Category: Graduate careers

Information Systems Management – Programme Experience

By Haijuan Li (Cara), MSc Information Systems Management

Before starting my course in Sheffield, I looked forward to getting some new technical skills from this programme and believed it could enhance my competence in the fierce job market. Moreover, I regarded it as a chance for me to plan my future career while experiencing a new learning environment in the UK. In addition to these advantages, I found that learning in this programme brought me many soft skills. I would like to say the Information Systems Management programme is beyond my imagination after finishing the autumn semester courses. This programme is designed for those students who are interested in how information science adds value for various types of companies.

This programme is jointly delivered by the SUMS and the Information School, so we can enjoy the resources and opportunities provided by these two departments. I think this is one of the most significant features of this programme. For example, we usually receive reminder emails about international companies’ recruitment from the Information School and the Management School, Also, students in MSc Information System Management are allowed to choose their supervisors of the dissertation from a staff list that consists of relevant teachers who come from SUMS or Information School. Furthermore, as a postgraduate student of the Management School, I made friends both from SUMS during the six-week pre-session English learning period and the Information School during the autumn semester, that was fantastic I think, because we had several of the same modules so even could become group members to do some group assignments together.

From the perspective of modules, information systems’ modules and management’s modules count for 60%-70% and 30%-40% respectively, there remains flexibility on optional modules for students to choose. The main assessments of information systems’ modules are individual coursework and group coursework both based on several real case studies. In contrast, the main assessments of management’s modules are examinations, which were real challenges for students whose first-languages are not English, so we have to work hard to prepare for examinations. The practice is very important. In particular, teamwork is the most impressive experience for me, we sometimes were required to cooperate with other students who come from different cultural environments or with different knowledge backgrounds, as a result, communication was a little bit time-consuming but we usually could generate a completed and brilliant result. That was not easy but really interesting. It’s believed that our several significant soft skills have improved, such as the ability of teamwork, communication, and working under pressure, by taking group coursework seriously and cooperating positively.

This is one of my fantastic student experiences in Sheffield, I look forward to sharing more experience in the Management School with you in the future.

My experience of the Postgraduate Advantage Scheme

By Nicola Hodson, MSc Marketing Management Practice

One of the many amazing opportunities you get given as a postgraduate student at Sheffield University Management School is something called the Postgraduate Advantage Scheme (PAS), which offers opportunities for students within the Faculty of Social Sciences to carry out a 100 hour long internship for an organisation in Sheffield.

I recently completed my internship as a Production and Marketing Intern for Sort Of…Films, a film and video production company in Sheffield. During my internship, I tried my hand at many things I have never done before, such as assisting on film shoots, including a shoot about women in engineering and a shoot at Sheffield Town Hall about the care system. Previously, I knew next to nothing about cameras and filming, so to be given the opportunity to learn how to do this was really interesting and fun.

The majority of my internship was spent putting together a marketing strategy for the company. This was a brilliant experience to put what I have learnt during my degree into practice and produce something meaningful for the organisation. I was given a huge amount of responsibility during this process, and can genuinely say I was extremely proud of what I produced. This experience has definitely boosted my employability and has been incredibly valuable in terms of skills I can take forwards into a job.

Sort Of…Films were great throughout my whole internship, ensuring that I felt happy with my experience every step of the way and letting me guide the internship depending on my interests. I think the Postgraduate Advantage Scheme is such a fantastic opportunity and one which has helped prepare me for my future career once leaving university.

Choosing the Master’s that’s right for you

By Samuel Volpe, MSc Marketing Management Practice

The idea of a Master’s degree didn’t really cross my mind until the start of my final undergraduate year. It doesn’t always have to be your plan from the beginning, things change throughout your time at university and the horizon of its end comes all too quickly into view. In my situation I was studying a BA in English Language and Linguistics and scratching my head in terms of what to do with it and how particularly to go about it. One thing I was certain about was what route I didn’t want to go be going up, and that was back home to the north with no plan.

With English being such a broad subject I started to do some research into what career options were on offer. The buzzword that I kept being drawn to was ‘communication’. From doing this, I learned that buzzwords are helpful across all stages of job hunting; from the initial search to the interviews. From this point, I did as much research into careers in ‘communication’ as I could, reading around the area and searching through LinkedIn to see what other people were doing. Then it clicked; sitting back and thinking about it I realised what I want to do is create messages. I had been studying messages all through my undergraduate, I had been watching messages on TV, the internet, on everything really. Fitting this idea to a profession led me to marketing and advertising, the people who think of what a brand would like to portray, and work on how best to portray it.

The next step was working out how to do get there. This is where my postgraduate journey began. I wanted to specialise my then current communication skills in the real world context that marketing provided. With little marketing experience under my belt I came to the decision that an extra year to specialise and sort out my CV, packing it with experience and other activities is what I needed. That’s where University of Sheffield Management School came to the rescue with the MSc Marketing Management Practice. With a great mix of practice and theory, the course suited perfectly.

Coming to the end of my masters now, I do not regret my decision. I have enjoyed my course, specialised my skills and boosted my CV. Remember it doesn’t matter when you make your plan, it just helps if you make one! Buzzwords aren’t bad either.