Lessons I have learnt during my time as a master's student at Heriot-Watt University

27 November 2020 the day I received my post graduate degree.

Here is a list of lessons I learnt during my time as a part time master's student @HeriotWattUniveristy.

Time management is vital:

I was a part-time student and this meant that I had to balance my full-time work, class and assignment schedule plus leave some time to "relax" (whatever that meant). In 2017, I decided to follow my passion of marketing and get a masters program which was 2 years long. The assignments were intense which meant that weekends alone were not enough to work on them. I remember coming home after work on week days and doing research and making notes till wee-hours, so that all I had to do was type out the final product over the weekend.

During my final year, I decided that I wanted to graduate early. This is when I truly realized that I was a great performer under time pressure. The goal was to complete a 6 month long researched thesis in 60 days. Not only was I able to complete and submit my thesis with the full-time students but I received an A for it. The journey was hard however I was on top of it. This focus and accomplishment made me realize that I am not only good at time management but also at prioritization.

Weakness is not asking for help:

The importance of asking questions was thought to me by my boss from day one- he always said to ask questions and that there are no stupid questions. So, ask away. I learned this lesson the hard way in university. Juggling work and academics is hard, in addition to that I was studying something I was passionate about but had no work experience in. This meant that I was often lost in class, and didn't understand a lot of industry jargon etc.

I have always been the person to ask questions but, when you are in a class filled of experienced professionals you get intimidated. That said, this intimidation disappeared once I got to network in class with fellow students and professors. You will be surprised by how helpful and kind people are- just start that conversation and a simple hello goes a long, long way.

Ask your professors questions. They will not think that you are stupid- professors are paid to help and guide students. So meet them after class, ask questions during class or via email. Fun Fact: they love students that take the initiative and ask questions- they feel validated and when they respond you feel validated too.

Manifest good habits:

If you are, like I was, who crams the night before, question that. Essays and presentations are thrown at you on the regular and before you know it you have 3 assignments with the same deadline. The probability that you will produce your best work is low when its last minute (although you think you work best under pressure). Why? because the quality and level of insight expected of you in your work is high, extremely high.

The best approach to tackle last minute rush is to look at the overview of all your hand-in dates and schedule them into your calendar (I prefer google calendar). The whole point is to work smarter not harder.

Apply what is taught:

Over the course of two years, as students, we were exposed to a plethora of theories and tricks. I always looked for opportunities to apply and test the theories either at work or on my personal social media. I was surprised by the how effective few frameworks introduced in classes were when applied, also there were times I failed and had conversations regarding the same with my professors.

Initially I wasn't applying what I leant in class as it didn't come naturally to me. With time, I started getting the hang of things and it became second nature to me. The frustrations in the beginning was worth the results I reaped.

Writing and copywriting is an important skill:

I was a B minus when it came to writing anything other than work e-mails. Due to the nature of my degree, there were a lot of assignments that required writing 5,000 to 20,000 well researched words every semester. This helped me realize that I wasn't that bad a writer. In addition, I was a marketing major which meant that we were tested on both academic/formal and informal writing.

I was amazing to see how one can take a boring sentence and jazz it up and make everything more readable. Copywriting is still something I am currently working on. I will agree all that writing gave me confidence and since then I have written articles for various organizations.