I am one of the first graduates of the Certified Digital Marketing Program of the Ateneo and IMMAP. It took almost a year to finish all eleven modules. A bit of trivia, the first two modules, Digital Wiki and Mobile Marketing were held at the Ateneo campus at Salcedo Village while the succeeding nine modules were done at the Rockwell campus.
My classmates came from different industries and affiliation but most of them were marketing practitioners from ad agencies and private sector. I felt like a duck wading in a different body of water. My background is entrepreneurship with a BS Applied Economics degree from the other school. I only know basic marketing so I had a rather difficult time coping with my more experienced classmates.
Another hurdle that I have to surmount was the age of my classmates. At least 10% of them were young enough to be my children. They were two to three years older than my own children! But getting along with people from all walks of life and age for that matter is no brainer for me. Years spent in sales and doing outreach in a Gawad Kalinga site paid off handsomely. I am friends to all my batch mates and I think I have endeared myself to them as they to me.
Several months passed and we were now at the tail end of the course. I became more comfortable in tinkering with technology, of course, with a lot of help from my classmates and You Tube. If I have to insert a widget or application et al, I have only myself to rely on and of course the internet. There's no help coming from my children. My daughter said that my getting adept with technology was a bad idea as I pose a fierce competitor to internet connection.
After mastering the art of cramming (lol) and making marketing briefs, I have gained friends among my classmates. I am also proud to proclaim to all that I have four blogs tucked under my belt, There's Money in Green, Cool September, My Life as a "Couples for Christ" and Bicol Express, obviously a product of my CDM course and a subsequent one, Certified Blog Entrepreneur Program. This course has also come in handy in conducting marketing initiatives for our family business. As a bonus, my name can now be found in the search engines.
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