7 People Speak Candidly About How Going Back To Uni Changed Their Lives

What does it take to become a “master”?

The popularity of postgrad degrees is skyrocketing, with the number of Australians holding a postgraduate qualification jumping by 46 per cent from 631,000 in 2011 to 921,000 in 2016. Has it paid off for them? And what are the challenges? Here are seven postgrads and their stories.

1. Yarmila Alfonzetti

Yarmila Alfonzetti

Undergrad: Bachelor of Musicology

Postgrad: Master of Project Management

Now: executive director of State Opera South Australia

Alfonzetti always loved classical music as a child. But after six years spent with “geniuses” at the Conservatorium High School, she knew she wasn’t going to be a performer. She completed a Bachelor of Musicology, and while she enjoyed every moment of it, she knew she had good organisational and leadership skills and saw herself in an arts management career.

She decided that a postgrad degree in project management would give her the new skills she needed to head in this direction. What surprised her most in returning to study was finding she was able to speak off the cuff in class, joke with lecturers, not get too stressed if she didn’t know things, and generally write as if she knew what she was saying. “Life experience counts” is how Alfonzetti sums it up.

She now believes the most important thing is to study what you're passionate about and then be focused and specialised. As a career-progression tool, she believes taking a postgraduate degree has been “excellent.”

2. Anna Debenham & Alex Parker

Anna Debenham & Alex Parker

Undergrads: Bachelor of Science

Postgrads: Master of Nutrition and Dietetics

Now: accredited practising dietitians; founding directors of The Biting Truth

Anna and Alex both grew up in Sydney with a passion for all things food and science, and both did a Bachelor of Science. During their undergraduate degree, they were exposed to a couple of nutrition subjects, which they say “really appealed to us.”

They’d also noticed lots of their friends and families having questions about things they'd read or seen online from “self-proclaimed nutritionists” that “seemed very far from the truth and not backed by science,” which led them to believe there would be business opportunities down the track if they got involved in this area.

They transitioned straight from their undergraduate degree into their master’s degree, and after getting a couple of years experience in the industry, they took the plunge to go full time with their business, The Biting Truth, which they describe as “the best thing we ever did.” Today they are working with businesses and schools, exposing nutritional myths and providing innovative nutrition education.

3. Ben Gwilliam

Ben Gwilliam

Undergrad: Bachelor of Applied Science – Exercise and Sports Science

Postgrad: Master of Physiotherapy

Now: managing a team of eight physiotherapists

Gwilliam had always enjoyed exercise, sport, and science and thought it would make an interesting mix to study. But going into university straight out of high school, he believes in hindsight “I probably wasn't really ready for university study.” After graduating, he spent a year working and getting his accreditation as an exercise physiologist, but he realized he wanted a qualification he could travel with.

Gwilliam describes going back to university as “the greatest decision I’ve ever made.” He says he was much more prepared the second time around and applied himself with far greater interest than he had before. Gwilliam feels he acquired a more varied set of skills he's been able to put into practice around Australia and around the world.

After spending four years working for an orthopaedics hospital and a university in Malawi and one year doing paediatric community rehabilitation in Mongolia, he moved back to Australia two years ago, where he is now doing a mix of aged care, paediatrics, community rehabilitation, and private practice.

4. Emma Arazzi

Emma Arazzi

Undergrad: Bachelor of Arts

Postgrad: Master of Speech Pathology

Now: speech pathologist

“I have always been a bit of an adventurous soul,” says Arazzi. She went on exchange to Italy in high school, loved studying languages, and has always been passionate about helping others. She initially studied a Bachelor of Arts but then found it challenging to figure out what she wanted to do once she’d graduated. She had enjoyed some of the subjects she’d studied, especially linguistics, but there wasn’t a huge choice of careers associated with it.

Unhappy in her job, Arazzi decided to go back to study because, as she puts it, “I wanted more. I wanted to be passionate about my work.” Hearing about speech pathology, she did some volunteer work in the area, realised it was the right field for her, and took a “leap of faith” back into university life. Arazzi reports that “going back to uni was a little nerve-racking at first. I thought I was too old.”

