{"id":33111,"date":"2021-07-01T20:05:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T03:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/?p=33111"},"modified":"2021-10-16T00:24:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T07:24:58","slug":"skillbank-deep-dive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/skillbank-deep-dive\/","title":{"rendered":"How You Can Get Your Marketing Career Started With SkillBank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They want to contribute to the world and to their own lives, embark on a path where they can sustain themselves abundantly, and find fulfillment in the work they do. This is what Herica de Casas, a young mother and an aspiring marketing leader, said. Although she has a rough idea of what her end goals look like, she found that the traditional education system just wasn\u2019t built to help her get to where she wants to go. She\u2019s certainly not alone in this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone else who had a similar experience is Mehak Vohra, the young CEO and founder of SkillBank<\/a>, a marketing education program and career accelerator whose motto is, \u201cTalent is universal, opportunity is not. We help talented people to break into marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How It All Began for SkillBank<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At 18, Mehak Vohra was rejected from her dream university. Where most people would perhaps dwell in the misfortune, Mehak decided to strike out on her own. A viral TikTok<\/a> she made explains her subsequent journey going to a different college, dropping out her sophomore year, moving to San Francisco to start a start-up, and eventually gaining traction and a following for her successes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she first dropped out, she wanted to start a company but didn\u2019t have the resources to do so. It took a lot of hard work and struggle to get Mehak to where she is now. It took her four years to build up revenue and learn on the job. That was when she realized that learning on the job was difficult. Though it worked for her, she wanted to create a way for others to have the skills more readily accessible to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehak wanted to help other young people do the same thing she did: find their own path and succeed in marketing\u2014a career path that can be hard to break into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how SkillBank was born. As a marketing bootcamp, Skillbank focuses on growth marketing and paid acquisition. It is currently expanding its curriculum to offer other specialized skills like Life-Cycle Marketing and SEO\/Organic Media Track. SkillBank ran five test cohorts before it raised the investment money to start the company, which is going strong now. The school is backed by investors like Jason Calacanis, Griffin Johnson, and Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through research, it found that general digital marketing isn\u2019t the thing that will get people jobs. Instead, the job market is looking for professionals specializing in marketing niches. SkillBank notes that while a lot of people who come to the school expressed the desire to become entrepreneurs, the advice it would give is to work for a company first before starting your own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Infographic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What and How You\u2019ll Learn at SkillBank<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though Mehak dropped out of college once her company started gaining traction, she notes that SkillBank isn\u2019t by any means against universities. In fact, it works really well to take its courses in conjunction with a college degree, especially in your last semester. Its part-time model also allows those working a full-time job to incorporate upskilling into their schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it\u2019s not a commitment to be taken lightly, the classes are taught in the evening, so it\u2019s easy to balance SkillBank with other commitments. Skillbank looks at itself as a bridge from the educational world to the working world. However, it\u2019s not necessarily a replacement for college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, SkillBank offers a Paid Acquisition program<\/a> spanning 15 weeks. Although it is shorter than other marketing bootcamps, this format allows people to get a move on with their goals in a short amount of time. In the program, fellows are exposed to data types, operations on numbers and text, input and output, and more. Skillbank\u2019s program includes 3 types of sessions: Learning paid media, career preparation, and a marketing apprenticeship. It approaches specific skills and teaches fellows how to secure internship opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Infographic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Financing Options<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are two ways learners can fund their SkillBank education: installment payments or Income Share Agreements (ISAs). The first option allows learners to break up the $8,000 tuition into three payments during their time at the school. Meanwhile, through ISAs, fellows will only start making payments after earning a minimum of $40,000. The amount will be 10 percent of their salary over the course of two years, capped at $15,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Do Fellows Think of SkillBank?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Herica de Casas, the young mother we mentioned above, is a recent graduate who currently holds an apprenticeship that she acquired while in the program. She said that what she learned in the program was unexpected\u2013in a great way. She found that the topics cover psychological and philosophical grounds more than she thought they would, which triggered her interest. Because of her time at SkillBank, Herica said she\u2019s in a phase where she \u201cbelieves everything relates to marketing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Paid Acquisition program, she learned how to run Facebook and Google ads\u2014two of the most popular digital marketing tools\u2014among others. \u201cThe more niche your skillset is, the better it is for getting a job. And that\u2019s the route that SkillBank is taking\u2013very specific targeted skills,\u201d she said. Some of the other skills that learners can expect to cover during the program include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n