Become Part of a Larger Story — Learn Digital Skills with Udacity

Kimberly Carpenter
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

We all have a story. We just have to decide what version of our story we want to tell.

The LinkedIn version of my resume tells the story of a passionate educator and lifelong learner. I started my career as a public school teacher in rural South Carolina, where I leveraged technology and disrupted education in my classroom. Then, I pursued my Masters Degree in Education Technology, became a teacher trainer at an edtech company, and finally an education technology coordinator at a private Catholic school in California. It’s all true and it sounds pretty nice. But…it leaves out the struggles.

My entire resume — the one that I don’t post on LinkedIn — reads like a Tail of Two Cities: college dropout, waitress; college graduate, grocery store assistant manager; graduate school graduate, teacher. But, the struggle did not stop once I became a professional. Instead, my path became much more complicated and risky.

I had a steady job as an English teacher at a school where my kids loved me. But, I quit my day job to travel the country with my wife who wanted to become a travel nurse. Our second 6 month assignment landed us just 1 exit away from Edmodothe online platform that gave my students and voice and sparked their curiosity and passion for learning.

I literally knocked on the door and asked if I could volunteer my time. Apparently, this wasn’t something people did very often in Silicon Valley because I got the deer in the headlights stare from the receptionist. I eventually received an interview, a job offer, and joined a team of amazing teachers and advocates who truly believed that we could improve education with an online platform. (Cue photo montage of some of the best people I’ve ever met. Really. #edmodoproud)

After two years, I hustled and lucked out until I was training hundreds of teachers on how to use the platform, communicating with teachers from around the globe, and even responsible for some of the marketing efforts of our prestigious EdmodoCon. But, I was unhappy because I wasn’t progressing as quickly as I wanted.

Team members had moved on to their own adventures and the company culture had changed. I kept hoping for a promotion and kept being skipped over. Frustrated, I left my dream job at Edmodo for another startup. A “once in a lifetime opportunity” working directly with some really influential women in Silicon Valley. I only lasted 10 days!

I didn’t have the skills.

I had passion and hustle — which landed me the jobs in the first place. But lacked the technical skills.

For those of you who are wondering….. Hustle does not equal skill. I didn’t realize this until I was jobless and staring at a page of Do Over by Jon Acuff where he defines career success as “Relationships plus Skills plus Character multiplied by Hustle”.

I finally realized that I needed to learn some skills and some career advice — which I found through great mentorships and activities at Skillcrush. I started taking some Skillcrush Blueprints which focused on wordpress, visual design, and website design. But, I needed something else. I needed something that was industry vetted and would help me start working in the education technology space again as a project manager or in marketing in Silicon Valley.

One day, as if ordained, I found a video about Udacity’s Digital Marketing NanoDegree and I was hooked. I was drawn in by the tagline “Gain real-world experience running live campaigns as you learn from top experts in the field.” These were the skills and the practice I was looking for.

The nanodegree offered courses designed by Moz, Hootsuite, Facebook, Google, MailChimp, and Hubspot with specializations in SEO, SEM, Adwords and many other marketing skills necessary for a successful career in marketing. But, what I loved the most about this program was the focus on creating stories.

We all have a story. What version of your story do you want to tell? Learn how to build your brand and connect with others by taking Udacity’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree and become part of a larger story.

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