Jonathan tells us how his Postgraduate Management MA helped him to secure his dream job…

Name: Jonathan Horsley
Postgraduate Course: MA Management
Institution: Durham University Business School

‘I decided to study for a postgraduate degree because I wanted a change in career path. I had left university in 2005 to work in property but I decided to move into management consultancy and thought that a master’s would make me more employable.

I had already been to Durham for my undergraduate studies so already knew that it was a great place for meeting people and for sports (both of which are important to me). I also already had experience of the business school and knew that it is a quality institution.

The modules I took on the course included employee relations and reward, small business, management theory and thought, strategy, research methods, business analysis and various others. It also involved a dissertation – mine was an event study analysing changes in share values for organisations after announcing different operations-based changes in the company.

The biggest challenge I faced while studying for my postgraduate degree was the dissertation. I did not take the operations module that was on offer so I had to teach myself the basics and started from scratch. Fortunately my dissertation supervisor was of great help. The dissertation also gave me a good discussion topic for job interviews, as it had not been done before.

The degree has already helped me with my career – I got a great job with PA Consulting. The range of modules, the Durham University name, and the fact that the course is one of the best in the country all definitely contributed to my finding a job.

To anyone thinking of taking a postgraduate degree, I would say if you can afford to, then do it! Check which modules the course offers, how they are assessed and what the workload is like and pick the one that best matches what you want to get out of it.’