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Sally Dray was a US History and Politics MA student in the years 2016-17.
After graduating from UCL, I worked at a membership organisation in Central London where I had worked part-time throughout my postgrad, to gain further professional experience. In 2018, I started working as a committee assistant to the EU Energy and Environment sub-committee in the House of Lords. In early 2019, I moved to the House of Lords library on secondment as a research assistant.
It is in these last two roles that the skills learnt though the MA course have been invaluable. The in-depth seminars really prepared me for presenting papers and responding to questions on areas of policy at committee meetings.
But, the research experience has been the most useful in my current role. Day-to-day I interrogate sources of material, interpret statistics and collect varying viewpoints on a single issue - all skills which I developed through the MA course. The independent research involved in preparing essays for modules, and eventually for my dissertation, really prepared me for the demands of researching for briefings today.
Aside from professional skills, the MA gave me a chance to meet more like-minded people who would eventually be pursuing similar careers. It was a unique experience to be studying US politics during the 2016 election and the standard of teaching at the Institute was fantastic.