Maja lives just a short distance from the Hyper Island Stockholm campus. Originally from Uppsala, she moved to Stockholm to study for her bachelor’s degree in Advertising and PR.
“I applied for two different courses: Advertising and PR was one of them, and Spanish was the other. Luckily, I got into the first course, and I just loved it,” she says.
During her bachelor’s, she explored psychology and digital environments – a turning point that sparked her fascination with social media’s impact on society and communication. “Social media was like sorcery to both the academic world and companies back then. I was super intrigued by its impact,” she recalls.
Her thesis explored how non-profit organisations could use social media to create positive change, using the Swedish NGO Equalisters as a case study. After graduation, the organisation hired her as their community manager.
That experience marked her entry into the world of digital communication and PR, where she found her passion for shaping public opinion and contributing to meaningful societal change.
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A Lifelong Learning Journey
After working at a PR agency with diverse clients and projects, Maja began considering additional education focused on digital strategy. When she asked around, one name kept coming up: Hyper Island.
She started with a Digital Strategy short course in Stockholm. “It wasn’t at all what I had expected, but it was the coolest experience ever,” she says. “I loved the new mindset and learned to look at digital from a whole new perspective. Digital is so much more than instrumental.”
From that day forward, Maja knew she wanted to return. Two years later, she applied for the part-time Master’s in Digital Management, a program that allowed her to grow academically without stepping away from her career.
Digital Is About People
“At Hyper Island, there’s a lot of emphasis on building strong teams and creating solid group culture,” she explains. “That surprised me during the short course because I thought it would be less about people and more about tech. Now I know that digital is all about people.”
Through group work and real-world projects, Maja learned how collaboration and human-centred design drive digital transformation. She says, “I wanted to take the helicopter perspective, to really understand what business transformation means, what trends matter, and how they impact my work and my clients.”
Integrating Studies and Work
Maja’s Hyper Island learnings quickly found their way into her daily work at the PR agency Westander. “I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a strategic advisor,” she says. “I’ve also developed my leadership skills a great deal. Self-leadership is something you really perfect at Hyper Island.”
She started introducing reflective practices and collaborative tools with her team. “My co-workers now check in and reflect,” she explains. “I use canvases and facilitation tools to improve communication. Our motto is ‘change, renew, and improve.’ Hyper Island gave me everything I needed to bring that mindset into my workplace.”
Maja works full-time and studies part-time, a balance she’s mastered by making the two worlds feed each other. “Everything I learn I apply to my work, so that I and my team develop. Everyone gets a slightly improved version of me after every content block,” she says.
Learning by Doing and Growing as a Leader
Maja values not just what she learns, but how she learns it. “Other master’s programs didn’t allow me to work and apply my learnings in real time like this one does,” she says. “It’s not just any master’s, it’s an experience that makes you grow as a person.”
Her time at Hyper Island has also shaped how she views leadership. “My view of what a leader is has changed,” she explains. “I try to make myself as redundant as possible when leading a team. There are still only a few leaders who look at leadership that way.”
The Age of Empathy
For Maja, the most powerful lesson is simple: digital is about empathy. “Digital technology is nothing if it doesn’t do anything for the individual,” she says. “You need empathy, and everything needs to be user-centric. I like to think that the Digital Age is the Age of Empathy.”
Looking ahead, she dreams of combining communication, people, and digital strategy, perhaps even as a Culture Designer. “I want to stand more in front of people, motivating them,” she says. “I dream of a world where digital isn’t a separate word anymore because it’s so integrated into everything we do.”
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