Upon graduation from the UK, I landed my first job in Indonesia as a Digital Strategist for bubu.com, a digital creative agency. I helped coordinate digital campaigns for clients of commercial, social, to political nature. After bubu.com, I work at MatahariMall.com, an Indonesian e-commerce company, as a Business Intelligence Analyst. I was at the core of reporting and data analytics to help the company drives key business decisions. Afterwards I currently work as a Senior Research Executive at Millward Brown Indonesia, a multinational market research company that focuses on helping companies grow great brands and advertising.
What I truly enjoyed from my time in the UK is the close-knit community of students in my campus. To me, my Political Communication cohort was more than just classmates. They were family, in which we support each other to grow in both our personal and academic endeavour.
During my study, one of our classmates ran a campaign to be the president of the Leeds University Union. As we were studying for our Political Communication degree, we decided to help our friend, while making the most out of our skills and experience. At the end, our friend was elected as a president of the Union – the first post-graduate and non-British student to do so. We couldn’t be more proud of what we have done as a family of political students– helping our good friend achieved his aspiration to help students across the campus, while at the same time we bonded over the experience that also helped strengthened our expertise in the field that we were pursuing at the time.
My UK degree has helped me beyond merely giving the credibility of having a British education. The knowledge that I pursued in the UK has helped me expand my worldview in ways I have never exposed to before. I learned about politics and communications from students and professionals who came from various backgrounds and parts of the world – from the UK, USA, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, to the Middle East. These people carry their own understanding and experiences, which in turn, has molded my view and understanding of the world far more stretched out than ever. This is the skill that has brought me to where I am right now, a professional of versatility, with a wide understanding of the world – from the political, to social, and to the commercial paradigm.
As I mentioned, my classmates and I ran a student Union campaign that led to the victory of the first post-graduate and non-British student for such position in the Union. It was also during this time where I was exposed to how in the UK, the Students Union were very active and engaging in providing students to have the best experience at university. This is ranging from academic standpoint, to healthcare, environmental, political, and social point of view. It was also through this exposure that I was able to land a job at the Union as a Campaign Assistant for the Union’s annual environmental charity program. With this, I was able to gain my first work experience in the UK, sharpen my skills in communications, and have a productive summer that year.
My academic experience was also the most fruiful in the UK. As I pursued to sharpen my skills beyond the scope of my classroom, I was able to truly excel at my core purpose in the UK – my academic pursuit. Safe to say, I successfully scored a Distinction for my final dissertation, which was about the Art of Political Campaigning – couldn’t be more relatable to what I did outside of class. Long after I left the UK, I got a news from my friend that my dissertation was also showcased during the new students orientation at my Faculty as one of the best dissertation of that year.
In short, the campus life in the UK has allowed me to enrich my experience with opportunities to learn and grow far beyond the walls of my classroom. In return, the lives I pursued during the hours of my presence there had resulted in many rewards – a fruitful academic testament, legitimate experiences that founded my career aspiration, and a family that I will forever cherish in my life.