If you were thinking about going to college for a marketing degree, STOP!
You may be wondering why I would suggest such a thing. You might be saying, college is a great place to study the art of marketing. You may even think that this is the only way to have a successful career in the field. Well let me tell you, it’s not.
The Truth About College
20 years ago, I would probably have a different opinion. However, with modern technology and the limitless possibilities of the internet there are now infinite paths for people to take. And college is still one of the main routes that people decide to take.
Most choose this path because it has been the traditional route for decades, and it usually yields the most reliable results. College has also engrained itself in our minds as a necessary milestone that everyone should go through in order to grow as a person.
That bit is only half true. It is true, you will grow a great amount if you attend college and the likelihood of you having a successful career in anything you desire will increase. College is great for social skills, living on your own, and managing a workload that can be overwhelming at times. Which are all useful skills that everyone could benefit from
But most forget to see it for what it truly is. It is a single option, not a necessity. There are a bunch of extremely successful people that never stepped foot on a college campus or they did and then dropped out.
That’s the scary part for a lot of people. It is taking that leap of faith and deciding to trust in your decision making rather than leaving it up to an institution that has been around longer than you’ve been alive. Which is why there is a ridiculous amount of people that go to college and they don’t even want to be there.
They made the mistake of choosing the safe option. So how does this relate to marketing?
Why You Don’t Need A Degree
For many careers that require hard skills, college is legitimately the only answer for people. Engineering, architecture, and law are good examples of fields that require hard knowledge that is required to succeed in their line of work.
The mistake that people make is thinking that everything that is taught at college is a hard skill that can only be gained there. Filmmaking, art, and marketing are prime examples of college majors that you could succeed at without going into debt. These fields have a plethora of knowledge at our disposal that we can learn for a fraction of the price.
Marketing is something you can practice on your own and build up a portfolio. People cannot deny results. It is one thing to show a company or a client a certificate that says you learned all of the necessary tools to market a product. It is another to show them how you used your knowledge to create a successful marketing campaign that generated actual results for a customer.
Colleges are hyper-focused on teaching you how to do the skill instead of actually letting you practice the skill. The argument here is that instead of spending four years of your life learning a skill you would be much better off spending four years practicing it and putting yourself out there.
It is impossible to consistently work at a skill everyday and not get better. Most people lack the discipline to learn a new skill and that’s why they go to college for structure and guidance that they could set up for themselves if they applied themselves a bit more.
Conclusion and Tips
Marketing is a really flexible field of work to get into. It is very easy to find resources outside of a classroom that could advance your career just as much. So before you decide to commit to a four year institution that will rack up thousands in debt I suggest you do this instead.
Perform a quick google search about marketing and its many different career paths. Find three that interest you the most and look up the top online courses for them. If they are reasonably priced for the value they offer ($100-$300) then take them and learn.
The most important part of all of this is applying this knowledge into a project of your own and see what results you can get all by yourself. At this point, if you are having a great time working on this project and you are dreading the idea of four years of exams and homework then you should skip college and follow your own ambition. The small improvements to your craft over the span of four years or even one year will be monumental. Make an impact with your results and employers won’t think twice about that missing diploma.
Do you think that a marketing degree is necessary to succeed in this industry? Explain.