Learn The Management Consulting Career, Industry & Practices

This is your opportunity to share something about yourself with the rest of the students in this course. Tell us all about your goals and what you want to achieve. You can come back to this board and add more thoughts as you go through the course and achieve your goals. Seeing all the other students in the course will also motivate you and keep you going as you participate in this community of learning.

Kribashnee has gone through a personal transformation as a student. She credits this to the “mindset change” she experienced by being exposed to an academic world and then applying those learnings as quickly as possible in her business role. She is studying at a postgraduate level and shares her academic journey with us and the tips she used to get through. She contracted up front with family and people that could support her so she didn’t feel bad when she had to close her study door and get some work done. Contracting with herself meant that she gave herself emotional space and time to succeed without being her own critic. She talks candidly about the importance of getting your mindset right and being kind to yourself if you are studying part time and balancing other priorities such as a family and a job.

She also rewarded herself with “something special” after each year of study as well as when she completed her degree which was an incentive to keep going. Even in the tough times like when her son was unwell during her first year she managed to push through and get her assignment completed. This is all about in tune with the journey that you are on as a student. As a part time student she was able to apply her learnings “in real-time” and she didn’t have to wait till she got her degree to make a contribution back to her organisation and the people around her. This has made her a lifelong learner and she has now signed up for a masters degree in business leadership and is excited about the next level of growth and contribution she can make to the world.

Prof Ivan Hofsajer co-ordinates postgrad students in the faculty of engineering at Wits Uuniversity Johannesburg. He has strong views about how the world of tertiary learning needs to change and adapt. His tips on writing have helped me in my own PhD and he explains the difference for lecturers and students between online learning and traditional lectures.

He believes that "content will be amazing" because of market places but we will be frustrated by the lack of impact it will actually have on students. We have to find a new way of digitising the social compact that students have with eachother and their lecturer and supervisors should really be called advisors. Listen to this episode for a candid reflection from a very experienced lecturer on postgrad writing, research and student success.

Phumzile always knew she wanted to teach and doing her Masters in Management was a natural progression in her academic journey that also offered her a chance to research her passion. As a career HR professional, she also relished the chance to spread her wings beyond HR and get to grips with the world of woman-owned small businesses and entrepreneurship. The biggest lesson for her was the importance of managing expectations with people in her life about how much time she would have for them during her research, "it consumes you".

Looking back on her studies she shared some very practical things she learnt the hard way and would do differently next time. Like shortening her survey; although she had a decent sample size of 100, she felt more people would have done it if it was shorter. She also wished she had made a stronger link between her key themes and the constructs of her methodology, which she found quite tough and wished she had a better instrument for quantitative research. Despite working on campus until 1am most nights and being at work at 7am, she didn't have any regrets and promised to come back on the show when she has signed up for her PhD.

During her successful career in banking Julie-Anne learnt how to work 10-13 hours per day and achieved a distinction for her part-time masters in Education and Artificial Intelligence. At an early age she wanted to be a scientist despite being told she didn't have good enough marks. Her story is one of courage and determination, as well as a passion for how technology can help achieve student success. Today she has the freedom to pursue various interests which include part time lecturing, a family with 6 month old twins and a PhD that will design and build a software application that does online tutoring using artificial intelligence.

Her advice to students is that a PhD is totally different to a Masters and its very important to spend enough time on a well defined proposal. Up to 50% of your proposal can be re-used for your thesis and a good proposal really puts the rest of your research on a good track. She is passionate about how AI can help students achieve success because "machines don't get tired" and technology is advancing so rapidly that soon it will be able to tutor a student as well as a human. She says you have to plan ahead and visualise your future, but then you must grab it with both hands and if you choose a topic you love then your study will be "euphoric".

Don't miss this fantastic interview with a passionate and determined successful student.

Prof Carmichael helped me with Grounded Theory in my own PhD, she has a distinguished academic career and regularly publishes and presents at conferences in her field. Her advice to students is to manage your boundaries and understand exactly how much time is required for your degree; she breaks down the actual recommended hours per week for all degree levels. Listen in to find out more but I'm quite sure its more than you think! Over two decades of lecturing, supervising and publishing has given her a very good understanding of how to achieve student success.

Prof Carmichael strongly believes that a student and their supervisor must meet eachother half way and you must be in motion to get meaningful direction. In other words, don't wait until you've got something to say before you say something, or write something; postgrad success really requires forward motion, constant learning, listening and engaging. It's taken 18 years to develop a framework for how students should engage the literature and orientate their study in the context of research questions.

We touched on Grounded Theory in the interview but look out for a full episode when we'll discuss it in much more detail. It was an inspiring and candid discussion of postgraduate studies that will really help position you for taking on a serious commitment and being successful.

Nitesh Ramatar started his masters in digital business leadership because he wanted to reinvent himself and get beyond the "surface level learning" of his undergraduate studies. He has enjoyed getting deeper on topics like 4th Industrial Revolution and Digital Transformation and he has aimed to integrate his work / life / studies rather than draw clear boundaries between them. He acknowledges its been a challenge, but has enjoyed the opportunity to challenge his mental model and stay up to date through access to latest articles and research.

