Raf Zaini's Major Side Quest

Being part of the media team means Raf Zaini is almost always on her feet—coordinating, planning, producing, and making sure projects keep moving. Just when you think she had busied herself enough, one year ago, she decided to add another thing to the list: pursuing a Master’s in Management at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Fast forward to today, and we can finally call her Master Raf!

Of course, getting here meant giving up more than a few evenings after work. Over the past year, Raf has had to sacrifice time with her loved ones, reschedule plans with friends, miss out on shoots and projects she genuinely wanted to be part of, and occasionally put her own downtime aside just to keep everything moving. Between being a full-time producer and project manager and a Master’s student, there were days when it genuinely felt like she had to split her brain in two.

For Raf Zaini, a fellow Gen Z graduate, the decision to pursue her Master’s was what she describes as “lowkey impulsive yet planned.” Having already balanced work and study during her degree, she figured: why not challenge herself again? This time, however, she was stepping into Management—a field outside what she was normally used to and testing whether she could handle both at once. And perhaps the most “Raf” part of the whole thing? Her parents only found out about this major side quest after she had already been accepted into the programme.

One year later, the side quest is officially complete. But between the acceptance letter and convocation was a year that taught Raf much more than what was written in her course modules.

Surely, I Can Do It Again

Going into her Master’s, Raf Zaini had one advantage: she had done something like this before. She had already experienced balancing work and study during her degree, so there was a certain confidence that came with knowing she had survived it once.

“I thought I could do it. You know, the thought of, ‘Oh, since I can do it for my degree, I think I can handle it this time.’”

However, reality turned out to be a little different.

A Master’s compressed into one year meant everything moved quickly, and unlike her previous experience, she was now carrying much more responsibility at work too. She wasn't simply clocking in and out of a job before returning to her studies. Productions continued moving, clients needed updates, shoots needed overseeing, and the media team still needed their producer.

“One year is enough of that, and I'm glad it's over.”

She did it, yes. But doing it and doing it easily are two very different things.

Splitting Her Brain in Two

At its busiest, there wasn't much of a boundary between Raf the student and Raf the producer.

Some days looked like 8AM to 5PM at university, followed by 5PM to 9PM at the office. On others, work followed her into the classroom. She might be sitting in class while checking whether a shoot was going smoothly, seeing how the team was doing, or relaying a message from a client before finding her place again and switching back into student mode.

It wasn't ideal, and Raf is the first to admit that dividing her attention sometimes affected her focus at university. But when both sides of your life refuse to pause, you learn how to jump between them.

That was where the phrase “splitting my brain into two” came from. It wasn't simply about having a packed calendar. There was a mental switch happening constantly between two sets of people, responsibilities, deadlines, and expectations.

When university deadlines collided with major work deadlines—and they certainly did—Raf learned that managing everything wasn't about trying to carry it quietly by herself. The team discussed her particularly busy periods beforehand, responsibilities could be planned around them, and people stepped in when she needed support.

By the end of the year, her biggest lessons weren't complicated productivity hacks. They were surprisingly simple: manage your time, communicate with the people around you, and remember to rest.

Simple advice, perhaps. Much harder when everything is happening at once.

When Work Followed Her Into the Classroom

Interestingly, Raf didn't find herself bringing an entirely new set of management theories back to AICREATIVV. If anything, she experienced the opposite.

She's an execution person.

Years of managing projects, coordinating people, communicating with clients, and working within a team meant there were parts of university life that already felt familiar. In particular, the professionalism she had developed at AICREATIVV helped her navigate group assignments and work with different personalities throughout her Master's.

The clearest meeting point between her two worlds came towards the end of her programme, when Raf and her classmates organised Artificial Intelligence in Academia & Office: The Responsible Way Forward as part of their Project Management Principles & Practices module.

Suddenly, the student found herself doing something very familiar.

Raf took charge of the marketing side, working on the event's branding and media assets while applying the same processes she was accustomed to at AICREATIVV. She even brought a little bit of work into university by inviting Imamull Qhaeer to join the panel and represent the creative industry's perspective on AI.

After months of moving between two separate worlds, here was a project where both finally existed in the same room.

And Raf loved it.

“It's fun and I love the busy-ness!”

Of course she did.

What People Didn't See

There is a tendency to talk about working while studying as an achievement in time management.

Wake up early. Make a schedule. Stay disciplined. Get everything done.

But a calendar doesn't show you what had to be removed to make everything fit.

There were shoots Raf wanted to join but couldn't. There was family time she missed, plans with friends that had to be rescheduled more than once, and moments when the little free time she had would inevitably disappear into whichever responsibility needed her most.

There were sacrifices here and there, as Raf puts it.

But perhaps the harder part wasn't even the schedule. It was the feeling that came with it.

“Trying not to disappoint people around you and see you taking Master's as another burden.”

Raf wasn't only trying to succeed academically. She was trying to make sure pursuing something for herself didn't become something everyone else had to carry for her. That pressure made the feeling of splitting herself between two lives even more real.

And yet, she was never actually doing it alone.

Her university friends helped her through the academic side. Her colleagues understood when deadlines collided and stepped in when work needed to move. Her family supported the decision, and through everything, her fiancé remained what Raf simply calls “my rock.”

Perhaps that's another lesson buried somewhere between all the assignments and productions: independence doesn't mean refusing to depend on anyone.

Sometimes getting through something difficult means knowing when to let people help.

• 

  Raf and her masters in management girlies

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Raf and her rock, Judin!

Finally, Master Raf

A year ago, Raf wanted to know whether she could do it.

Now she has her answer.

On convocation day, after a year of university deadlines, productions, group assignments, client messages, missed shoots, rescheduled plans, late days, and a brain permanently switching between student and producer mode, Raf finally got to celebrate the thing she had been working towards all along.

A Master's in Management.

Has it sunk in?

Maybe. Because naturally, her producer brain has already started developing the sequel.

“Do I want to do this again? PhD maybe? Should I rest and focus at work only now?”

One would assume that after spending an entire year talking about how exhausting it was to balance both, rest would be the obvious answer.

But this is Raf Zaini we're talking about.

For now, however, there are no assignments waiting to be submitted and no university deadline competing with the production schedule. There is finally room to appreciate what she has accomplished.

If Raf could go back to the version of herself who had just started this slightly impulsive, slightly planned major side quest, she wouldn't give her a complicated lesson about management or productivity.

She'd simply tell her:

“You'll get through this.”

And she did.

Congratulations, Master Raf. 🎓

In the blazing heat for Master Raf!