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What interested you about business management?  

I was interested in a business management course because it would allow me to study many different areas of business, such as finance and accounting, human resources, and strategy. Studying so many subjects was perfect for me because I wanted to find out which areas of business were most interesting to me and if I could see myself pursuing a career in one of these fields. Even if I did not find a calling in the wide range of subjects studied in business management, I reasoned that I would learn valuable transferable skills that would help me in any career. Most jobs and careers require basic numeracy, critical thinking, and time management skills. I felt that a business management course would help me to develop these skills and show how I could use them to benefit a business – something that is desirable to employers.  

What attracted you to study in Edinburgh?     

I was attracted to Edinburgh because of the student communities and lifestyle in the city. Because there are so many universities and colleges in Edinburgh, I felt it was a good place to meet people from different backgrounds, countries, and cultures. I wanted to meet people with different interests, hobbies, opinions, and world views so that I could broaden my friend group and learn more about the world. Edinburgh is a fantastic place for this because there are so many international students and young professionals who live in and around the city.   

What did you enjoy most about your course?  

I most enjoyed the set-up of the one-hour lectures and two-hours of seminars. After each lecture, my classmates and I were split into smaller groups of around 10 to 20 students where we had the opportunity to learn the course materials through collaborative exercises and discussion. I enjoyed these sessions because they allowed me to talk about the course materials, to listen to other people’s perspectives, and to develop a better, shared understanding. The smaller group sizes gave everyone an opportunity to contribute and meant that the lecturers spent more time on areas that were more challenging for the class to grasp.  

How did your lecturers support your learning?  

The business management lecturers supported my learning by always remaining open and constructive. During classes, the lecturers asked open questions and encouraged students to answer even if they were not sure about what to say. When someone didn’t get an answer quite right, the lecturers focused on the positives and steered them in the right direction. This gave me the confidence to answer questions and participate even when I was unsure. It helped me to realise that we can only begin to learn by accepting what we don’t know everything.  

Could you tell us about your MRes? What did you enjoy about it and how did it help you hone your business management skills even further?  

After completing my business management degree, I discovered that I enjoyed academic writing and research and decided to pursue a Master of Research (MRes). As the name suggests, a Master of Research helped me to learn about the process of academic research from finding a gap in the literature and proposing a research methodology to conducting my data collection and analysis and writing my final research project.  

What I enjoyed most about this course was the ability to choose a research project that matched with my interests, experience, and career plans. An important aspect of thorough research is being able to sustain a prolonged period of inquiry with enough motivation. So, if someone were to take this course, I would say it is important to find a subject that you are passionate about and that interests you.  

As a result of being able to choose my own topic, I decided to investigate convenience in relation to the Wetherspoon mobile food ordering application. This allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of how customers use the Wetherspoon app, which helped me to find a marketing role at Wetherspoon’s Head Office.  

In addition to helping me begin my career, the MRes also enabled me to build on my existing skills, such as data analysis and critical thinking. As there is a heavy element of data analysis in my current role, these skills allow me to find trends and patterns in large datasets and use them to draw conclusions that can be used to make effective decisions.   

What advice do you have for any potential students looking to complete the MRes at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥?   

"For students looking to complete a Master of Research, I would advise you to think carefully about your research topic and how it can add value to your education or career. My research topic interested me and added value to the literature, but I didn’t write it with my career in mind. If I had, I would have had a more thorough understanding of a subject area in the field that I wanted to work which would have been beneficial to my job search and performance. So, if you are thinking of applying for a Master of Research, it can help to think about where you’d like to be in 2-5 years time and then to consider how your research project and the skills you learn completing it can help you to get there. "

What did you do upon graduating from ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥?  

After graduating from ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥, I moved to Paris to study a master’s in e-business and digital marketing at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (CNAM) in Paris. I chose to study this master’s because I wanted to pursue a career in marketing with a focus on technology. During my degree, I learned about digital marketing principles, theories, and strategies complementing my foundational understanding of business management gained at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥. With a focus on digital marketing, I also discovered how technologies, like social media, artificial intelligence, and Big Data can improve customers’ journeys and experiences.     

CNAM is a university that champions employability, offering a blend of theory and practice. Through lifelike business simulations, I worked with multinational teams of professionals to devise business strategies, manage a simulated business, and negotiate with other teams. These simulations were graded on sales, profit, and cashflow and helped me to solidify my knowledge of key business areas like operations, management, finance, and accounting. Likewise, by using real life software, including Google Analytics and Big Query in classes, I gained important practical experience that helped me to find a data focused marketing role.  

Outside of classes, I also got to meet students from many different countries and cultures. My course welcomed students from all over the world from places such as Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. Getting to live and study together with people from so many backgrounds was an extremely rewarding experience. People from different cultures don’t always communicate in the same way and I learned to improve my listening, empathy, and communication. This helped me to excel together with my classmates in teamwork but also to make lifelong friends that I have remained in contact with since returning to the UK.     

Tell us about your work experience?   

Since graduating, I was accepted for a marketing administrator position at Wetherspoon. Having worked as a manager in a Wetherspoon pub during my undergraduate degree, I developed a good knowledge of the business and was keen to make a meaningful impact. While my job title is marketing administrator, my role focuses on pricing Wetherspoon Hotels. During a typical day, I am responsible for helping to ensure Wetherspoon Hotels remain competitively priced by monitoring their performance, demand, and their competitors’ rates. My role means that I need to manipulate large datasets to understand how price interacts with trends and patterns in customer behaviour and how this impacts hotel performance.  

Because Wetherspoon encourages discourse on ideas from all employees, I am frequently given the opportunity to raise discussion topics and points from my analysis in meetings. These meetings vary from small departmental meetings to larger board level presentations.   

How have the skills you learned throughout your time at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ helped you in your new role?   

"The skills that I learned at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥, both academic and transferable, have greatly helped me in my role as a Marketing Administrator. As there is a heavy element of data analysis and presentation in my role, the data analysis and critical thinking skills that I learned at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ are invaluable to me. The ability to spot trends and patterns in data is essential to providing actionable insights that can guide effective decision making. Likewise, being able to present data in visually compelling ways means that I can share my insights in a concise way with key decision makers and stakeholders.  "

What are your hopes for the future?           

Looking to the future, I hope to continue working in a data-oriented role that challenges me to think outside the box and learn new skills. Since I want to work with data, I hope I can learn how to work with large and complex datasets using coding languages, like R, Python, and SQL, and data visualisation tools, such as Tableau and Power BI. I’d like to pair these skills with my education to continue my career in marketing at Wetherspoon and prepare myself for higher level positions.  

Find out more about ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥'s undergraduate business courses.