​Transcript: Darragh’s experience with Grad Coach

My name is Darragh and I completed a degree in psychotherapy and counselling with Middlesex University. And I’m now actually in my master’s program in cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma at Queen’s University in Belfast.

Before I joined Grad Coach last year, we on the course had an experiment. We were the first year doing a research dissertation. So there was no past papers to look at. There was no way of calibrating where you needed to be. And the information from our college was very scant. I’m a very detailed person, so I really wanted to get some detail in how to approach it. And we had very little support from our college.

Having these challenges, especially around when there was very little structure around our dissertation or what they were looking for, it felt completely overwhelming. For a month maybe before I reached out to Grad Coach, I found that I was kind of treading water. I was trying to do lots and lots of things. And I didn’t know what was relevant, what wasn’t relevant. I don’t know about anyone else, but I love structure. I’m working to a structure, I can work really effectively. So I reached out to Grad Coach, and we worked on what they were actually looking for. And we developed a plan that I was able to work to, and just to actually know what they wanted and what they required, and to actually understand the marking scheme. And I found it extremely helpful. I actually got a first in my dissertation afterwards, which was brilliant.

So my coach and I sat down over a Zoom call. We went through what I was looking for. We went through the marking scheme, etc. And we got a plan. And instantly, for me, it felt better because I had a plan. I kind of knew incrementally where I was going, what actually needed to be done — a systematic breakdown of all of the tasks that needed to be done. I found that really helpful because I was working towards a process rather than trying to wonder where should I be sending my efforts. Is this right? Is this wrong?

I decided to join Grad Coach because I had a look through their website. I had a look at a few other people in the area, but I thought Grad Coach was extremely professional. And my coach reached out to me very quickly and we did a discovery call. He really put my mind at ease because I felt so overwhelmed, and he was able to initially even give me a structure. And even time-wise, I was feeling overwhelmed with time. I found him very professional, and I found it extremely easy as well on the booking system when I needed to book a session. Maybe I was confused about certain aspects of my dissertation, and I could just go online and top up your account and book a call. One piece of advice I would always give to people is just have an idea or a couple of questions in mind before you approach your sessions, because that ensures that you get the most out of your learning experience.

Working with Grad Coach was invaluable to me because I actually realized I’d wasted a lot of energy and put a lot of work into areas that weren’t relevant. Grad Coach got me on track to actually work with what was relevant, and to just get a system to work towards, to really get down to the nitty gritty, the nuts and bolts of what actually needed to be done. Even in my academic writing, just getting the little nuances that would really push up your mark — that was something that I found really good. Maybe I’d go away, do a week’s work, then come and do a review of the work to see where I was, to see that I was on track and getting to where I needed to get, and get the ultimate goal of getting the dissertation completed.

My favorite thing about working with Grad Coach was the support. It was a non-judgmental service and I felt that no question was a silly question. I could come and just say, I’ve really messed this up. Have I got this completely wrong? And I didn’t feel a fear that I was going to be judged. And I had a great working relationship with my coach. I found him very supportive and you weren’t embarrassed to ask about something.

So I wish I had signed up earlier with Grad Coach because I ran a 2:1 average on my course. But when I started working with Grad Coach, I started getting firsts in my submissions. And the reason being that it was great to point out the nuances of maybe the things that I was doing incorrectly in my academic writing, which I always struggled around because I was always working very hard. The feedback I was getting, I was getting a high 2:1, but it helped me to push into that first. And it was just breaking down academic writing and really breaking it down and doing worked examples of where I could achieve more marks. That was one of the reasons I wish I had signed up earlier.

I’d recommend anyone to go to Grad Coach because if you’re working hard and you’re feeling you’re not getting the results you should, and you’re not being strategic with your time and energy — and academic courses are difficult, so you need to be really strategic. One of the things I found about Grad Coach was I was focusing my energy on the wrong things. We can waste an awful lot of time doing the wrong things, and actually just to have someone to point stuff out to you… It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do the work. You definitely have to do the work, but just someone to guide you and show you what to do. And personally, I like working through a process and structure, and that’s what Grad Coach provided for me.