Becoming a Marketable Marketer

I am currently a grad student at West Virginia University (WVU), and am studying Integrated Marketing Communications.  If all goes as planned, I will have my masters by May 2011.  What’s so cool about this program is that it’s all online.  I just finished uploading my final assignments for the two classes I took during this session.

Now some people may say that an online degree isn’t as viable as an on-campus degree.  I agree that you do miss some face-to-face interaction, but in the case of the WVU IMC program, I can speak from experience that you do learn from the classes.

As I mentioned, I just uploaded the final projects for the two classes I took this semester.  One of the classes was Emerging Media.  This blog was a semester-long project of that class, and the final project required a written report of the blog, the posts, the comments, the stats, the lessons learned, and the implications of blogging for the IMC practioner.  It was no easy assignment, and I definitely learned a lot about blogging throughout the 9-week session, as well as, social media, podcasts, e-mail, websites, internet ethics and more.  The report ended up being 17 pages long, single-spaced.

The second class I took was Public Relations.  This was the class I was most concerned about.  I hadn’t taken a PR class in my Bachelor’s degree, and was worried that I would be completely lost.  However, I learned more than I could imagine from the other students in the class, from the professor and the work I had to do.  Throughout the semester, we studied a company and worked on a full-length, professional PR plan.  Mine ended up being 33 pages long.  The professor has encouraged us to submit our plans to the company we studied.  I’ll wait to see what the final grade is and the comments made by the professor first.  If I do well enough, I just might take her advice. Who knows?

So, is getting my Master’s going to make me a more marketable marketer?  According to an article on U. Magazine . . . it does help for most industries.  Of course, the Masters give you a great opportunity to get a much better salary.  According to the US Census Bureau, someone with a Masters will earn 24% more money than someone with just a Bachelors degree.  Of course, I think hands-on experience really helps you become more marketable, as well.  The good thing about most Masters programs is that you work your job while you’re working on the degree.  So, you get the best of both worlds.  Even better, a lot of companies will pay for the extra education.  Why?  Because they see the value in it.  If they see the value in it, shouldn’t you?  And don’t put down online degree programs so quickly.  There are good ones out there.  You just need to research the school and their program.  If you want to become a more marketable marketer, check out WVU’s IMC program.  You’ll work hard for your degree, but you’ll be glad you did!!