Ehinomen Rose Umane

"Before moving to Sunderland, I was working in my home country as a digital marketing strategist. I had worked for a while and realised that I lacked that international exposure and knowledge. I needed to know more but on a more global scale and with global brands and case studies, which MA Marketing at Sunderland provided.

I had a friend who had studied at the University and suggested I explore studying there as well. I found that coming from Lagos, a city that is at par with mega cities such as New York and London, I was craving some quiet and calmness and Sunderland provided that.

I was given a student accommodation scholarship which I found very useful and helpful. I was a self-funded international student, who needed any form of financial relief to ease the burden of studying outside of my home country.

The course outline for MA Marketing was very interesting and the inclusion of digital marketing and branding were vital areas of knowledge that I needed to grow my career. Throughout the course, I found that all the modules were very impactful. I specifically enjoyed learning about digital marketing, and I had fun focusing my dissertation on the same subject.

After finishing my degree, I secured a job at Meta (parent company to Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Oculus to mention a few). This was my dream career and I'd discussed this with my course advisor about my desire to transition into media technology and to work with any of the top five technology companies in the world.

Studying at the University of Sunderland gave me the confidence I needed and made me realise I can work or have a career anywhere in the world. Presenting in class all the time fine-tuned my speaking skills and this became very useful during my interview at Meta. To sum up, my experience was amazing. I had the best lecturers who were extremely supportive. Each class felt like a one-on-one session. I felt like I was being listened to when I spoke, and the topics taught were exactly what I needed to move up my career ladder."