Career summary

Having grown up and undertaken her Bachelor degree in India, Ifrah Nasser decided to move to Melbourne in 2015 to pursue a Master of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University. In her first year, she moved in to Briggs Hall (on-campus accommodation), where she made many friends and took advantage of the array of support services available to international students.

She notes that the leadership, time management, and people skills she learnt as an avid participant in campus life has given her an edge both in her professional and non-professional life.

Ifrah is currently a Senior Content Writer at Cognizant, an American multinational information technology services and consulting company.

Career pathway

2022 – Senior Content Writer - Digital Content and Communications, Cognizant
2020 – Content Marketing Manager, Recruiterflow
2020 – Content Writer, Headout
2019 – Costumer Consultant, Kmart
2019 – Event Specialist, Sidekicker
2018 – Client Relations Coordinator, Australasian Promotional Products Association
2016 – Resident Advisor, Monash Residential Services
2015 – Digital Media, INKtalks
2013 – Copywriting Intern, MullenLowe Lintas Group
2012 – Reporting Intern, Daily News & Analysis (DNA)

What made you decide to come to Melbourne to study after completing your undergraduate degree in India? 

After I graduated high school, I went on a trip to Melbourne to see family, and I just fell in love. I loved the culture and I just loved how much the city had to offer. We went on a trip and I saw both Clayton and Caulfield. I loved both campuses and wanted to apply for my undergrad there, but my parents thought I was a little too young to be moving overseas.

I took a year off after my undergrad, just to see that Monash was in fact the right decision for me. In my year off, I did some internships, I applied to a couple of universities, but in the end, I still decided that Monash was what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be.

I also chose to study in Australia because it offered graduates a two-year work visa to stay on and work.

Why did you decide to study a Master of Communications and Media Studies at Monash?

In India, it is very important that the university you go to is recognised. So, when you're applying for jobs and when you're speaking to people, you want it to be a university name that they'd know. When I first came back to India, my first employer immediately recognised ‘Monash’, so I think I got my job merely because he knew of the University’s reputation and it’s rankings for teaching excellence. This happened at my second job as well, the person interviewing me said, “Oh, my nephew studies at Monash.” Having Monash on my resume has given it a lot of weight.

I also really liked the way the course was structured. The course allowed me to do a lot of research and write a thesis as well. I did TV, I did script, I did radio, I did creative writing, but I wanted to explore more of the theoretical side of media and communication.

Part of the reason that I chose to study in Australia was also because it offered graduates a two-year work visa to stay on and work after graduation.

What are some of your highlights of studying at Monash?

I lived on campus for the first year and a half of my degree, at Clayton in Briggs Hall and I made so many friends. This was a big change from having lived my entire life in India, to then all of a sudden, having friends from everywhere! I am still very close to a few of these friends, and many more are in my network.

I also had a lot of support systems, so when I struggled with work, or even just how to use university resources, I had friends from around the world that could help me. In the first semester, I had a couple of tutors that were really helpful as well, with everyday things such as sessions to navigate through the library and online resources.

I loved Monash because after my first semester, I became a residential advisor (RA) on campus at Briggs. I put in my application without expecting too much- I was fairly new and I knew that it would come with a whole set of responsibilities, but I was really keen to make the most of my degree. It was a great experience and the college head and all the people working on staff were fantastic.

I joined an Anime club as well as a film club. I also took some dance classes on campus, which was a great stress reliever when assignments were piling up. I also volunteered a lot with the MPA, the Monash Postgraduate Association.

I tried to take advantage of as many experiences and services Monash had to offer during my degree, which meant I not only gained new skills but also made some great friends along the way!

Tell us about your career after graduating

I actually starting working during my degree. I did some freelance work through a staffing agency. And it was through contact that I met there that I got a full time role as client relations coordinator. And then it was through a friend at Monash that I got another job that came up.

After working in Melbourne for one and a half years, I decided to move back to India at the start of 2020, and am now the Content Marketing Manager at Recruiterflow, which is a small software service company with the majority of it’s clients in the USA and UK. It’s not somewhere I saw myself working in the past, being in IT, but it's been a very interesting journey. So our company basically sells software for recruitment firms. As a recruiting based software, we also try to formulate thought pieces, which is where my role comes in. We do a lot of research and we craft articles, resources and eBooks, rather like strategies and tactics, that recruiters can use. I also handle social media, as well as creating a podcast and doing some video editing. And so just everything under the content umbrella comes under my job I also manage a team of freelancers designers and so it's both a managerial role and a very hands-on role in terms of creating content myself.

What do you think is the value of a master’s degree?

With an undergraduate degree, you touch upon the surface and you sort of figure out what you like. But with a master's degree, you understand that this is an area that you really enjoy and you get to explore it further over two years and with experts who’re teaching the content.

As a content writer and creator, the advanced professional writing units I undertook are immensely important to me in my everyday work. I also believe the research skills I learnt during my time comes in really handy in my career. Before my Masters, I wouldn’t have known how to research and critically analyse topics, but this is skills that I gain I have to utlise in my role when creating and publishing thought pieces.

In the past I've had many reservations about leadership roles, even now, as a Content Manager at my age- I've not necessarily been comfortable with it. But because of having done what I had done at Monash I think I'm so much more confident, I'm comfortable dealing with people of different backgrounds, and I’m very quick to adapt.

Written by Journalism student intern Louise Blair-West, 2020