Help Me Become The Best Marketer I Can Be!

[Matthew Gadd]

Hello everyone! My names Matt and I have just completed a Marketing Management Degree graduating with a 2:1 honours, and I have been accepted onto a MSc Digital Marketing Management Masters Degree in Cardiff. Unfortunately, they have dramatically hiked up the tuition fees to 9,000 for the year when the only available student funding is 10,500, meaning that I would not even be able to pay half of my rent over the year, let alone food, bills, and travel costs. In a normal scenario I would work alongside my course which I did for the first 3 years of study doing 50 hours a week of night shifts in a chip shop, but unfortunately this led to a serious downfall in my mental health and I developed severe anxiety and depression issues last summer. This means i unfortunately on doctors advice cannot work alongside studying a degree.

I am not one to ask for much if anything from anyone, but to chase my dream and fulfill my passion, I am prepared to try anything I can to obtain some of the funding I need. The university has suggested I start a GoFundMe page and share it across forums on the internet, as well as with friends and family, to see if there would be anyone willing to help out my cause. There would be a link to this below but as a new user the forum will not allow me too , please inbox me a message if you think you could do anything to help and I can send you my link. Thank you for taking your time to read this, its really appreciated.



Many Thanks

Matt.

 

[ethical PR]

Well done for getting this far Matt. Many students unfortunately can't afford to do a post graduate qualification. Not many students would work a 50 hour week for three years alongside full time study. Heck most people don't even do that as a full time job - standard hours are 37.50.

If you want to do this particular qualification you may need to work for a year or two to save up for your residential costs while doing the post graduate qualification.

Or why not apply for one of the graduate schemes available at digital and marketing agencies or in-house where you will receive training, experience and an income.

This sounds a better option for you in your circumstances.

 

[fisicx]

Matt,

Take time out from your studies, use your marketing skills to earn some money then go back to university to complete your post grad.

You don’t actually tell what your dreams and passions are.

 

[james_firmsites]

Good luck with your course, not to be disparaging in any way but to offer you my opinion:

1. To rack up £10k of debt to learn adwords and writing marketing plans is in my view crazy expensive. There are far cheaper resources to learn online (granted you don't set a masters from them
2. Master's degrees are useful for 2 things, as a pathway to something else (such as company sponsored, you want to teach, want to do a PHD etc) or as a networking/standards tool in industries that are heavily reliant on those metrics which digital marketing is neither (I have not personally encountered a single professional digital marketer who even has a BA in marketing let alone an MA) but granted I work with SME's so maybe if you want to go the corporate route this is not the case
3. As a small employer I would not only be unimpressed by a candidate with an MA in marketing, but it would actively put me off. Digital marketing is a very rapidly changing industry, the key requirement is someone who can self teach and hence able to keep up with the dynamic world that is the internet. If someone needs an MA in marketing I would question if that person is going to require additional periodic training to keep up.

So not trying to rain on your idea, but I would honestly advise you to really consider if an MA in Digital Marketing is the best use of your time and money, as others suggested getting a job might be a far more productive use of your energy and give you better peace of mind than always struggling to afford a qualification that may not increase your employment prospects as much as the universities claim.

Finally, consider part time. They offer it for that course, my wife is doing her MA part time right now and yes it's damn hard work juggling the two but that is again the reality some people have to deal with. The difference between the loan and the course fee is not because they have hiked the fees, it's because those loans are for fees only and minimum material costs, they were adjusted to reflect the new fee levels. They are not intended to provide living expense aid like undergrad degree support, master's is always self funded unless you are on a specific scholarship.

Best of luck to you, do remember to post back what you end up doing as people here might know of work opportunities.

 

[StevePoster]

Its really important to have a fund for completing your post grad and this will take time.
I would recommend to set aside your studies for a mean time and focus on your skills to earn from it while preparing for your masters degree.

 

[Chris Willman]

Matt,

Good on you for wanting to push for more and further your learning but i'd also agree with a number of the comments on here. I completely my own marketing degree nearly 15 years ago and went from there to work in a number of roles across various marketing disciplines.... quite honestly i didn't truly learn how to be a great marketer until i got out and did it. There's massive amounts of FREE resources available out there now that you can take advantage of without the need to rack up a bunch of debt. If you take some time to explore this, you'll be surprised by how awesome some of it it and how much you can learn - even options like Udemy courses can add huge value with much, much lower costs. My advice to you is go out and use the degree you've got, get stuck into the delivery of marketing and keep learning along the way - a masters can still be a goal to work towards but once you're working there's a bunch of options to benefit from.
(For what it's worth - and not everyone will agree - but if you can round out your marketing skills beyond 1 subject area, you'll be able to offer some significant value and it'll open your opportunities further.)
Chris

 

[Matt1966]

I know it's maybe frowned upon a tad, but have you considered Arden University or OU?
Their Masters stuff is cheaper.

If not, not to worry. The amount you'll learn and earn in the real world will allow you to go back and do it. And hey, you might not even want to go back if you do well!

 

[Nochexman]

The university has suggested I start a GoFundMe page and share it across forums on the internet, as well as with friends and family, to see if there would be anyone willing to help out my cause. There would be a link to this below but as a new user the forum will not allow me too , please inbox me a message if you think you could do anything to help and I can send you my link.

You may be able to insert a link on your profile page.

What are you trying to achieve by the way? Practical experience might outweigh academic at this stage in many peoples' careers.