Education Indictment
I am pulling the last remaining functional hairs from my head.
Over the past two weeks we have been interviewing candidates for a summer internship. We deliberately are seeking a college junior or senior who's getting a degree in marketing, journalism or communications. There have been amazingly bright and talented folks coming through our doors, and it has been a joy to know that an eager new class is heading our way.
One problem. Apparently the local colleges and universities aren't teaching marketing anymore.
Sure, there are classes. There are books(!). There are professors. Everything appears to be a class, but what they're teaching isn't marketing, rather a relic of time gone by. To a person, no student who entered our offices arrived in the business world of marketing having completed a thorough study of digital or internet marketing. In four years of education, these talented students tell us that there's been a section on the Internet and its affect on the world of communications. A section. As in one.
Let me put this in context. Imagine you're an accounting firm, and you're hiring for an entry level position. What if each college graduate indicated that they'd love the position, but, sorry, "They didn't teach us that accountants use software rather than a pencil and ledger."
Or, wait. I've got another one! What if you were a newspaper, and you were hiring a beat reporter. You get a great pool of candidates all eager to break that story. Oh, one problem. "They didn't teach us how to write or read in college."
You see where I'm going with this? Granted, I'm making a few funnies in this post, but there's nothing funny about it. In fact, I'm angry. Ten years ago when I was hiring new folks, I understood that I was most likely going to need to train new hires in the world of digital. Five years ago, it was mildly irritating. In 2010 to have any student exit with their college degree, burdened with student loans and having benefited from taxpayer-assisted education, then enter the workforce utterly self-taught in how the actual world works is a disgrace.
We hired someone. And I asked her, "Why is this happening?" The answer: the professors don't understand digital.
So, if this is true, we in the marketing world have trouble. Big trouble. Think of it. As consumers of media, we -- you and I -- spend half of our time with media online. Half! I'm no math major, but if half our time with media is spent online then it would seem to me that -- let's see if I can do this -- HALF the coursework that any marketing major consumes should be digital in nature. (Am I just being a stupid poli-sci major in asking for this?)
Here's another one. There are no in-depth courses on marketing measurement or analytics.
If you're in education, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE refute this post. If you're in higher education and can set us straight, then comment to this post. Forward it to all your faculty peers and let's chat. If, on the other hand, what the students are telling us is true, then this needs to change. Now. And if change is what educators fear the most, then administrators need to rely heavily upon adjunct faculty who are in the field, banging our heads against the wall, breaking through this minefield everyday.
If these students are right in their indictment of their college programs, then we have a very tragic problem: colleges and universities are sending their students into the world unprepared to succeed. And that's sad.
--
Andrew Eklund :: Founder & CEO
Ciceron :: Digital Marketing
www.ciceron.com
612.230.3901 :: LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreweklund
Twitter: @aeklund
Posted 11/01/2010 - 8:47am
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Comments
Keeping up with the Kardashi....technology
I agree that colleges need to adjust their teaching methods and course materials to reflect the current marketing / advertising standards practiced in agencies and companies. I believe some of this may have to do with a lack of understanding by the professors, a lack of strategy by the institutions, and the fact that textbooks (which can take up to a year to produce) rarely mention digital media.
As I'm reading the responses to this post, it seems that some colleges are making the changes and offering relevant programs and some aren't. By making the choice to attend the colleges that provide what we need from our education, we as consumers / prospective students can influence change. When we demand and only choose what we need from a company (college or otherwise), we force the company's not obligating our request to change. Our choices make them change. Buyer Behavior 101
Digital education
I have a P&A faculty position at the University of Minnesota in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I teach advertising creative strategy/creative development and portfolio development.
Social media has changed the way we receive messages. This debate should not be about teaching Facebook and Foursquare, it should be about teaching consumer understanding.
The consumer is no longer part of an audience, he is a participant. The advertiser no longer penetrates a medium, he collaborates with that outlet. In the end, digital talent will win, but only if he understands how to build a conversation, not just a social media profile.
Every semester,one of the projects I ask my students to work on is the Cannes Future Lions competition. They must choose a global brand and create a strategy and advertising idea for that brand utilizing a digital technology that wasn't available five years ago. If the strategy is flawed and they can't think of an interesting idea, the digital dog and pony show doesn't matter. Teaching execution is a waste of time for my students, but teaching them to be curious, never satisfied and courageous is exactly what will keep them digitally engaged and driven to succeed.
Great Post!
Points of clarification
Joshua, very thoughtful comment. Thank you. A couple points need to be clarified.
First, my post was not just about knowledge or instruction of social media, but digital marketing and the Internet's affect on the entire practice of marketing and advertising. The feedback we're hearing from students is clear: there is almost NO teaching of the Internet. I find this unacceptable on every level. And I believe the students (and many professors who have reached out to me since I wrote this piece last week) when they say the problem is simple: university professors have not kept up to date on the world of marketing and are therefore unqualified to teach the courses.
