My Business and Management Degree Course at Exeter University went surprisingly well! However there was a lot of information that I just didn’t know when I started or even applied to it. Hopefully this blog post will help you and have all the information you are looking for!

Schedule

Firstly, my course doesn’t have many hours a week. For instance, during my fourth year, I only had between 10 and 12h a week, depending on the week. It’s crazy to compare that to back in the day, when I was in high-school, and had 8h a day of lectures…

Why do I feel that this is great? For someone who did not know what to do with my life, having those spear hours was golden. It is great for studying if you haven’t understood a lecture. Moreover, it is great for your I personal projects. The more time you spend on discovering and pursuing your passions, the more accurately you will choose your career. This would not be possible if we’d chose medicine or law, for example. 

Business is the only degree that is recognized as a good degree but for half of the input/studying you do. Economics students in Exeter are secretly jealous of the disproportionate amount of work and hours we have in comparison to them. Business is basically so flexible and so vague you can get into, and do, whatever you want. Here is my timetable in 2nd year. My 4th year looked the same. I mean… wow. This was my definition of paradise at the time.

Content

Secondly, some people change from the Business course to the Economics one because they don’t find the course challenging enough. If you are one of those really hard working people and you feel like you really want to be challenged then maybe Business is not for you.

People who have no clue about what they want to do, usually end up in business. This enables them to spend their time on projects and exploring industries. You get to decide what to do with your time and, the degree being not that hard either.

Moreover, some people forget that you can choose Economics modules even though you study Business! If you want to do economics, just take all the modules of economics. Worst case scenario, you can easily sneak into other student’s lectures.

The Teaching Quality

Since it’s Exeter University, the teaching can be of really high quality. For instance, my Strategic Management module has a lecturer who is successful in the real world. He is also very eloquent and he makes you want to study, which is an accomplishment, especially with me.

But there are also some lecturers who really don’t get it: they are so monotonous and they speak with the same low energy all the time. By the 10th minute you just want to sleep. I can’t predict how your teaching will be because maybe you will chose different modules, or maybe professors will change. In general I would say that we have really good teachers, except if you want to major in Digital Marketing after first year.

My Mandatory Modules

In my final year we had two mandatory modules:

• Strategic Management
• and Finance for Managers.

Strategic Management

Strategic Management is 30 credits. For those who do not understand what a credit is please refer to this blog post! I personally loved Strategic Management and I don’t ever say that about modules. Strategic Management is very practical: there is a link between what we are learning and the real world. Usually, most of the things you learn at uni is theoretical and I am personally very practical.

Finance for Managers

Finance for managers is 15 credits. It is full of maths and you do need to do the work in advance or at least make sure that you do not slack. I went through the course, I went through the lectures and the professor was fabulous. This is definitely not a module you just go through last minute. It takes practice on a weekly basis and I can’t stress enough how much tutorials are essential! They ended up being the basis of my exam. 

My Optional Modules

The optional modules are modules you choose based on what you like. This was quite difficult for me in first and second year because I had no clue of what I wanted to do with my life. In 4th year I understood myself better. You will see that the number of optional modules you can choose increases as the years go by. This happens because the University knows that you are a bit more clueless at the beginning. I chose the following modules during my 4th year:

• Design Management and Marketing
• Digital Marketing
• Psychological Aspects of Consumption
• Spanish Beginners Fast Track

Design Management and Marketing

I chose Design Management because it was a new module so it brings novelty to the Business School. It also sounded more creative than the usual boring stuff I was used to. I wanted to try it out and I wanted to be one of the first people who actually experimented that course. Also, when you go on a new course they tend to go easy on the marks: since I was in my fourth year, I needed to be smart about these kind of hacks.

In hindsight it was a very interesting module, not as creative as I hoped though. It was more about the design of buildings and interior rather than other things. But we had to do group work and come up with a logo for the University of Exeter. This made the course more exciting and practical!

This is a video we showed in the presentation of the module (he loved it)!

Digital Marketing

I was so excited for this module! Digital Marketing was my thing you know? Especially after being promoted to Social Media Manager during my year abroad. I was convinced that it was going to be my cup of tea … but hell no! It was a disaster: the lecturer was not trained in Marketing at all. She studied Feminism and actually hated social media! She spent her time moaning about how bad social media is and feeding us her conspiracy theories. Whether I agreed or not with them isn’t the issue. The issue was that I signed up for a digital marketing lesson, and wasn’t taught anything about it. I tend to be vocal about my opinions. The results? 50% in my exam. Boom. What a joke. Big disappointment. [fyi: Her Name Starts With An A ;)]

Psychological Aspects of Consumption

My third module was Psychological Aspects of Consumption. There were a lot of theories that I thought were quite interesting about how humans think, how they react to certain stimulus… However the lecturer was very interested in the psychology of children. In short, it was not as interesting for me who had no interest in his subject of research. But it was a decent experience.

Spanish

Finally, I chose a 30 credit module which is Spanish. Every year, I always chose a 30 credit module in languages:

• in first year it was Chinese Beginners
• in second year it was Chinese Intermediate 1
• in fourth year I should have gone in Chinese Intermediate 2 but I didn’t. I wanted to work smart, get higher marks for my final degree and learn an easier language. And I was just like “Why don’t you just be smart and go and do Spanish?” as I’m Italian, Spanish should be easy peasy.

