What Next?

Looking back on my postgraduate degree, I have to say that I'm really glad that I went into it knowing what I wanted to get out of it. At the time, I thought that perhaps one day I'd want to come back and do a doctorate degree, so I decided to do a coursework degree with a research component. Having said that, I'm really glad that I didn't do just a research degree, because really what I wanted was just to improve my professional skills.

I know that for lots of people starting off their degrees, they're not really sure what they should do, what types of degrees they should do, so my tip would be to see your postgraduate coordinator, because your postgraduate coordinator can tell you the different types of degrees there are, but also where these degrees will lead.

When I finally decided that I wanted to do a doctorate, the first step for me was to find a suitable supervisor to supervise my research. So what I did was I went and spoke to several lecturers, just to talk about the type of research that I wanted to do, but also to find who would be the best person to supervise my research.

I know that some of my colleagues decided not to go on to further studies, and they wanted to join the workforce, so they looked at careers websites and went along to several job fairs.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my postgraduate studies, I'd have to say, was the friendships that I made, particularly the friends that I made through reading groups. Even today, I'm still a member of some of those reading groups.

I would have to say that one of the most valuable lessons I learnt being a postgraduate student was my ability to find information, the type of information that I need, but also to think critically about the information that's presented to me.