Managing financial affairs carefully is essential to a business’s success. From a young age, I knew I wished to become an entrepreneur like my father. But it was only during the course of my degree that I discovered the importance of analysing finances for success. Through hard work, I developed a talent for financial analysis during the course of my degree and that helped cement my decision to study finance and management at Masters-level in order to gain the requisite knowledge to manage my own travel business and handle my own financial affairs. To help fulfil my ambition, I am studying Tourism Management for which I am expected to gain a high 2.1. I have excelled in the Financial Analyses module for which I received a First, which indicates my talent for finance, and in the Academic English Skills module for which I received an exceptionally high First. I worked particularly hard on this module because I know how it important it is in management to be a good communicator if you are to get employees under your supervision to do things correctly and be motivated. This knowledge should stand me in good stead for the management part of the degree.

My determination to succeed despite setbacks has paid off in the degree. I have raised my average grade this year in only a term by 10 percentage points through sheer hard work and patience, which should prepare me well for the challenging courses of the Masters. Before my degree, I completed a Higher Education Certificate in Tourism Management after school, in which I received high marks for the Economics course. At school, to prepare me for the world of business, I took a foundation course in Business for which I received a highly commendable grade, despite the difficulty of adjusting to life in Britain, having only moved to the UK at 17 from my native Kazakhstan.

Outside of the classroom, I have tried to gain the requisite practical experience of the business world through work placements and jobs. Last year, I undertook a work placement at the Royal Oxford Hotel, where I was chief receptionist. I was entrusted with great responsibility: I had to manage all customer queries and complaints, which taught me how to manage highly-pressured situations with equanimity, and to set prices of rooms, which allowed me to apply the financial knowledge I had gained from my studies. My work was so highly valued that the hotel offered me a job after my placement and I work there part-time, work I am able to juggle on top of my full load of academic studies.

The experience further strengthened my knowledge of the tourism industry: I had already been a receptionist at the Marlborough Hotel the summer before my placement. In the role, during my shifts I was effectively responsible for the running of the whole hotel and was charged with, among other things, managing the hotel’s supplies and doing the book-keeping, which gave me accounting knowledge that should come in handy during the Masters.

Outside of work and the classroom, I read financial management and economic books to help prepare me for the degree and my future career. To further my knowledge of tourism, I have also joined the Tourism Society whose conferences I enjoy attending to learn more about the industry I hope to enter and where I meet successful travel entrepreneurs from whom I learn a great deal. I hope to set up or manage the university’s Tourism Society when I begin the Masters.

I should also like to found a Gliding society when I start the course, as I am a keen member of the Oxford Gliding Club, where I spend many weekends helping to organise events.

I am determined to take advantage of every opportunity I receive on the course, as I have had to work hard for everything I have achieved after leaving my native country and following my dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur in the UK. The Masters will give me the skills and knowledge to fulfil my dream.

Hopefully this Finance and Management postgraduate personal statement will be a useful guide to help shape an excellent personal statement of your own.