A Twickenham businesswoman who has juggled family and study commitments while setting up her own HR consultancy celebrated her university graduation this week.
Sarah Mason
On Monday (18 April), Sarah Mason graduated with distinction with a Master’s degree in Management Consultancy and Organisational Change.
During her two-year part-time degree at London’s only specialist provider of evening university study, the 42-year-old Meadway resident established Talent Advantage, her own human resources and leadership training consultancy which built on her experience in senior roles at global recruitment firms. Since her consultancy’s launch in March 2014, it has become well established in the recruitment industry.
She was drawn to the MSc programme at Birkbeck’s Department of Management as it allowed her to combine full-time work in the daytime, while attending up to two three-hour lectures per week in the evenings at the college’s Bloomsbury campus.
She had previously completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and a diploma in Employment Law, however the Birkbeck MSc appealed to her as it combined organisational psychology, HR and business – all of which she was interested in deepening her knowledge of at this stage in her career.
While Sarah had prepared herself for a very busy two years upon enrolling, it took her some time to adjust to balancing her multiple commitments.
“It was harder than I thought it would be. I had to give up a lot of my spare time to reading academic papers, writing assignments and doing my research project,” she said.
“I really enjoyed studying but the hardest part was my eight-year-old daughter pushing notes under the door of my study asking me to go to the park with her. I was very lucky that my husband was really supportive and gave me the time I needed to study. Studying alongside a full time job is a big commitment but it was worth it.”
This week, Sarah joined more than 200 fellow postgraduate students from the college’s School of Business, Economics and Informatics at a formal afternoon ceremony held in Senate House. She was joined on the day by her husband, Phil Mason, and her daughter, Tegwen.
She said: “I’m really pleased with this accomplishment. I started off with several goals; get a distinction, learn some useful stuff and hit specific revenue goals for the business. It was a lot of hard work, but I did achieve them.
“In reality, the grade is much less important than the learning and for some people it’s more about finding a good balance of study, work and life. For me, having a focus of getting a good grade did push me to make sure I put enough time in to get the most from the course, so I learnt loads. And I think it’s fine to be a geek!”
Moving forward, Sarah plans to continue growing her consultancy, and further applying the frameworks, theories and evidence-based approach to practice which she learned at Birkbeck.
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