Reflections on my Masters year at WBS

Rahoul Hore, MSc International Business student, shares his insight on making the most of your year at WBS.

As I come to the end of my year at Warwick Business School, whilst it has been a worthwhile experience there are times that I have reflected on my year and I wonder whether I could have done some things differently. There are also things that, in hindsight, I am grateful for having done as it helped my transition from an undergraduate student at the University of Warwick to a postgraduate student at WBS. Here are a few of the more important pieces of advice that I can offer to ensure that others are able to make the most out of their year at WBS.

Take a refresher course

One of the things that can cause students to feel anxious is the thought that they may not know anything about their course before coming to Warwick. This is why it is a good idea to start preparing for your course before you arrive on campus. This could be something as simple as watching the news to see what is going on in the political and business world. During your lectures and seminars, you can then apply real-life examples to your understanding. For some courses, there may be mathematical components as part of the programme structure and if you studied an undergraduate degree that didn’t require much maths then I would strongly recommend that you take the intensive pre-arrival course. By refreshing your knowledge you will feel less overwhelmed when studying the mathematical components of your course.

Engage with your classmates

Even as someone who studied at the University of Warwick for my undergraduate degree, I still had a sense of worry that I wouldn’t know anybody on my new course and this will be a normal feeling for most people before arriving on campus. Luckily, there will be lots of opportunities to talk to your classmates before you arrive, whether it be through introductory forums on MyWBS or course group pages on Facebook. Meeting people before your course starts makes things a lot easier when transitioning to life at WBS as you will already know some familiar faces. There will also be opportunities to get to know your classmates better towards the beginning of your course during Welcome Week and events like the WBS postgraduate party. Also, if you find that some of the people on your course have similar interests to you, you could always join clubs and societies together to meet other like-minded individuals.

Read Rahoul’s blog about joining societies as a postgraduate student.

Meet your personal tutor

Your personal tutor will become your main port of call throughout your course. They can help you with a whole range of issues such as directing you to the relevant services available on campus, like the Wellbeing Support Services or Residential Life Team. Your personal tutor will be very useful throughout your time at WBS and I would highly recommend that you meet them as soon as possible. My top tip would be to arrange your first meeting with them during lunchtime as they may offer to pay for your lunch as my personal tutor kindly did when I had my first meeting!

Make the most of WBS CareersPlus

The WBS CareersPlus at WBS provides numerous resources that can help you in with your job searching process. Whether it be one-to-one sessions with the careers coaches who can help you tailor your CV and cover letter or attending the numerous careers events that the team organises where you have the opportunity to meet industry experts and potential employers. The latter can be particularly useful if you already have an idea of which companies you want to apply to and can help put you in direct contact with those in the company.

To learn more about our portfolio of postgraduate courses, please visit our dedicated postgraduate homepage.