RGU student Gail shares her career journey living across different countries and her decision to go to university years later to study the online Business Management course to fit around her busy life.
A bit about me and my career
My journey back to education has been a long and convoluted one. Towards the end of high school, I applied to university as that was the “done thing”, but I ultimately decided that higher education was not the right path for me. At that stage, I thought that I would never pursue further formal education.
My career since leaving school has seen me grow exponentially, personally as well as professionally. It hasn’t always been linear – I never thought I would learn much working on a cattle station in Australia or in a factory in New Zealand, but these are some of the experiences that I look back on and can see how much I grew.
This growth was really kickstarted when I found the tourism industry. I started out as a cleaner in a hostel in Brisbane and from there progressed to a supervisor role, and then on to managing a hostel. After a while, I found myself taking a step back from the customer facing side of tourism and I am now an Organisational Development Manager for a leading online travel agent.
Deciding to go to university
I have learned a lot through life experience and on the job training, however, over the course of a few years, I began to realise how beneficial formal learning may be to my career development. Especially exposing me to aspects of business that I may not yet have experience in and may not get the chance to in my current role.
After doing a LOT of research, I found the Business Management online course at RGU and it was like a light switched on. A course that I could fit around work as well as life sounded almost too good to be true.
My experience studying the Business Management online course
I’m not going to lie, heading back to school as a *ahem* mature student, was daunting and I definitely doubted myself. But the team at the Aberdeen Business School alleviated those fears from the very beginning.
The course has been inclusive, informative and I have really enjoyed learning from the team. The discussions within the class push people out of their comfort zones just enough to really get the best out of them. The flexibility of online learning has meant that I can watch lectures in my own time and at my own pace and with a busy life, this has been key to my enjoyment of this course so far.
I always like to challenge myself and I have found that this course has been the perfect thing for my life right now. Coming to this with work and life experience has added a layer of depth to my learning that I don’t think I would have had, had I gone to higher education back when I was 18.
Doing this course has made me realise that it’s never too late to invest in yourself and that is something I will carry with me for a long time.
Gail MacSween
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