Not only I got into Spanish: I got into the beginners level! For me, this was a huge opportunity to boost my marks incredibly. That choice was debatable: some people would think “why learn something that you already know” what a waste of money and what a waste of a degree. Hopefully this video helps you understand why:

I needed to be super smart in order to get a good degree. Yes, paying to learn is the aim, but also graduating with high marks is demanded in the real world. And I didn’t want to get a 2.2 otherwise my whole degree would become worthless. Back in the day, I was on the verge of getting that therefore I needed all the odds to be on my side.

Thoughts

There are a few things I wish I knew about Business and Management. Before I dive into this session, here is a video I made about my tips for revision.

https://youtu.be/fTLk_y0bouI

Regrets. I Wish That I…

1. connected more with my course mates. Business and Management is a huge course with huge networking opportunities. Most people will end up in companies you may want to join later on. Consequently, I strongly advise you to make sure they see you as someone who is trustworthy. You never know who can open doors for you in the future… and who can close some.
2. connected more with my lecturers. These professors are huge experts in their fields and could be really good mentors. References and free consulting sessions comes out of a good relationship.
3. learned more about Time Management. I could’ve done so much more during my University days.
4. went to my lectures. Not for the content, but for the lack of structure of my days. I used to go to bed very late (8am) and wake up in the afternoon (5pm)…
5. went to the employability events my University was organizing. There were loads of networking opportunities with potential employers and opportunities to train for future application processes (mock interviews, mock assessment centers…). These types of opportunities are now inaccessible.

Tricks! I Am Proud Of…

1. finding a way to mix my Business degree with another department (aka the Language facility). I ended up graduating with Mandarin Chinese on my degree and the Chinese courses enabled me to dodge some seriously boring business lectures.
2. doing a year in industry. I grew so much as a person and it helped me start a very good career as I started applying for jobs before other people. This gave me an advantage over my 3rd year friends because I knew better how to come across to the employer through interviews and assessment centers.
3. getting my “party-animal self” out of my system in first year. During my first 2 years I focused on fun and my social life more than my degree. This was contrary to some of my friends who decided to be responsible since day one and ended up regretting not going out much in their last year. They ended up going out too much during their final year and as a consequence ended up having my same degree, for a more boring and stressful university experience.
4. getting the Exeter Award and Exeter Leadership Award. It sounds fancy but anyone could actually get it, it was beyond ridiculously easy. It shows to the employers that you try hard and makes your CV a bit shinier than the other ones.
5. choosing my modules by looking at the type of examination. Your exams come in different formats (essays, multiple questions, group work, presentation, case studies…). You need to figure out early on what type of examination you do best and then choose modules that have the same type of exam.

Below you can find a Q&A video where I answer other related questions.

Conclusion

All in all, I loved Business & Management because it gave me the time to actually do what I want to do in life. It gave me the time to reflect on what I love to do and gave me opportunities to try practical projects. I applied for jobs for my Year in Industry and knew what to expect from the application process. I worked on my CV, I started a Youtube Channel, I trended on Instagram, I directed a “pilot” for a wannabe TV- series etc. My course allowed me to really do introspection and ask myself what do you want to do Francesca? So I could work at it in order to shine.

Business and Management at Exeter University is the most open course ever: if you want more marketing you can; you want to study a language, you can; you want more finance modules, you have them. If you are going to study this course, be excited because this is the start of you discovering yourself.

How Can We Help Each Other (Online Opportunity)

I have done my best to keep this website up-to-date. However, not living in Exeter anymore, this can be a challenge. If you are about to move to Exeter and want to get involved with this blog then please do not hesitate to contact me via my Instagram account. This is a unique opportunity for anyone who would like to get into blogging, influencer marketing or just generally gain some experience for their CV. Again, you can contact me for more details on how this may help you!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR YOU

Over the years I have created many guides and checklist that aim to help you save time. Here are a list of them just in case you might miss out on a few:

1. The Essay Decoder: a resource to help international students understand what is asked in an essay. This resource was given to me by one of Exeter’s top Senior Lecturers.
2. Do’s & Don’ts at University Guide: a resource that gives you 70+ tips about university life. These recommendations range from social life, to love life, to reputation… I wish I had this guide when starting.
3. The Ultimate Packing Checklist for both Catered students and Self-Catered students. A resource that aims to help you save time when preparing yourself for University.
4. My 1st E-Book: a resource that has help me become a boss at Time Management. Moreover, it has also helped me create more time for what I love and get to my goals faster. It is lengthy, however it is arguably the best Time Management piece of research out there.
5. My Before & After CV Transformation: a resource that has collected my CVs for the past 7 years to help you not only craft a great CV, but to also show you that everyone can start mediocre and grow exponentially.
6. How To Land a Job Faster Guide: a resource that aims to give you all of the tips and recommendations I have used during my career. This will help you avoid some common mistakes students do when starting off with their job applications.

MY OBJECTIVE IS AND WILL FOREVER BE TO HELP YOU

To conclude, the aim of this website is to help you have the best fresh start at University and with your career. There is nothing that gives me more happiness and joy but to hear your positive feedback on how helpful my content has been. Contact me if you have any feedback for me!

BEST OF LUCK WITH IT ALL!!!!