I officially finished my 2 years of work and student life!终于正式结束了我的在职学生生涯！

Ouf 2 years of being a working student are finally behind me! Since earlier last month, I finally got all the exam results from my Master’s program, and rather happy about the result- pass with great distinction! This means, I officially finished my 2-year long student working life – don’t know what the future brings but really happy about what I have learned! To learn how I got started, you can visit my previous post here. In this post, I would like to share some of the lessons I learned hopefully could help all the future working students.

The program I followed was: Master of Management in VUB

上个月刚开始， 我就接到了学校的通知，两年的努力没有白费，所有考试都通过，并且总体取得的成绩是（优）！这就意味着我的两年学生生涯终于结束了！不知道未来会带来什么，但是至少对这两年学到的东西还是很满足。想知道我为什么开始回归学校，可以参看我以前的一篇博客。这篇博客我想要和大家分享一下这两年的经历，希望可以帮到以后的一些在职的学生。

我选择的学习项目是VUB的管理硕士。

1. It is not your own decision – 这并不是一个人的决定

Yes, going back to school while working is your own initiative, and your own time and effort would get invested in this extra activity. But you need to be very serious about the impact it brings to your personal life, talk openly to families especially your partner, and make sure you get his or her absolute support!

You will need to acknowledge that you are not able to spend enough time together, and your partner will take up most of the household chores, and most importantly, he or she needs to bear with all the stress and pain you go through during the difficult times. So, make sure that your partner is fully on board, and please acknowledge all the silent effort he or she is making during this journey!

确实，在职重返校园是你自己的决定，占用的是你自己的时间和精力。但是，你自己必须非常重视这个决定对你个人生活的影响，你应该开诚布公地跟你家人特别是你的配偶讨论，并且你最好应该得到他/她的绝对支持！ 你必须理解，和家人在一起的时间会变少，而你的配偶必须担起打理家里琐事的重任，更重要的是，他/她必须忍受你在工作学习双重压力下的负面情绪。所以，如果你做了这个决定并得到了他的支持，你可以放手去搏斗，但是，千万不要忘记感激他在这段时间给你做的后盾。

2. Prepare for the worst – 做最坏的打算

At the start of the journey, I already warned myself, combining work and study was going to be a big commitment and would be a challenge, what if I could not make it?  Multiple scenarios have been played in my mind, in case something goes wrong (too stressful, burning out, family unhappiness), what would be my backup plan, in terms of prioritization among health family, study and work, what do I choose and drop? The advice here is for you to strive for the best but to prepare for the worst, you always need a plan B for you to fall back on.

在这段旅程开始的时候，我就已经告诫过自己，工作和学习同步进行将会是一个大的重任和挑战，如果没办法办到该怎么办？其实我的脑海中已经浮现过如果事情发展不如意（比如太大压力，过度疲劳，家庭不和睦等等），我将如何应对的场景，其实我已经对健康，家庭，学习和工作等划分了优先等级，万一需要选择的时候，也会以这个为标准。这里的建议就是，期待最好但是也要为最坏的情况做准备，要给自己留好退路。

3. Your work and study should strengthen each other – 学习和工作互相强化

Unlike conventional studies where students think of what is next after he gets the diploma, as a working student, your work experience should help you understand the lectures better (through connecting with concrete examples), and you should absorb the knowledge immediately and apply to your daily work to improve your working skills during the study years (rather than after). By using both experiences to strengthen each other, you are exerting the advantage of being a working student to its greatest.

当你还是一个全职学生的时候，你通常会在毕业以后开始想下一步。但是作为在职学生，你的工作经历应该帮助你更好的理解课程上的东西，因为你有实际的例子来支撑，而你在课上学到的知识也应该马上用来提高你的工作技巧，这样你才充分发挥了在职学生的优势。

4. Be strict with your time – 对时间要求苛刻一点

You only have 24 hours per day, but you need to juggle multiple roles, yes you will be really busy and have less time for other things, having control of your own time is the key. Don’t let anyone waste your time if it does not add value to your own agenda, spend time on people and things that you really cherish.

一天只有24个小时，时间溜掉了就没了。因为你必须在多个角色中来回切换，你将会发现做所有的事情感觉时间都不够，对你自己时间的把控是关键。不要让任何人浪费你的时间，别人要求你的事如果不是非你不可，大可以拒绝，你的闲暇时间应该花在你珍惜的人和事情上。

5. Try to spread the program if possible – 如果可能的话延长你的硕士项目

My program was a one-year full-time master including 60 credits master program and 18 credits of the preparatory program. The 1-year full-time students need to go to classes every evening during the week and on Saturday mornings. As much as I would like to finish the struggle within 1 year, looking at the agenda I knew immediately that combining full-time work and full-time study, plus offline group projects would be a challenge. “1-year full-time work and study might be too ambitious, you might get very stressed and end up failing the courses, and in that case, it becomes 2 years anyway and you get discouraged”. To this day, I really appreciated one of my ex-colleagues advice. In the end, I spread the courses and maintained a certain level of personal life satisfaction.

