Hi and welcome to our session where we will
be talking to Michael and he's an Advanced
Practice Computer, Advanced Computer Science
student with Advanced Practice. If you have
any questions just leave them in the comment
box below. Would you like to tell us a bit
about your course? Yes so I'm on the Computer
Science with Advanced Practice and it's basically
so computer science is a Master's I've actually
come in from a different degree I did Biomedical
Science for my undergrad so this course kind
of facilitated my move from a different discipline
into this like new field for me and it's currently
I'm doing a lot of like decision analysis
and machine learning. We're also doing things
like, project orientated design and stuff
like that so pretty much just standard computer
science stuff. So you started the course in
January. Why did you choose to do that? So
essentially because I graduated last year
in August I felt like it was a bit too soon
of a move to start like a Master's in a different
field like in that following September like
straight away but at the same time I didn't
want to like wait a whole year to do like
the application in 2019 so I think that starting
in January gave the perfect like waiting time
so that I was able to kind of just prepare
from August to December and like have my application
ready to send to Northumbria and also like
read up on the reading list and stuff like
that without having to like wait a really
long time to apply again and yeah so it was
kind of just like a really good period that
I didn't have to wait too long but I also
didn't have to start straight away. So could
you explain a little bit about Advanced Practice
and what you think the benefits are? Yeah
so Advanced Practice is this period of the
course so usually a Master's is 6 well like
1 and a half years so like 3 semesters. you
do the 2 semesters and then you have the dissertation
at the end, but with the advanced courses,
Advanced Practice courses you have an extra
semester where you can choose to do an internship
with like a company so it gives you that like
extra edge when you're coming out onto the
job market you can also choose to study abroad
there's lots of international opportunities
or you can go into like research groups at
the university which is really cool because
often when you're like on your modules and
you're talking to your tutors and stuff like
that you kind of find out more about the things
that they're working on and like different
research that's going on inside the university
that you might not have known about. So It
can be really interesting to like go into
that and you can kind of like work alongside
your tutors and like active researchers happening
and that also like also helps inform you of
like the dissertation choices that you want
to make after you come out of it because obviously
you do your dissertation afterwards. So it
might be that you go in and you have an idea
of what you want to do for your dissertation
but then you have you do the advanced practice
and you kind of like get a feel for industry
or the research and you might want to like
change direction and stuff like that or you
can like focus your dissertation on like research
that you've just done or whatever stuff like
that so yeah that's really cool. How do you
think the course is preparing you for life
after graduation? So there's definitely a
lot of like job preparation that happens there's
like weekly career advice and employment things,
the library has like weekly drop in sessions
for employment and just like preparing your
CV and stuff like that. There have been like
a few job fairs recently on campus so that
just like a lot of employers coming in to
tell you more about their company things like
that. It can be really useful to like speak
to them directly in person and then also you
can kind of get different companies that come
in to give like workshops and lectures. I
think IBM came in the other day for a presentation
that they were giving which is really useful
because you can kind of like attend that and
talk to them and its more of a specialist
kind of thing so that's really good and it
kind of just gives you that extra boost that
you need to just to break out into the job
market and also I think starting in January
could have it's benefits there because obviously
you'll be graduating in like in the following
January or in two years in that January so
you're not coming out at the same time that everyone
else is when they started in September or
something you're kind of like coming out at
a different cycle so you have like kind of
less competition in a way, less people to
compete with cos you started a bit later so
you come out a bit later which is pretty good
as well. Is there any questions from the feed?
Did you receive any support from the uni whilst
applying? So I got I definitely contacted
the Ask for Help, so there's a like 24/7
ask for help service and they were super useful
in sort of just making sure I got my application
to the right place, they helped me with the
accommodation definitely I was unsure where
I would be living and the finances that was
also super useful just being able to they
have a live chat and like a phone thing that
you can just call at anytime and they always
direct you to the right person which is useful
and how do you find Newcastle as a city to
study in? It's really good it's definitely a
very student oriented city there's a lot of
of like places that you can go out to as well
so it facilitates like just chilling out after
your lectures and stuff like that Northumbria
the campus itself is actually like pretty much next
to the town so you can always just nip out
to the town central just to like if you want
to get something to eat or just pick up supplies
or whatever so that's super useful. Yeah it's
a really pretty city as well. What informed
your decision when you were deciding where
to go from your undergrad? You know you said
you came from a very different subject, what
factors informed your decision on changing
direction? I have a very specific kind of
criteria just because of stating later. The
two main factors was that I had to be starting
in January because obviously I didn't want
to start straight away and also the Advanced
Practice was definitely something that I was
looking at because I felt like coming in from
a different course it would be useful to have
that extra semester of the experience internship
thing. So definitely the Advanced Practice
and starting in January were two of the main
criteria. What do you want to do afterwards,
after you leave, when you leave? So my main
aspiration is to become a full stack developer
which basically just means that I'd be working
on the front end, back end and middleware
of like web development and stuff like that
and yeah I think that'd be really cool. There
are a few specific companies that I'd really
like to work for so fingers crossed. How do
you prioritise your work load? Do you have
a job as well as studying? So I do have a
job at the university, which is digital content
creator and that's actually really useful
because it fits around my studies so I don't
have to like travel elsewhere to go and work
and also the workload for that part time job
is something that I can easily manage just
because it's kind of like in small chunks whereas
not like it's not like having do so and so
shift a week per say. So that's definitely
something that I really wanted to go for as
soon as I saw that email and yeah it's just
really easy to fit around my studies so I
definitely recommend it if you see the job
advertising for that. Is there anything else
you'd like to add? Any top tips that you've
got for students? I'd probably say that if
you're coming from a different discipline
or if you're nervous about moving to a new
place to start a new course in a different
field, like I did that you shouldn't be that
nervous because I was definitely very nervous
when I started or at least when I was moving
and there were a few times when I though about
just like not doing it but it was really reassuring
to hear your like course leader or the programme
leader just say that if your applications
been like approved and you know you've been
accepted to university they've accepted you
for like a reason and so they wouldn't do
that if you know they didn't think that you
could make it so that's definitely something
you should bare in mind that you can do it
and believe in yourself. So yeah
don't be nervous. So thank you for watching if
you've got any questions leave them in the
comment box below or get in touch at
nu.postgraduate@northummbria.ac.uk Thanks
for watching
