When I got my bachelor's degree from a Brazilian University, I knew that in order to build up the career I would like to pursue, I had to continue studying to gain a better understanding of certain subjects. As a young professional, I also felt the need to further develop my skills to be able to compete anywhere in the world and fight for my place in the labor market by my own merit. After researching several options, I chose the MSc in Management of Services and Technology for mainly 3 reasons: 1. It has a great curriculum; 2. It is offered by a prestigious institution - the ISCTE Business School (ISCTE-IUL) - with a very diverse student's body; 3. It is located in Lisbon - a safe and beautiful city with great food and relatively affordable living costs. After being accepted, I had to relocate from Bissau to Lisbon in order to attend classes despite, as an entrepreneur since the age of 16, which meant postponing my business endeavors. The course was challenging, interesting and demanding, but today I can honestly tell you it was worth it. Why? Because the MMST helped me achieve the goal of becoming a more competitive and versatile professional. For example, I had the opportunity to learn from excellent lecturers, develop soft skills and collaborate with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds. In fact, I found in ISCTE students of Exchange programmes from all over the world. Among many other interesting experiences, I also had the opportunity to attend a Summer School in China and visit companies that apply the concepts we learned in the classroom. Moreover, as a Business Analyst and a Consultant, I often participate in the design and implementation of IT solutions for several industries and have the chance to apply knowledge gained through almost every subject of the course, especially Customer Relationship Management, Information Systems, and Innovation Management. If you're considering a master's degree program and have an interest in subjects such as Management of Business Processes, Operations, and Innovation, make sure you consider the MMST, for it may prove the be the best choice for you too.

After the end of the first semester, I can 100% say that I am really glad to have chosen ISCTE and this Master, i.e. the MSc in Management of Services and Technology (MMST). As part of our Master's degree in Management of Services and Technology at the ISCTE University, we were given the special opportunity to participate in a collaborative assignment between the subjects of Operations Management and Simulation of Systems and Operations. This combination proved that the courses in the programme are related to each other and together they create a coherent and integrated contribution to the MMST Learning Goals. Nowadays, it is more and more important not only to learn theory but also the practical application. Due to the innovative idea of combining these two courses, we not only learned the basics of Operations Management but also had the opportunity to apply them in practice. Thus, at the end of the semester, we were able to apply our acquired knowledge directly to the practice by simulating various Operations Management cases with SIMUL8. This again showed us how important it is to work with the newest technologies and helped us to better process our learned theory. I am grateful for this unique opportunity.