Fiona Cooke | Women in Digital Scholarship - Student Testimonial
Program Taken:
Digital Marketing Bootcamp
Program Type: Bootcamp
Scholarship Earned:
Women in Digital Scholarship
Key Skills Learned:
Social Media, SEO, Google Ads, Facebook + Instagram Ads, Google Analytics, Public Relations skills & fundamentals
“They treated me right — before I signed up, every one of my email questions were answered quickly by a real human being who seemed invested in me making the right decision. And throughout the course, I always felt like I could reach out for help and get a real empathetic human’s response. ”
A Whole New Life: From Law to Digital Marketing in 6 Weeks
This time last year, if you told me I’d have completed a Digital Marketing bootcamp, I would have looked at you like you were crazy.
That’s because this time last year, I was still desperately searching for an articling position in the field of law. I didn’t want to be in the field of law, but I had done all that work to finish my law degree so…I was stuck, right?
Spoiler alert: nope.
I unstuck myself from that path with the help of Jelly Academy. Let me explain how easy it was to change gears on my entire life.
A lot of people get bogged down by the sunk costs fallacy, which is the idea that once you’ve spent resources (like time, money, or energy) on something, it makes most sense to continue on with that something. It’s a fallacy though, because actually, you won’t get those resources back either way. So you might as well do what you want.
Or at least, that’s my interpretation of it.
So when I looked at where I was in life — 3 degrees deep in law — it felt like I had to stay. But I had to consider on top of that how miserable and anxious I was in that life. I felt like I had no control over my own career.
I stumbled upon the idea of switching to digital marketing one day when a friend of mine, who works in marketing, said to me, “Why don’t you do what I do? I feel like you’d be good at it.”
I immediately shot down the idea, because switching careers at age 33 seemed like too much work. It was too big of a ship to change course. But after doing some quick Googling, I found that there were lots of boot camps out there that help you do just that. And that’s the beauty of digital marketing — you really will learn as much as you want to. There are tonnes of resources out there to teach you what to do, but it just comes down to putting in the effort.
I decided on a boot camp because I know myself: I’ll have all the motivation in the world, but I need someone else to set the schedule for me. I also wanted access to industry professionals to give me the down low on how things actually worked. This is exactly what I found with Jelly.
There are lots of digital marketing boot camps out there, but here are the reasons I chose Jelly Academy:
They treated me right — before I signed up, every one of my email questions were answered quickly by a real human being who seemed invested in me making the right decision. And throughout the course, I always felt like I could reach out for help and get a real empathetic human’s response.
It’s only 6 weeks. They pack a tonne of learning into those six weeks so you can jump start your new career without taking 6 months to a year to be ready.
The topics are broad — they cover 6 subjects that give you an excellent overview of the types of things people do in digital marketing so you can determine where you might want to specialize.
Jelly Academy is indigenous owned and operated, and run by upstarts like myself who are working together to do awesome work.
Finally, I was given the opportunity to complete the 6-week program with the help of Jelly Academy’s Women in Digital Scholarship fund. It’s important to me to be affiliated with an organization that cares about gender equality in tech-related fields.
My 6 weeks were incredibly rewarding. I learned more than I thought I would, and really enjoyed that every session was taught by a different expert with a unique approach to digital marketing.
Having finished the entire program now, I feel confident that I have a good grasp over the digital marketing landscape, and know exactly how to move forward from here. I feel like I’ve got a good team behind me that’s invested in my success. I couldn’t recommend it more strongly to anyone considering a big career switch in their 30s or later — it’s a scary step to take, but with Jelly, you’ve got knowledge and support behind you.
Oh, and you get a box of SWAG, too.
Our team of renowned industry experts leverage their real-world experiences to equip students with the skills for digital mastery. We provide everything necessary for success in digital marketing. Get in touch today!
