Why did you choose this programme?

“It's a very practical Master's that teaches me skills that I will also use in non-academic work. I was also looking for a one year Master's because I wanted to start working.”

Why did you choose the University of Amsterdam?

“I already did my Bachelor's at the University of Amsterdam and I think it's a nice university in terms of how things are organised and the overall atmosphere.”

How much freedom did you have when selecting courses or projects?

“Because this is a one year Master's, you don't have the freedom ofchoosing subjects.  However, you can very much express your own interests within the content of those subjects.”

How practical or theoretical is the programme?

“The training is very practically oriented without forgetting the theoretical side. So you do learn the necessary theory that serves as a foundation, but always in connection with something practical. For example, we learned the theory of building models in a lecture and then in the work-study we went on to build a model for a robot that had to map a maze.”

How would you describe the atmosphere within the programme?

“The programme does its best to create an atmosphere of cooperation within the lessons, and it works. If you need help, you can just ask the fellow students around you.”

What kind of thesis or graduation projects are possible?

“The field of Software Engineering is very broad, so graduation projects can be done in many different directions. For instance, you can graduate on optimisation problems, e.g. improving distributed computing. Or on missing functionality, e.g. how to share and process data while complying with all laws and contracts. Or even do human research, e.g. on the effectiveness of scrum.”

Was it easy for you to find a job after your master's? How did you end up at this job? 

“Easy to find a job yes. Easy to find a good job, slightly less so. Most of the jobs on offer are programming. With this degree, you learn to look at software at a certain level, which makes just programming no longer interesting. Creating architectures and overseeing projects, that's where it gets interesting in my opinion. Within most companies, only a few people need to look at software at that level. As a result, those jobs are not up for grabs and finding the right company can still be difficult. A recruiter who personally guided me through the process helped me with this. Beware though, a recruiter who pushes you into a job as fast as possible to get paid is not interesting.”

What advice would you give to someone considering this Master’s programme?

“Depending on your prior knowledge, this Master's can be really challenging. Because the programme encourages collaboration, it can also be a very sociable time because everyone is in the same boat. If you don't feel like socialising, don't worry, put on your headphones and keep working. This Master's suits someone who enjoys having an overview of software processes from start to finish.”