Writing your bachelor thesis is one of those things you dread the most. I most certainly did. For many, like me, it’s the first time you have to produce a lengthy text, with accurate citations, plenty of literature, good structure, and word flow. It was by no means fun, more so tough. But it payed off  in the end – I ended up landing my dream job because of it. These were my biggest learnings and f*ck ups:

you can read the entire bachelor thesis and all about the topic of contraception here 

• Biggest f*ck up -> timing: honestly I can not believe how long it took me to complete this thesis almost 6 months. Was I writing all the time? Absolutely not…I put it on the long finger, until I started working full time which was exhausting going from one screen to another and procrastinated a little more. Honestly, it can be done in a month, many of my friends have. Do it like them….they’re smart. I really wish i did – the guilt hanging over your shoulder is awful. If your supervisor doesn’t give you a deadline, set one yourself (that wasn’t enough for me) so book a holiday or something that’ll make you do it beforehand.

• Don’t be afraid to approach a company; I wrote my thesis in conjunction with the startup Natural Cycles. Don’t be afraid to approach a company – mine were happy to give any information needed and were really interested in working together.

• Set your structure in the beginning; I did this part (fairly) right – get your structure down, it’ll give you a goal keep you on point and focused. Although you can change it along the way if need be, I definitely did but it’s a vital guideline to keep you on track.

• Pick a topic you’re actually interested in; not only does it keep you motivated, when someone asks you what you’re writing about, you’re actually keen to start a conversation about it. You become a somewhat expert on the topic you’re writing about, so use this opportunity to extend your knowledge about something you actually want to learn. Heck, it’s not like we have a lot of choice on what we want to learn the next couple of months at uni otherwise.

• It’s never EVER ever going to be perfect – a week before I handed in my thesis I went to my Professor, although very helpful, the feedback was endless and I simply didn’t have enough time to work it all in. I did my best, and I could have worked another month on it but decided to hand it in. It’s never going to be perfect, there’s always going to be something you can change. But living by the 80/20 rule (the last 20% of a project takes as much effort as the first 80% – and you need to weigh up it’s worth) I decided that this is enough. And it was, I ended up getting an ‘A’ anyway – imagine if I had worked on it another month, I think I would have just made matters worse.

• Don’t leave too many people go over your work; if you have more than one person checking over your work, it’ll become inconsistent and worst of all -> not your own.

• Top learning* -> make the most of it; I honestly struggled quite a lot with my thesis regarding motivation and getting things done but I’m so glad I ended up choosing both a topic and a company I like. Writing a thesis is an opportunity to explore a topic you’re keen on and if you have an eye on a company you want to work for – you bet that this would be great way to make a good impression. I’ve been in contact with the Natural Cycles founder, knowing that your work actually has relevance to the real world and a real company is a lot more motivating than hypothetical analysis and dry theoretical frameworks. Now, I’m proud to be able to say that I’m working for the company.

• Intro and conclusion can make or break your thesis. The first and last paragraphs need to convince, it’s what stays in the reader’s mind.

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Writing your thesis? I hope this post and my thesis helps 😉

Already done? What did you learn or f*ck up? let me know in the comments below.

P.S. you can use the code ‚ambolivia2nc‘ if you’re interested in Natural Cycles, you get 50% off the yearly deal which includes a thermometer.