Let us also remember as well that there's a massive number of marketing leaders in the business world who are equally inarticulate about how the Internet is affecting their own brands, and I will make the same argument that many CEOs need to wonder if their CMOs, for example, are qualified for their jobs.
Finally, I agree with you that a keen sense of curiosity is requires to thrive in this field, especially as a student. But if that's what's mostly required, then I would argue that student should keep their money (and out of student loan debt) and simply get into the world and start working. Then again, I'm a huge fan of the liberal arts approach to higher ed, so my recommendation always is to get a liberal arts degree rather than a marketing degree because the liberal arts, IMHO, instructs students how to think not what to think.
Thanks again for your comments!
Andrew
Great post
Andrew - Great post - sad to see no responses from the teachers and professors .... is it because this discussion is taking place online? Perhaps you should have made this a TV spot or a direct mail piece ....
I fear...
...you may be right.
Another struggling professional
I am so very glad to see you speaking out about this issue! I have been on the opposite side of that interview table numerous times and it's not fun for me either. I graduated with a degree in PR and advertising from the U of M in 2005 and there wasn't so much as a whisper about social media and/or digital marketing strategy in any of the classes I took during my college career. "Online" was just a small piece of the curiculum and was usually covered in an hour or so. Let me tell you, I am very aware of what they did not teach me at the U and I struggle to compensate for it now that I'm out in the real world.
Since graduating I, much like Brad, have taught myself about SEO, digital marketing measurement, social media engagement and the likes through reading industry blogs and books, attending local events like CATFOA, volunteering where I can and networking with those in town who are paid to do that work. My burning question to all of them is: "What can I do to start getting paid to do this work?" Their answers vary, but I'm never very inspired: "Keep volunteering," and, "Keep networking," and, "You're on the right track," and the kicker, "Maybe go back to school." Really? I mean, this is not brain surgery. I know how to do this stuff. Beyond that, I love doing it! Why do I need to show you another diploma in order for you to beleive me?
In my opinion, the enormous disconnect between universities and the industry comes from the professors and school administrators being just that - professors and administrators. They are not in the everyday knitty-gritty of life in an agency where they see the real power of digital communications and social media. They are not under the pressure of delivering the measured and trackable results they promised their clients on a daily basis. That is where you, the seasoned industry professionals, come in! I think every university and college offering a degree in any sort of professional communications needs to have adjunct faculty and regular guest lecturers who actually work in the industry and can speak to the sorts of things that students simply are not learning - SEO, measurement, content management, website maintenance, social media outreach, etc. Show them case study after case study becuase nothing ever happens the same way twice in this biz. Have them set up a site they can promote using social outreach tactics. Teach them how to create a webpage optimized for search, covering content and basic programming. Show them how to set up a Google Analytics account and make them track who's visiting their site. This is the sort of stuff that I had to learn on the fly. It would have beeen much better to know it on graduation day.
Another issue here is that the rise of digital media is forcing the world of marketing and advertising to merge with the world of information technology in a new way. We've got to know (at least) a little bit about both sides of the coin. A college sophomore who's decided she wants to work in digital advertising most likely not think to look into IT-focused majors. But she should.
There is a program at the U of M, Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication (a real mouthful), that includes a study of information architecture and digital communication. I think there is great potential in a sort of mash-up of that program and the J School's professional strategic communications program. The problem with that one - nobody seems to know about the Tech. Comm. degree! As an alum, I think the school does a horrible job of telling potential students about their programs. But, we'll save that for another blog post.
Thank you...
...for your thoughtful and detailed reply. I hope it becomes inspiration to those who oversee and determine direction for leaders of educational marketing.
Become a Resource
I feel those in favor of reaching out to schools with feedback or offering to teach courses are giving good advice. I'll take it one step further.
Having worked for professional sports teams all my life, I can tell you that similarly we have a wealth of "educated" individuals enter our workforce each year. Unfortunately, many do not have applicable sales experience. For many of the reasons in Andrew's post, our president has become a boardmember at a state university. He now advises the head of their sports management program on how to develop curriculum suited to churning out quality sales people with the potential to develop into management positions.
The resulting successful graduates will provide long-term benefits for the program at the university. Meanwhile, we have no shortage of competent internship candidates for our organization who hopefully can become great full time employees.
In education, arrogance = status quo
Recently, I was marketing director of a for-profit higher ed institution. I witnessed that resistance to all things digital or internet goes far beyond the marketing and communications disciplines. It is pervasive throughout institutes of higher education. That refusal to accept the digital revolution trickles down to weaken curricula in all departments.
My marcom plans required approvals by the school president and board. I tried to explain that our target 16- to 24-year-olds communicate differently than any prior generation, and that we needed to leverage digital media to break through.
These administrators, who also direct and approve curricula, would respond that TV and direct mail always generated plenty of leads for the school over the past 50 years; all we needed was more TV and direct mail leads, they would say, secure that their knowledge of such things is why they achieved their leadership role in higher ed.