But echoing the verdict of others who have gone back into education as a mature-aged student, she reckons she actually enjoyed the experience more than she did as a school-leaver uni student. Arazzi believes she was more focused, determined, and passionate about what she was doing. She admits it came with challenges, such as “juggling work and study” but is confident “it was definitely worth it in the long run.”

5. Jack Blair

Keith Mcinnes

Undergrad: Bachelor of Science

Postgrad: Master of Management

Now: technology consultant for Deloitte

Blair grew up in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria but moved to Sydney in 2013 to follow his dream of becoming a professional sportsman. During his Bachelor of Science degree at Sydney Uni, he had great success with rugby, winning grand finals and touring the USA. But while Blair really enjoyed his science degree, he couldn't immediately see where it would take him for a career.

Doing a master’s, particularly in a business area, seemed like a good way to apply his science knowledge and learn a bit more about the world too. Additionally, he knew that staying at university would greatly facilitate his ability to play sport. So after finishing his undergraduate degree, Blair studied for a Master of Management and this year began work as a technology consultant for Deloitte.

He’s also taken a change of direction with his sporting aspirations, swapping codes to AFL, and still harbours aspirations to play professional sport. Blair believes that “going back to uni was a very positive experience for me.” He felt it greatly increased his breadth of knowledge, and he discovered an additional benefit in that, with a smaller cohort, he ended up “much closer” to his classmates.

6. Jameela Truman

Photo: Rodrigo Beltrán Delgado / Via @badboyrorro

Undergrad: Bachelor of Science

Postgrad: Master of Nursing

Now: trauma clinical nurse specialist

Truman is originally from Maryland, USA, but moved to Sydney in 2010 “just for two years for nursing school,” fell in love with Australia, and decided to stay. Her first degree had been a Bachelor of Science with a major in human development and family studies.

Truman found she was passionate about working with people, and that led to her career in nursing. But over time, she began to feel she wanted to do more professionally and improve her skills in trauma and emergency nursing. Truman was confident she had the potential to be an advanced clinician but felt she needed to push herself out of her comfort zone and advance her academics as well, hence the decision to return to university to study for a Master of Nursing.

Truman is candid about the challenges of combining work with study and happily confesses that “pulling an all-nighter isn’t what it used to be.” But she finds it hugely rewarding, especially when she gets the opportunity to use the evidence from an assessment in her everyday professional role. Going forward, Truman wants to be more involved in research projects and has hopes of someday publishing research of her own.

7. Jodie Kell

Jodie Kell

Undergrad: Bachelor of Arts

Postgrad: currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and an audio engineer at PARADISEC digital archive at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Kell’s first degree was a Bachelor of Arts at USyd. She graduated in 1991. During this period, Kell was “very challenged by the way we had been taught the history of Australia.” Coming from the North Shore of Sydney, she felt she’d had a protected and privileged upbringing, and then moving into a share house in Redfern, she quickly came to see a new perspective on Australia’s black history.

After graduating, she became a teacher and also worked as a musician and audio engineer. But when her sons reached their current ages of 18 and 21, she felt she needed a career change, so she “took a risk” and moved out of the reliable high school teaching work she had been doing in order to move back into academic study.

Kell feels strongly about gender issues in the music industry. Her research is ethnographic in nature and includes gendered perspectives on musical practice, audio engineering theory, and issues surrounding the transmission of cultural knowledge in endangered language communities. She is currently playing lead guitar in a band called Ripple Effect, the first all-women band to come out of Arnhem Land, which composes and performs songs in four endangered languages – Burarra, Kune, Ndjébbana, and Na-Kara – and has performed at the Garma Festival, among others. Kell finds it “financially challenging” being a student again but is “so enjoying the PhD journey.”

Considering a change into a completely new career? Think you need to go back to uni and start from scratch? Think again. A postgraduate degree from the University of Sydney can open the door for a career change, advance your career and help you pursue your passion.