Postgraduate profile: MSc computer science (conversion course)

Jamie Pendle took a postgraduate conversion course in IT after studying psychology for his first degree. He then went on to study advanced computer science.

After graduation I worked as a research assistant in the psychology department at Warwick University, though I knew I didn't want to pursue a career in this area in the long term. I had studied computing at A level and looked at some graduate schemes in IT after finishing my first degree, but I didn't have much success in my applications at that point. I felt that I would be disadvantaged because I didn't have a degree in computer science and started thinking about going back to university.

Getting the right balance

Initially I looked to see which universities in the region offered an IT conversion course, and the Birmingham course struck me as offering a good balance between academic and vocational elements. I was offered a scholarship covering the cost of tuition and was able to use my savings from having worked full time for 18 months to pay for maintenance. I also did some flexible part-time work as a research assistant, running experiments in the psychology department at Birmingham.

A steep learning curve

Most of my time was taken up by learning how to programme in Java. We were taught through lectures, tutorials, practical classes, weekly programming exercises and group projects. They started with the assumption that we had no programming knowledge, which was true for most people on the course, and it took a lot of work to get up to the required level. The other main core modules covered topics such as data structures and algorithms, databases, the software development life-cycle and commercial programming, with two guest speakers from industry coming to talk to us every week. I also chose optional modules on the philosophy of cognitive science and advanced software engineering.

Be aware of what's involved

I'd advise anyone considering an IT conversion course to look long and hard at exactly what is involved. Programming isn't for everyone, but for me it was the most challenging and enjoyable part of the course. I also gained useful insights into the industry, for example, through studying the software life-cycle I came to appreciate the types of problems that must be overcome when developing software and how important it is to take a structured approach.

Going even deeper

While studying I'd heard positive feedback about the advanced MSc. When I was accepted onto the course I was offered a generous scholarship covering both tuition fees and some maintenance costs, and I decided to take the opportunity to do some more in-depth academic study before joining the world of work. The advanced computer science MSc course is very open ended, with a strong focus on project work, and has given me the freedom to extend my knowledge by developing my interests. I've chosen optional modules relating to computer security.

I've been offered a job

When applying for jobs I looked for employers offering a structured graduate scheme. I have been offered a job as a software engineer at Capgemini and am due to start the two-year graduate programme.

Jamie studied an MSc in computer science and then an MSc in advanced computer science at the University of Birmingham.