The suggestion to senior educators to use tools like Facebook or MySpace would elicit immediate rejection. Their rationalizations would include sensationalized urban legends about enabling stalkers and molesters, or they would comment that the school would be losing control of communication messages. (News flash: they already have.)
Bottom line, educators, at all levels, across all departments, severely lack an education in digital media. And it is crippling not only students of marketing, but all students.
Breaking my heart...
...your comment is entirely truthful. Wish it wasn't so. I wish you were full of horrible lies. But you're not. :(
Universities and Professors - Still in the Ice Ages
About 6 months ago I was speaking with an advertising major, who was just about to graduate from the at University of Minnesota with an advertising degree, and I asked if they were learning anything in the area of emerging technologies, social media and the like. They said it had been addressed a few times in their classes but that they hadn't had any extensive curriculum on the subject. In fact, this student mentioned that he was just showing one of his professors how to build a profile on Facebook. Yikes! The students know more about interactive communication than the professors.
I'm afriad educational institutions are severely lacking with regards to marketing, communications and advertising, as it relates to the interactive/digital space. And as people are slowly beginning to realize; its all relative to the this space.
Tenured professors teaching kids how marketing/pr/advertising was 5 years ago really isn't helping the cause. The only place locally to learn about the future of marketing/pr/advertising are from such associations as MIMA, Social Media Breakfast, CATFOA and smaller colleges such as MCAD. As well as keeping up with industry blogs, events and webinars. I sincerely hope that universities and colleges realize this gap and address it quickly.
Jason
Very well stated. I was just having lunch with a friend and we were talking about how if I had just graduated with a marketing degree and $100K in debt and entered the workforce, after a week in my new job I'd feel like my time and money had just been stolen.
Maybe we start reaching out to schools?
Andrew, I too am interviewing intern applicants and am hearing the same stories. Professors don't teach online marketing, don't teach interactive, don't teach new media. Kids aren't coming out knowing how to find a community of brand advocates online. They aren't skilled in web analytics and how they can use those in dashboards for new media results. In fact, many don't know what kind of metrics to even pull in order to "define success."
I agree that it is because there is a limitation in the skillset of those instructors. So ... how about schools bringing in community faculty? I know Metropolitan State and St. Thomas have extensive community faculty outreach programs, so why are they not reaching out to those of us in the industry? Why are we not being asked to teach seminars on online marketing or new media marketing? Maybe if we want to help shape the next generation of marketing and new media professionals, we should start reaching out to them? Want to teach a class?
Guest lecturing
I have been fortunate to guest lecture on a number of occasions at St. Thomas and, while I might have bored them to tears, the model of adjunct faculty and guest lecturing seems like the only way keep on top of this rapidly changing field. Oh. And don't rely on books. :)
Agreed
I agree with this article, as I experienced a similar situation having recently graduated...
A year ago, and in one of my final semesters of college, I took a class entitled "Interactive Advertising." I was excited to take it as this was the field within advertising that most appeals me, and something I was dying to learn more about.
However, as the class continued on week after week, all we were learning about was what the Internet Advertising Board and comScore are, the data they provide, and the latest figures on the broadband Internet population. Extremely useful information, right? Because I definitely couldn't find that information out by doing a simple Google search...
Needless to say, the class was a major disappointment. A golden opportunity was missed to teach valuable 'hands-on' skills, such as:
These larger institutions are very slow to adopt to changes in the industry, which is a HUGE problem given how fast the advertising/marketing industry changes, especially over the last 5-10 years.
Eventually the disparity between what one actually learns while in school and what they should know will be so great, that opting for more nimble institutions will be more readily considered on the part of prospective students, rather than the lure of the name of a 200-year-old institution on a diploma...
My $0.02
It's more than that
A former advertising colleague of mine told me an equally appalling story yesterday. A senior journalism student from a local institution of higher education called to ask for a donation. As they talked about his career in advertising, she commented how great it was he got a job in his field. And then she asked, "Copywriting - that means you read articles and check for legal copyrights on words?"
Let me repeat - this was a senior journalism student from an purported reputable institution. My friend spent a few minutes explaining to her the elements of an ad, the definition of copy, and the role of a copywriter.
I'm happy to report he didn't give them any money. The problem isn't just a lack of focus on digital marketing -- it's the absolute basics that are missing. And you're right, that simply means trouble. Thanks for writing this column - I look forward to seeing more feedback on it, and hopefully some corrections.
Not exactly, but...
UW Stout, over in Menonomie, has a program in Technical Communications that crosses into the marketing arena. It doesn't have a lot of required marketing courses (although they can be used as electives by motivated students). But coursework there includes things like web writing, using analytics, writing for CMSes, and other areas that end up being somewhat more useful than some other programs when looking at getting a job in online marketing.
Thanks!
Good to hear. How about local programs? I love what Tim Brunelle's done with his brand program at MCAD. How about the marketing/biz schools?