After completing my B.Eng in Computer Engineering, I started working as a junior project analyst and honestly, I was comfortable. Maybe too comfortable. It took a honest conversation with my dad and watching the world around me shift for me to seriously consider doing a masters degree.
I also had people around me who encouraged me to go for it, including close friends who were pursuing their own postgraduate journeys. Eventually I thought, okay, why not. So I applied, packed my bags, and moved to the UK.
I studied Advanced Computer Science at the University of Chester. I was the only Black person on the course and one of only four women in the class. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, and I mean that genuinely.
Adjusting to a new country, a new curriculum, and a completely different style of learning while also working part time in hospitality to cover my living expenses was a lot to carry. Back home I had never needed to juggle work and study at the same time, so this was a real adjustment. There were moments I was completely burnt out and there were periods where I struggled mentally in ways I hadn’t expected.
On top of all of that, I was dealing with some difficult things happening back home with my family. Writing a dissertation while being far away from the people you love is its own kind of hard.
My dissertation focused on the affective analysis of singing using machine learning. I built a tool to predict emotions from recordings of the alphabet song and the traditional birthday song, tested across 24 human participants. I have been told it was one of the first studies of its kind in this area. At the time I was too exhausted to appreciate it, but looking back I am proud of it.
I want to be honest though. Audio machine learning and signal processing are genuinely difficult areas. I did not fully appreciate what I was getting into when I chose the topic, especially since Digital Signal Processing was one of my least favourite modules during my undergraduate degree. I read a lot of papers, I cried a lot, and I submitted anyway. I got a distinction.
I also really enjoyed two other modules, Bio-Inspired Computing and User Experience. Those two courses made me fall in love with research and critical thinking, and the UX module in particular deepened my interest in Human Computer Interaction.
My mum told me I was the first person on both sides of our family to ever graduate with a distinction. That one stayed with me.
Some things I genuinely enjoyed about the MSc experience:
Before graduation I started a role as an Advisor at a social housing company. It was eye opening in ways I did not anticipate. Seeing the conditions people were living in and feeling like very little was being done about it was genuinely difficult, and after three months I knew it was not the right fit for me.
I then moved into a project assistant role at a university, where I am currently delivering a HEIF funded event, the first of its kind at the institution. No pressure at all. I will update this post with how it goes.
Right now I am not rushing back into research or production code. The burnout from the MSc was real and I am still recovering from it. I thought by this point I might be a PhD student or a researcher, but I have made peace with the fact that timelines do not always go the way you plan.
What genuinely excites me is the intersection of technical knowledge and project delivery. I would love to move into a Technical Program Manager type role, where I can use my understanding of technology to help bring projects together without necessarily being the one writing the code or the papers.
In terms of research areas I still care about, I am drawn to HCI, affective computing, cognitive science, UX, and speech processing, particularly in contexts that could help people, such as work around biomarkers or mental health. I am also increasingly interested in biodiversity and environmental data, though I will admit I am much more comfortable in a lab than anywhere near actual wildlife.
I have complicated feelings about the current AI landscape and where the industry is heading, but that is probably a whole separate blog post.
If you are thinking about doing an MSc but you are on the fence, my honest advice is to make sure it is something you genuinely care about. Passion is not everything but without it, the hard moments become so much harder. If you want to chat about it, feel free to drop me an email.
Thanks for reading. I will keep posting updates as things develop.
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