Your marketing degree is useless. Here’s why...

Your marketing degree is useless.
Here’s why…

We’ve been educating entrepreneurs since 2012, meaning that we’ve employed and appointed many people for our projects, programmes and general operations in all this time.

Marketing qualifications, especially online marketing degrees, certificates and short courses, have become cash cows for capitalists in the private education sector. As an employer and seasoned training facilitator, we’re sharing our perspective with you in this article so you can understand how to approach the investment that is your tertiary education, especially if you want a career in marketing.

Experience counts more than qualifications

With Google able to play the role of dictionary, thesaurus, librarian, research assistant and so much more, the time you spend just learning terminology in the academic journey can be considered a waste.

The truth is that you’ll find a few key terms repeated, usually acronyms, and you can pick those up on the fly. It’s the ability to solve problems effectively, efficiently and with a sense of ownership that employers really want to hire, but how do you show this?

You go out looking to solve some problems. You move TOWARD the problems and you don’t complain about them.

Where can you gain experience?

On our YouTube channel is a video about volunteering with NPOs.

It’s a great way to explore different sectors and industries as there are NPOs of all kinds that need help connecting with the professional community and business owners/leaders who can adopt their respective causes.

If you don’t know where to start or how to choose the right NPO for you, reach out to our team and we’ll screen you for any available opportunities with charity organisations in our client base.

Don’t quote your textbooks when speaking to your managers

Unless you’re going to link a case study for a practical reason, please don’t try to show off your knowledge by regurgitating what’s in your textbooks. There’s a good chance that the people in your team at work have read the same books and have already considered the models and frameworks therein.

The business of marketing education

It’s sad but true: most private colleges are offering marketing qualifications as a revenue stream, more than as a way to make a positive contribution to the future economy of our nation. You have to discern between actual education and the mirage of education.

How do you know which marketing course to choose?

Here are some suggestions from the mentors and facilitators in our team:

Research the institution

Look at the entry and graduation requirements, the faculty leadership and their credentials (especially whether they’ve worked in the field or not). LinkedIn is such a powerful tool that’s freely available to you, and can help you connect with school alumni so that you can ask questions or assess the average calibre of achievement, and even see if your dream employer hires candidates who graduated at the institution you’re considering.
Ask active professionals

If you have a role model or mentor, or you follow leaders in your industry, ask them if they’ve done any courses that served them well in their career. If you have a budget, be clear about it because you might need to wait a year or two more before you can do the right course, instead of doing what’s within reach but simultaneously useless to your journey. Read course and institution reviews from people working in roles you’d like to land one day.
Ask alumni

If you know someone or find a graduate on LinkedIn who displays a specific course on their profile, try to set up a 30min Q&A. Go in prepared and genuinely think about good questions to which the answers don’t already exist on the institution’s website.
Speak to a student advisor

Although student advisors are sometimes guilty of behaving like glorified sales agents, if you ask the right questions, you’ll get a wealth of insight in return. Know your goals and ambitions well enough, even if you’re looking to explore your own horizons. A good student advisor will not push you into a course if you’re not genuinely ready for it.

Can you still get a marketing job without a degree?

Yes. We can’t speak for too many businesses outside of our network but our own recruitment process allows you to build up a successful marketing career even if you don’t have a degree in this field.

We prefer to understand you as a ‘whole’ human being — we want to know your origin story and what you’d like to achieve over either the next few months or in your lifetime, so that we can genuinely find a good fit for you. If we can’t, we’ll refer you elsewhere if possible, since our fractional agency is constantly ebbing and flowing with a wide range of opportunities.

Should you rather skip your degree altogether?

Absolutely not. What we’re getting at in this article is that you need to make wise decisions that align to your ultimate goals, and not be afraid of taking time to gather the information or criticise your options before committing to one of them.

Getting a degree is not a golden ticket for a great career path, and because it costs a lot of money it can be useful to volunteer and use a sandbox mode before making the investment. In our experience, there are a wide range of options that add value to your journey as a marketer, but none of them come close to what a good attitude toward learning can do for you in the workplace.

Do you need a degree to qualify for a marketing internship?

Not necessarily. In some cases, where there is a subsidy or government funding involved to create internship opportunities, it might be stipulated that a relevant degree is required. It’s a marker of responsibility when taxpayer funds are involved.

If your heart is set on learning about marketing and building a career in this field, you are always welcome to contact us and enquire about vacancies and internships. Remember that we are a fractional agency so we don’t often release permanent full time positions but we do have clients who occasionally need to expand their teams, and we’re here to help you find your way as best we can.

Learn more about Marketing Education options to build the career you really want.