Megan Sullivan

Thinking back why Megan chose Economics at Reading, three things stand out for her; the beautiful campus, a degree that was more mathematical in nature and offered the option to study Econometrics, and the open day experience where she found the members of staff easy to talk to and personable.

Megan now teaches introductory economics. This involves teaching tutorials to classes of around 20-30 undergraduate students.

“Tutorials are a fantastic way of applying the knowledge you have learnt in lectures to questions. My knowledge from my undergraduate degree really comes in useful here! It is thanks to my inspirational lecturers at Reading that I have ended up down this path - I aspire to be just like them.”

Develop Valuable Skills

Modules come and go but every now and then something gets said in a lecture that just sticks with you. For Megan, it was the concept of utility maximisation.

“This is what underpins lots of macroeconomic models: consumers (i.e. people like you and me), behave in ways that maximise their utility - you can think of 'utility' as happiness. Every decision I now make, I ask myself: 'am I maximising my utility? If not, I change tact. For example, it is easy to get caught up in what society deems as a 'good job/career'. However, if you're not passionate about what you're doing, work really will feel like work. As a result, I made sure to try lots of different career options to really find what it is that I am passionate about.”

For Megan, the key to happiness was right there, learnt in a macroeconomics lecture of all places!

In her final year Megan learnt to use the R software. This has proved invaluable to her as it turns out knowing a programming language is well sought after these days.Before going down the academic path, she applied for jobs in the actuarial profession.

“I was very successful in the application process because I had knowledge of a computer programming language. It also comes in useful when I am sorting out data for my research.”

First in the family

Megan enjoyed interacting with members of staff whilst getting both academic and life advice. As a terrified first generation student this was something she really needed and will forever be grateful for.

“As my parents (and siblings) did not attend university, they not only found it difficult to relate to me but could not answer any of my university related questions. I vividly remember feeling chucked in the deep end when I turned up to university and everyone was talking about where members of their family went to study. I could not join in on the conversation and was too embarrassed to admit that I did not even know how the grading classification worked. I just wanted to run straight back home. However, I then found lecturers that I felt comfortable speaking to, got answers to my questions, and was able to fully assimilate to university life!”