我选择的项目是一年60学分的全职学时和18个学分的预科学时。如果想一年学下来的话，学生必须每天晚上和周六早晨去学校上课，中间还会有一些学生项目和报告。虽然我真的很想在一年内学下来，这样我挣扎的程度更大，但是时间会更短，然而看到课表和我的工作日历我就马上知道一年想学下来的话会真的很辛苦。“一年的话感觉会太过激进，如果你压力过大，然后考试不通过的话，最终还是会变成2年，但是那个时候你会变得很灰心。” 一直到今天我都很感谢我这个前同事给我的建议，最后我两年完成了学业，但是生活还是相对幸福。

6. Prepare your thesis well in advance – 提前准备你的毕业设计

Each institution has its own thesis application and submission process, as the thesis is typically the most heavily weighted credit in the curriculum, you should start reading the process beforehand, and think about your interesting direction as early as possible! In my curriculum, there was even a course (Research Methods for Business), to help students to prepare for the thesis process. Students holding a master degree or with a relevant study background are exempted from it. My advice is to go to the class anyway, even if you don’t need to prepare for the exam, but it will be of great value for your thesis preparation! The class gives you detailed info about the university’s expectations of your thesis paper.

And if you spread the program into 2 years, you should follow it in the first year, so you get enough understanding and enough time to prepare for it. Make sure you schedule regular appointments with your promotor! The adult life experience is, no one is responsible for your progress but yourself. You need to be on top of your planning and next step, if you meet your promotor, you should know what you want to get from him, that being said, most of the work is offline on yourself

.7. Take some leaves if it gets too much – 如果课程繁重，可以请假

Nobody is a superman, I have literally seen classmates getting burned out because work-life-study gets too much. If you feel your body is feeling exhausted, feel free to take a few days off from work to relax as long as those days are planned in advance. In the end, health is the most important thing in life. I always plan a few days off during the exam period, because I know with the stress and amount and intensity of the information I need to gather, I cannot afford to get distracted by anything. Lucky for me, Belgium provides some extra leaves for education if you attend 90% of the classes.

没有一个人是超人，我真的有同学因为工作加学习而过度疲劳，最后不得不请病假休息。如果你感觉自己很疲惫，你应该向上级请假来休息几天，只要你是提前说好一般都是没有问题的。其实人活一辈子，生不带来死不带去，健康才是最重要的。我个人一般会在考试期间请几天假，因为我知道那几天巨大的记忆强度和压力强度下，必须非常集中精力应对考试，那段时间的社交活动也会全部推后。我很幸运，因为比利时会提供专门的教育假期，但是你能保证平常上课90%都不缺席。

8. Attend all the classes – 尽量不要缺课

I attend all the classes, even the boring ones and the ones of my own profession. There is a course called IT management, which is exactly my profession and the content given is of my daily job. I attended all of them anyway, for

1), I need to get my paper signed for the educational leave 🙂,

2) You don’t know what you don’t know.

Only by attending all the classes, can you know that you have covered all the learning points. If the class really bores you, you can use the time during your presentation to evaluate the professor’s way of teaching, if you are given the opportunity, how would you express yourself and make sure that the knowledge is passed to students?

我从不缺勤，甚至也会去上无聊的并和我专业一样的课程。有两个原因：

1. 我申请教育假期需要老师签字，呵呵。

2. 有的知识你并不知道你缺乏。

除非你去听所有的课，你并不能确定你其实掌握了所有的知识。如果在听课途中你真的觉得很无聊，那么不妨来评估一下老师讲课的方式，如果是你你会怎样来保证学生能听懂这门课？一门自认为是我自己专业的课，叫做信息管理，最后竟然只拿了16分，估计很多职场小白都能拿到这个分数，惭愧啊！That’s all I have in mind to share with anyone who is interested in going back to school while working, I hope you learn and excel, but still enjoy your life!以上就是一些给将来想重返学校的在职人员的一些建议，我希望你学到知识并且在你的领域取得成就，但还是要享受生活！

Check out my graduation ceremony and my student speech here.

我的毕业典礼和学生代表讲话在这里。

 Recommended movie – 21 jump street(2012) 推荐电影 – 龙虎少年队(2012)

A comedy movie about 2 undercover policemen going back to high school for a mission, good for a relaxing fun evening!