Confused on what to do with my life! - Wannabe an Event Planner

Hello there!

Hope everyone is doing alright. I am new to the forum so I don't really know what to expect or how to engage with the community. Hope someone will guide me around.

Anyhow, I am here because I recently started pondering the possibility of applying for a masters degree. I will explain myself better. I graduated last May from an American University and I started working for the same school in November. However, I am not satisfied with my current position and, as I have always been an event planner, I thought that maybe doing a masters would be my only chance to get a job in the field.

After graduation, I told myself I was done with school forever as I never enjoyed studying, never truly applied myself. And I feel that happened because maybe I was studying something that I never really liked. So after graduation I started to sent out so many resumes and applied to so many event manager/assistant event manager/internship positions that when I had to face that no one was interested in hiring a recent graduate, I felt a little down. So here I am now trying to figure out what to do in order to achieve my goal.

I was thinking of applying for masters in Events Management in the UK, but I do not know which are the best/most recommended schools that offer that.

Can please anyone help me out? Maybe you are more knowledgeable on this topic.

Thank you in advance. Any suggestion will be very much appreciated.

M.

Reply 1

justag

Is a masters really necessary for this career?

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Reply 2

serendipity517

No it is not really necessary but as I majored in bus admin, so I never actually studied anything related to events management. I was considering a masters because I would like to learn more about it and also because some masters offer internships too. Moreover, I get to earn another degree.

Reply 3

justag

Original post by serendipity517

If it's not absolutely necessary, it's quite an expensive way to improve your prospects with no guaranteed return at the end of it. I would just keep plugging away to try and get on the job experience, something will come along eventually. I highly doubt events management is a field where a masters adds much.

Reply 4

serendipity517

Original post by justag

uhm, okay. I hope that works :/

Reply 5

post-grad-u-ate

it's great that you have an idea of what you want to do and I hope I can help with something I was looking at recently that might be in the direction you want to go in.

Ok, so the course I am thinking of is 'International Event Management' at the University of Surrey which is in the top 10 of universities here in the UK and I can imagine you have seen this course already from googling as it is the top result when I searched for it.

What made me look at this course was looking on instagram at the British Polo Day events which are all over the world in; Dubai, Abu Dhabi, USA, China, London etc. and I thought wow, getting to do something like this and flying all over the world would be fascinating and thus found the course at Surrey.

Something else would be to work in Formula 1 for Mclaren or Red Bull etc, who need professionals for their hospitality suites and dealing with the needs of the executives, engineers and the drivers.

It can be quite the glamourous career from the photos but I can imagine you might be running around like a headless chicken at times :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 6

serendipity517

Original post by post-grad-u-ate

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply to my post! I indeed looked into several universities all based in the UK. University of Surrey was one of them. You are right, it looks amazing. I would like to apply to maybe three or four schools just to make sure I will get into one at least. Do you know other top schools that you would recommend?

Thanks!

Reply 7

justag

Original post by serendipity517

uhm, okay. I hope that works :/

It looks like you've already made up your mind to do a masters anyway regardless. If you have spare cash why not I guess. Good luck

Reply 8

serendipity517

Original post by justag

It looks like you've already made up your mind to do a masters anyway regardless. If you have spare cash why not I guess. Good luck

Did not mean in any way to offend you. I simply think that masters will help me make more connections in the related field. I am trying to move abroad mainly because I am sick and tired of my country not to mention that event planning is not considered an actual job here. If I manage to do a masters, then I will be probably have higher chances to stay in that country,.

Reply 9

post-grad-u-ate

I have a B.Sc. in business management and I think that an M.Sc. in International Events Management would elevate my prospects, mostly because Surrey is a great university and much better than my previous one, but I would have to agree I don't think this is completely necessary. If you look on Linkedin, all of the people who work in international hospitality for Red Bull Formula 1, have bachelors in events, tourism or hospitality.

Exeter offers: M.Sc. International Tourism and Hospitality Management which is ranked highly in the top 10 of universities, a bit further out from London, about 3 hours or so.

If you wanted to live in the beautiful city of Oxford and surround yourself with all the quaint colleges and the most british of lifestyles then M.Sc. International Hospitality, Events and Tourism Management at Oxford Brookes, which is moderately ranked, so easier to get in to, but would still get you into your desired career path, and as an enthusiastic american student I don't see why you can't get offers from any programmes that you apply to.

http://firstprotocol.com/portfolio/ this is a great company that deals with hedge funds and the banks here in the UK. Blackstone, Brevan Howard and The Carlyle Group are the most profitable companies in the world.

Trying to think of all the industries that this kind of careers encompasses such as Music, Fashion, Sports, Business.. and possibly Government?

Artist Relations and Events at Universal Music Group

Corporate Hospitality Manager at Goldman Sachs

Reply 10

serendipity517

Original post by post-grad-u-ate

Thank you so so so much! This is all useful information! Yes, I know too that a masters is not necessary for what I want to do but I would like to try anyways! I am actually Italian, another reason why I would like to move to the UK :smile:

I would like to work mainly for private high-class events. Music and Business industry would be enjoyable too! Sports definitely not interested How about you?