He meditates once per day to "calm the mind" and despite being a self-proclaimed people-pleaser, he has learned to say no to things if they will push him beyond his capacity. He lives by the 5 Ps of: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance and has a very practical approach to mapping out each year so he knows in advance what his deadlines so that he doesn't stress about everything all the time. He finds that other students who don't do proper planning tend to stress unnecessarily and together with his daily routine, his planning has helped make him a successful student.

His advice to students is to acknowledge when you don't know something and have an open mind. He also valued being in a good syndicate group and focused on building trusted relationships with his fellow students. This interview was full of practical insights and deeper wisdom that is extremely valuable for all students.

Tessa Lillie originally did a 3 year computer science degree many years ago and went into IT as there was lots of demand. She also went over to Germany for a while and became a very technical software engineer for about 32 years. In 2015 she got the feeling she was going down a rabbit hole and was getting bored of coding. After being invited to participate in a colleague's PhD study she decided to do her own.

Now in her 50's she has completed her Masters and is busy with her PhD in Enterprise Data Agility. I met Tessa when I presented to her masters class on Agile software development and since then she has made outstanding progress on a topic that she really enjoys. Now she is channeling stress into her studies and says its important to integrate across all areas of you life. She believes one of your anchors should be to understand what is going on in your own head and what excites you. The rougher your experience is the better the opportunity to sit back and assess your life.

Tessa makes great use of a research journal to show how her thought process has evolved. In 2020 she did 17 hours of semi-structured qualitative interviews and in 2021 hopes to finish her PhD although sometimes she says it feels like "trying to get 16 cats into a bag".

Having spend a couple extra years completing her undergraduate degree, Alessandra was passionate about understanding how to improve other student's success rates. She wanted to solve the problem of so many students failing or dropping out and jumped at the chance to do a masters level research using qualitative methods. She realised that previous research was largely quantitative and didn't provide the human insights that she was looking for. She urges students to speak to people to get support and encouragement while also putting in place "hard deadlines" that keep yourself accountable for making progress. Cultural issues also play a big role in student success with many students being the first in their families to study at a university and support structures need to be in place. She felt fortunate to be in a class group and joining the running team but students might tend to isolate themselves in research and this is a big risk.

Its also important to get a mentor, coach or at least someone who has walked the same path and can give you the insights you need. Students are often scared to ask their lecturers questions and they need a safe space to ask questions and interact to get the insights and support they need. Her own success was largely due to reading a huge volume and making notes with generative writing which served her well later on in her studies. She found her thematic, mixed methods research very interesting and although wanted to spend more time on analysing her incredible data set, opted to get finished and is looking forward to coming back to the topic with increased experience in industry and approaching it with a data science approach. Her advice to students in the long hard road of writing their thesis is that "it will finish" and they must trust the process, engage with their supervisors and push through. she would love to do a phd at some stage and promised to come back on the show to give us all an update.

Robert Hutchison-Keip admits he didn't know enough at 16 to make wise career choices. He picked microbiology from the university handbook because he thought it would be interesting and the main reason he did his honours year is because he was avoiding being drafted for service in the army. After he realised he didn't like sciences he changed course to become a chartered accountant and looking back realised that only in his 40s was he clear about what interested him. His 6 tertiary level qualifications have made him a well rounded and highly successful businessman whose innovative banking product was the subject of a Harvard Business School case study. He believes that real contribution is made through inter-disciplinary study and is grateful for the non-traditional courses he has done in his academic career.

He shares very interesting insights about his time at Oxford and the way its traditions and teaching style make it the top ranked university in the world. At Oxford, Rob wanted to benchmark himself on an international stage and get access to top lecturers and world leaders sitting right next to him in class. He believes that choosing a university is a very personal decision and depends entirely on what you want to get out of it. His learning style is drawing and summarising complex ideas in frameworks and 1-pagers; find your learning style and make sure to choose a university that encourages it. Rob's views on 4IR in education are quite radical and He challenges the traditional view of careers and faculty-based research. He believes the world has sped up in the last 50 years and there's an incredible shift in the psyche of people as we adapt to the disruption.

Rob has had an incredible academic and professional career over the last 40 years but he keeps learning, adapting and contributing back into his network. Listen to his life lessons and you will benefit from this wealth of experience to make the most of your own journey to student success.

Michelle graduated from the University of Georgia and enlisted in the US Army after 9/11 as a specialist. She ended up working in public affairs engineering doing broadcasting and studio work. She's worked for the world's best luxury tour operator and was a US army reservist deployed to Iraq as a broadcast technician. Her husband is also a soldier and she tells the story of how they "fell in love under the palm trees in Baghdad". Originally she struggled to pay for college but got a scholarship as a track athlete and built up some money to study further. At 17 years old she was interested in people but admits she was a bit lost in her academic journey at that age.

Having been out of school for 2 decades since then she feels there's a huge benefit to having life perspective and experience when going back into academic studies. At the faith-based Lipscombe University she also feels treated as an adult and enjoys her studies because there is a lot of application to real world. Because of COVID she was furloughed in early 2020, but she is using her experience in the travel industry to apply what she is learning about sustainability to "get people to yes". Her mantra is People, Profit and Planet and her class materials are ground breaking new frameworks.

Hear about how she uses Grammarly, a writing application, to write better and regularly produces up to 3 papers per week. In this inspiring interview you will hear Michelle talk about her full and inspiring life, which she believes is what you make of it. She will inspire you to take the opportunity to go back to school, figure out what you want to do and reach for your dreams, as long as you don't let your ego get in the away.