Hello hello, and happy Wednesday. Today’s post is all about my background in Digital Marketing, where I studied, and how I found it. I studied the Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing in The Digital Marketing Institute.
A bit of background…
At the time that I decided to explore other options to what I had previously done education-wise, I was about four weeks into a bank job that I had taken because I had nothing else. I realised on day one that it was 100% not for me. The course that I had just completed was Business Information Systems in NUIG, and if I’m being totally honest, I don’t know how I even got through it. I hated the IT side of the course, and really think that electives like Global Marketing were key to bringing my grades up and thankfully helped me to graduate with a decent result. I was totally lost when I finished up in college and started to panic about what my next steps were. You hit the real world like a tonne of bricks when September rocks around and you don’t have the security net of college to fall back on. I worked the whole way through college in The K Club as a waitress, travelling back to Kildare from Galway every weekend. But I felt it was time to move on after I finished in Galway. So I got this temporary bank job anyway to keep busy and make a bit of money. Progression was (and is) really important to me, so I needed to feel like I had taken a step up from my part-time job. I was commuting from Naas into the IFSC and every morning I would sit on the Luas absolutely dreading the day ahead of me. When I look back now, I fully can accept that it was not as bad as I thought it was, but I am never one to settle if I am not fully satisfied with something.
Why did I decided to study Digital Marketing
I kept coming back to the age-old question “What is your passion?” and the phrase, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. I absolutely 100% did not know what my passion was, and definitely wasn’t even sure that I knew what it was that I loved. I felt ridiculous when I thought about the fact that I literally enjoyed spending time on social media all day long. I would always read blogs and be so intrigued about what people were talking about online. This, tied in with the fact that my strongest subjects in college were all marketing based, narrowed down my options because I came to the conclusion that I knew I wanted to work with consumer facing brands, and on the marketing and inevitably digital side of things. I didn’t really know much about digital marketing before this, I guess I had never really thought about it?! For your reference, this was back in 2014 so before the whole blogging and social media storm hit an all time high.
Why did I chose to study in the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI)
I heard a friend briefly mention doing a social media course from the Digital Marketing Institute (they have a lot of course options). A couple of months later when I had come to the above conclusions about what I maybe wanted to do with my life, I did a bit of research into courses available in Dublin. I guess I really didn’t know much about any of the courses or colleges, because I didn’t know anyone who had done them. The DMI really suited me time wise, and that was the main thing initially that brought me to them. The last thing I wanted was to go back to college for a year (it was already October at this point, so I had missed the boat for all of the September start dates anyway). The DMI course that I opted for was the self-taught online Postgraduate Diploma course, which meant that I could do it at my own pace and in my own time. After submitting my application to the DMI, I quickly realised how badly I wanted it, and thankfully they accepted me into the course to begin working on my degree.
The course breakdown
The course is broken into five segments: Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Digital Strategy and Branding, & a General Digital Marketing Module. It consisted of two 5000-word essays, which I was given a number of weeks to complete. All of the lectures were online and pre-recorded, so it was as if you were sitting in a classroom with the lecturer. They also provided slides on every single lecture, which was so helpful.
How my career has progressed, and what I am doing now
I was very lucky to get a role on a Digital Media team in a very well known company before I had completed my diploma. This made it so easy for me to apply everything that I was learning on a daily basis to my work. I really couldn’t have asked for a better situation, although a lot of my evenings were taken up with my coursework. Digital marketing is such a relevant field, especially now. It’s something that applies to every single company no matter what area they are operating in, so I think that securing a role in this area is definitely not as tough as other fields. Since completing my diploma, I have moved to New York City, and am currently the Social Media Manager for an extremely reputable fashion brand here in the city. I guess figuring out that I loved spending time on social media really was so helpful, because it’s what I do all day every day now and I love it so much. I am also getting a huge amount of exposure to different brands that my company owns, which is incredible experience. I’m getting a very wholesome view of how numerous brands that are at different stages in their growth execute their social media and digital strategies and I really mean it when I say that it’s so exciting to be a part of.
Advice for anyone considering studying Digital Marketing
My best advice would be to make sure you have a plan in place for how you are going to complete the course, especially if you are doing it online like I did. It requires a lot of discipline and dedication. Another piece of advice would be to try and gain as much experience as you can either before/while/after doing the course. Even if you have to work for free, I think it is so important to try and actually insert yourself into the digital setting of a company to better understand how things literally work. I based my assignments on a brand that I was closely working with at the time so it just tied everything in together for me, and everything made a lot more sense.
I hope that this helps anyone who is on the fence about studying Digital Marketing further. If you have any questions you can email me at cinnamonsoul1@gmail.com, or else for more detailed questions I would recommend going straight to the Digital Marketing Institute and giving them a call. They are so helpful.
Have a great day,
Niamh xx