Ask our students: An online Q&A

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Rebecca Geldart - The good thing about this course is as a risk manager, I think from, I'd say, week two, I was immediately using content that I'd learnt in the lectures or the Friday sort of sessions and was able to use it directly in my job. So I thought-- I found that really, for me, it was exciting because it meant that I was actually getting value for my master's immediately.

Whereas often, you might do a big course, and at the end, you might be able to apply it once you've got all of the knowledge. But the great thing with the masters is you're learning stuff within the role potentially, that, you're doing. So it's a great value.

I think also learning new techniques and concepts, and also being able to expand your mind and be able to view things with different lenses and look at things in different ways that I hadn't quite appreciated before. And as a risk manager, I was able to delve into concepts of risks that I hadn't even considered before. So for me, it was-- I enjoy risk management. So for me, it was a good value add.

Rahmi Hussain - I'm a massive women in tech and this is important to me because not only is it just about representation, it's about how to spread that knowledge, spread the awareness that to be in tech, you don't just need to know coding. There's loads of different areas when it comes to being in this industry, and why I chose the course to study an industry it's mainly because I'm passionate about it, and I just love everything all tech. Like I said, all my background was all in tech.

So yeah, just because it's one of my passions, and I enjoy every second of it. I'm only in my first module, and we immediately got stuck in. It was like no beating around the bush. It was great.

My course is like Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics, though I have no kind of background on digital forensics, to get stuck in straight away with the investigations and everything, it was great. It was really, really good fun to learn about.

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Chimezie Ezirim - So like Portsmouth has like a really strong reputation. I looked at the people who were going to be on teaching because it's pretty transparent about who's actually going to be involved in the course and things like that when I was speaking to the course advisor. And a big thing that stood out for me is that a lot of the lecturers, they actually have industry experience.

So nothing necessarily wrong with a life in academia, but it's also nice to know that people have been out in industry building things and then bringing that experience into the University. And so those are the things I considered.

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Rebecca - And I would say that it's made me far more knowledgeable within my job, and therefore, from a career perspective, since actually having doing my masters, I'm already being pushed into a promoted role and being looked at as a senior risk manager now. So straight away, it puts you in a different position when compared to your peers.

From a personal perspective , I feel like I've achieved something. I had doing my masters on my bucket list goal, and I kept putting it off and putting it off. And actually, I'm so glad that I didn't and that I'm on the journey now. I'm going to do my dissertation at the moment. So I'm two years down the line. I'm on the end of my journey, but it's a sense of accomplishment. And whilst I'm not quite-- I'm not where Chimezie is, but I'm nearly there.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And so yeah, it's just a good accomplishment to even get this far and to achieve the grades, really. It's such a positive thing when you see the grades that you get when you know you've put a lot of work in. And it's just a sense of achievement, really.

Rahmi - But on a professional level, it's given me-- it's given me a lot more confidence when dealing with analysts. There's a certain level you get to where it's not just about solving technical problems, but you're having to collaborate, and it's much easier to collaborate when you understand the ways of working and the thinking of the other people. And all my closest counterparts are always data analysts, so yeah, so being at that engineer, it's been massive for me.

And also, as well, I've been able to work on certain personal projects and things like that, side projects as well, using the skills that I've learned on the course. This has made me a more complete engineer. So those are the things.

- Similar values to Rebecca. I'll definitely say it's definitely happening to professionally me because I'm already going into the school at the end of the month, which with my master's it did help, especially during the conversation I had with the hiring managers. Being able to just mention that I'm doing my master's in this side whilst working full time, they were really impressed with that because it shows determination, commitment, and it just demonstrates the passion that I have for the subject as well as the industry.

So yeah, on a professional level, it's definitely helped me in a way. And on a personal level, I feel really proud to say that I'm doing my master's part time alongside working full time. This is not easy. It's not easy at all when you're balancing your work life, personal life, social life with things. So it's, I would say on a personal level, complete.

I've got my Masters. I know Chimezie and Rebecca are at the end of their journey. I just started my journey. So I started in January, and I've got like another two years to go. So yeah, I'm chuffed. I'm really excited about this course. It's something I'm really proud of.

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