How an Online Platform is Helping Businesses Grow by Giving Millennials the Opportunity of a Lifetime.
For many college graduates, it’s becoming clear that the dream they were sold of a stable career and steady income at the price of investing years of their lives and thousands of dollars into their education is far from a reality. With some 43% of college graduates underemployed after leaving school, it’s safe to say — the system is failing them.
On the other side of the coin, small and medium-sized businesses are having just as hard a time sourcing qualified talent. At the same rate of college graduates who are underemployed, 43% of small to medium-sized businesses say their growth is being limited by their inability to find qualified new hires.
With both students and businesses struggling it seems like there must be a solution out there — that’s where GenM comes in. GenM is an educational platform pairing marketing students looking for hands-on experience with businesses looking to grow with low-cost help. So far, GenM has given thousands of students the opportunity to gain practical marketing experience while helping businesses see real results by helping out with marketing efforts ranging from social media management, content marketing, SEO, and more.
Here’s how a handful of students using GenM have helped businesses grow while gaining valuable work experience.
Carla Hadland
Launching a New Career in Digital Marketing
“There’s a lot of people out there like me who are so passionate and have so much drive to succeed. To have these businesses help us achieve our goals — that’s a really amazing thing.”
England born and living in France, Carla studied music and business in college but failed to realize her passion for writing through her education. After leaving school, Carla began a travel blog to give herself a creative outlet and document her travels. Along the way, she ran into a number of people who needed help developing their social media presence. After lending a hand, Carla decided that this was something she would like to pursue as a career.
With little experience, and living in a country where she didn’t have full mastery of the language, she found it difficult to get her new career as a digital marketer off the ground. After searching the internet for ways to learn digital marketing online for free, Carla came across GenM and her future started looking a little bit brighter.
Carla was able to find an apprenticeship with a social media marketing agency who specialized in working with artists, and quickly became an expert in social media analytics and client relations. After completing her apprenticeship, Carla was able to apply this knowledge to her personal blog and managed to amass a following on her Instagram well over 10,000.
Since then, Carla has found a new apprenticeship with none other than GenM — joining the marketing team and taking over content and email marketing on the student side. She just recently launched her first successful re-engagement email sequence and series of blog posts and hopes to take these skills with her after completing her apprenticeship and find a full-time paid position in the field.
Elijah Shoesmith
Finding his first paid position while still in school
“GenM has given me the tools to be ahead of the curve.”
Working towards a marketing degree, Elijah Shoesmith was feeling lost trying to find an internship and gain practical experience to prepare him for the workforce. After scouring countless job boards, he came across GenM and began completing their online courses before finally finding an apprenticeship with a marketing agency in his area.
Elijah began learning the ins and outs of content marketing and CMS software, an aspect of marketing that he found was lacking in his formal education. After his three month internship, the clients Elijah worked with were so pleased with his success that Musselwhite Marketing offered him a paid-position, waiting for him when he graduated school.
Elijah said that GenM has given him the confidence in his skill set to enter the workforce as a marketing professional. “For a lot of people, they are just thrown into it when they get their first entry-level job. By doing my internship it’s made the transition a lot smoother,” he said. “It’s one thing to have the book knowledge but the hands-on experience just made everything click.”
Jessica Waller
From Student to Business
“GenM has saved me so much money — but more importantly, so much time!”
Fresh out of college with a new baby, Jessica was looking for a position where she could work from home and continue managing the responsibilities that come with being a new mother while still finding a foothold in her new career as a marketer. Suffice to say — it wasn’t easy. Every position she applied for told her that she simply didn’t have enough experience. That’s when she started her first GenM apprenticeship with the goal of earning enough experience to get on the platform as a paid freelancer. After completing 4 apprenticeships and learning the ins and outs of graphic design, social media management, and content marketing, Jessica decided that she was ready to take her career in her own hands and founded her marketing agency, SocialSpark Pro.
With a full plate trying to manage her home life and launch a new business off the ground, Jessica needed help — and she knew exactly where to turn. A former student on GenM, Jessica was able to find three apprentices that could help her with her content marketing efforts, allowing her to focus on the social media aspect of her business while also taking care of responsibilities in her personal life.
She says that after using GenM as a business, she has managed to eliminate stress from her life, keep costs low, and continue to pay-it-forward when it comes to passing on the experience she gained during her time as an apprentice.
Since getting on GenM as a business, Jessica has had 4 successful apprentices, saving her 480 hours and providing her 12 months of marketing help.
