Juggling work and school was not easy but Petrine Chua talks about how choosing MDIS ensured that her efforts paid off.
By Joyce Lin
Last November, 28-year-old Petrine Chua graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Marketing from Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), awarded by UK-based University of Bradford. Yet eight years ago, Petrine was doing something entirely different from marketing.
Upon graduation from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a diploma in Real Estate and Property Management, she worked as a property executive, liaising with contractors, tenants and property owners to ensure the proper management of a building. Fast forward to a few years later and Petrine had made a career switch to sales in a video conferencing company. Her current job as an account manager requires her to ensure customer satisfaction and renewals of the contracts her company has secured.
Expanding Horizons
While working, Petrine decided to add a degree to her resume because she wanted to expand her horizons and also open more doors for further job opportunities. After researching on and comparing many private institutions, Petrine chose to enrol into MDIS as a part-time student. “MDIS offered the course content that attracted me. I chose a degree from University of Bradford as it had a more in-depth curriculum. Its exam-based assessment also allowed more flexibility with my work schedule.”
Petrine made the transition from property management to marketing mainly due to her interest in the subject. She also feels that marketing would be relevant to her career in sales and allow her to make use of her newly-gained knowledge in her daily interaction with clients.
“Marketing is more specialised than the business management module that I took during polytechnic days. It is more interesting than managing people alone. I have learnt more about consumer behaviour, brand loyalty and how to convince my clients. The key is learning how to differentiate yourself from the crowd.”
As a part-time student, a combination of self-study and mini-projects allows Petrine to pursue her degree according to her personal schedule. She enjoys the small class size, which allows for more interaction between lecturers and students. “The learning environment is not stressful at all and extremely conducive for learning. We share and learn from each other’s experiences. I am also motivated by the healthy competition with my classmates.”
More importantly, her experienced lecturers made Petrine look forward to her classes, which range from two to four times per week in the evenings. “My lecturers are very knowledgeable. In one of my modules – Marketing Communications – I learnt how to plan a marketing campaign from scratch. The lecturers are what make MDIS different from others.”
Petrine says that her lecturers are also a wealth of resource and “never stingy with sharing their experience”. “Sometimes, working adults are too busy to keep up-to-date with current affairs. Our lecturers provide very useful updates and are great resources of information which we can make use of in our work,” she explains.
Work-school balance
Part-time students at MDIS have a choice of completing their degree in two or three years. Petrine opted for the two-year course curriculum, studying three to four modules and sitting for exams every three months.
Juggling this study schedule and her work is not easy. Petrine cites persistence and discipline as two important qualities to have when pursuing part-time studying. “You need a lot of discipline to attend classes, to be really persistent in what you are doing and not be afraid of failure. Even if your performance goes below your expectations, you cannot dwell on being sad. We need to steel ourselves and go on.”
And her efforts had paid off. “I’m pretty happy with my academic performance so far. While it has not been easy juggling both school and work, I have achieved a couple of As, which is not easy for a part-time student.”
For students hoping to pursue part-time degrees like her, Petrine has some advice to give. “My parents did not have the resources to support me through university straightaway after graduating from my polytechnic. But I thought it was good to be able to start working first, and to talk to more people to find out where my passion truly lies in.”
Petrine has certainly discovered her love for a career in sales and marketing, and is already making plans to use her degree in marketing to boost her job opportunities after graduation. “When you’re older, you will also reach a certain point of maturity to know what you want in your life,” smiles Petrine.
