Thinking about starting a course for mature students at University (i.e.: MBA/MSc executive courses)?

Then feel free to read my biased experience of mature university studies

I am about to set off for a 2 weeks long trip to Asia and this morning my 6 years old daughter Alice gave me a small memento (the glitter-filled drawing in the picture) to carry abroad while away from home. Her nice gesture made me think about the last couple of years, my mature studies and how often I was “away” probably more mentally than physically. With my recent MSc studies approaching an end, I thought it was the right time to write a couple of lines to summarize them. This post is an opportunity to reflect and share my insights on my experience as a student with a busy working and personal life. In case you are thinking about enrolling into a course, please read on as maybe some of my thoughts and experiences can help you understand what to expect. Just to clarify, this is not a technical guide to select the best combination of university and course to get your career on a fast track, I guess you can find plenty of those around. Mine is a view of what happens behind the curtains of shiny new titles in the personal and familiar domain.

Probably this post is more than anything a thanks to supporters and believe it or not, to detractors. You always need a team of people who trust you and you ‘ll find that your teachers usually know better than you what you can achieve. Members of your family and friends will experience all the downsides as they have no clue about how things are really going, they ‘ll be there to listen, advice, support and when necessary to shut up. In my case my supporters were more aware than me that I would be able to make it through the peaks and valleys of literature, knowledge and life that an MSc study for a mature student entail. Detractors have also a very important role to play, especially if you are ambitious, and let me tell you, if you are thinking about going back to Uni and you are not in your 20s anymore, you are quite ambitious. I believe that ambitious people often feel a strong need to test themselves over and over. Proving that “you did it”, despite the scepticism of your detractors has a very peculiar feeling (at least it had for me). I often ask myself about the essence of a master’s course in management and to better understand that, I play back many of the episodes of the last 2 years or so. It’s hard work through the amazing concepts that a cohort gets wisely guided to study but more than anything is a life experience. The course spans across such a wide timeframe that it becomes entwined in the student’s life. By life I mean good and of course less pleasant events that I soon realized were affecting not just me but also my companions at some point or another. What I soon recognised is that I became so attached to this “thing” that the more time I was spending on it, the more I was enjoying it. I now consider the master “my baby” (the 3rd actually), it’s time set apart to think differently and outside of the standard schemes, it was “me” time. I believe that the most valuable thing I got from this course of study is the awareness of my capabilities, not as a student but as a human being. I realized that in the face of difficulties (and I had a few critical moments), I would always manage to find my way out as the MSc was one of the last things I would drop. It’s sacrifice; to fit a valuable experience in an already busy life with a fulltime job, I had to compromise on a few things like hobbies, friends and unfortunately time with the family. I am sure I’ll make it up for it, I am also sure it was the right moment and it’s time greatly spent. My advice to future student is to enjoy the ride, it’s going to be long, bumpy and therefore full of crests and valleys, all worth going through as the end result is going to be amazing and that’s a better you.

Enjoy,

Giuseppe