skills and company placements. I worked alongside Senior Audience Planners with the BBC News channel in Birmingham and London, with the aim of developing the BBC News app to suit a younger audience. Once we had finished our placement, features from our application design were adopted by the BBC and implemented in 2022. I remember switching on the news later that year and finding our formatting to capture leads through QR codes had been published on national TV. I was really proud that I played a part in facilitating that.

The best thing about my course was definitely the people. I really enjoyed getting to meet students from a variety of cultures who already had industry experience. Some of our assignments were based on group work, and this meant we got to collaborate with those outside our immediate circles. I also enjoyed the style of learning. You can study at your own pace and on your own terms, which was important to me while working. The lecturers have faith in you to complete your work, whether at home, online or on campus.

My decision to pursue postgraduate study was driven by my desire to contribute to the education sector. I began researching various graduate programmes, looking for ones with strong faculties in people management. I found the course here offered a Level 7 Associate Member qualification with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), who are the main professional body that govern HR and people development. If you’re going to work in Human Resources, it is imperative to be a verified member of the CIPD, so I was really glad to hear the university already had this link.

My main goal was to build further on my undergraduate degree, which was in Business Management. I really loved the variety of the course, as it qualified me in all aspects of business. The benefit of an undergraduate degree is the breadth of knowledge it provides you across an entire subject matter, but it can be equally as restrictive at times. One of the best things about postgraduate study is the depth of knowledge it provides you while studying a single subject matter. This really helped inform my decision making regarding my future career.