How I Managed Full Time Job & Master's Degree

While working full-time as a software developer, I decided I wanted to expand my knowledge in my field and continue the research I started during my bachelor’s thesis. So I decided to attend a master’s degree program in Advanced Computer Science while still working full-time.

Studying for a master’s degree while working a full-time job was incredibly challenging. Here are 3 tips that helped me achieved my goal and get my degree with ‘Excellent’ grade:

1) Made a friend

I found someone who has a similar work ethic as me and similar goals as me, and we were relying on each other when we were confused about an assignment, we worked with each other for projects and sometimes we just needed to talk to each other to encourage one another to move forward when things seemed too difficult. Even when we worked individually on our thesis, we were supporting each other.

2) Got into a routine

We have so many things going on to our life, we are full-time employees, we have family, we have family events we need to attend, we have a social life, we have to go to the gym… so I needed to find a routine. Every day, I used to wake up early and study for an hour and a half before going to the office. Also, I used to keep my Saturday mornings free and study.

But, of course, I have lost my routine several times. I remember there was a period after Christmas, we had a demo to an important potential client at work and we worked very hard, until late to solve all the issues for a week and after that, I stopped working on my thesis for about 2 weeks.

So, the last point was the most important for me and the one that helped me to get motivated again and get back on routine every single time I was lost.

3) Kept repeating myself my end goal

In the beginning, I was really excited, as every time we start something new, but then there were days that I was like “oh my God, what is all this about?”

As I was going through my program, I kept reminding myself why I signed up for this program in the first place. I knew that every assignment I submitted, every test I did, every class I finished, was taking me one step closer to my goal. And I was excited by that.

Having my end goal in mind was the key to complete my master’s degree!

Bye

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