Why Dropping Out Of Uni Actually Launched My Marketing Career

Are you stressing over your A-Levels, terrified that picking the "wrong" university course will completely ruin your future marketing career? If you are feeling the massive pressure from school to have your entire life mapped out in a perfectly straight line, take a deep breath! In this episode of Behind the Future, we sit down with Chantel Jordan, Marketing Director across the agencies Reflect Digital and LAB, to talk about her incredibly unpredictable and wiggly career journey.

Chantel's story is the ultimate proof that your career journey doesn't have to follow the traditional rules. Even though she discovered her love for digital early on by building a website for her uncle's window tinting business at fourteen and filming a hilarious "Made in Maidstone" series for her Media A-Level, she still felt the enormous school pressure to follow the standard university route. She bravely realised university wasn't for her and dropped out, instead securing an apprenticeship within a childcare training marketing team.

Instead of panicking, Chantel embraced the twists and turns of her career journey, taking advice from a mentor who taught her that a degree does not have to dictate what you go on to do. Later, while stuck at home during the COVID lockdowns, she self-funded her CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) qualification, studying on the weekends. She is the living proof that you can completely bypass a traditional university degree and still gain elite marketing qualifications while learning on the job.

We also dive into the harsh reality of job interviews; early in her career, an interviewer bluntly told Chantel she was a "jack of all trades and master of none" because she didn't want to pick one single specialism. Instead of letting that crush her confidence, she boldly leaned into it! She explains why being a "T-shaped" generalist marketer with a broad breadth of knowledge is actually a massive superpower in the digital industry.

Tune in to discover why you don't need a perfectly planned career journey to succeed, why being a "sponge" who is always willing to learn is your best asset, and how backing your own skills is the absolute key to launching your marketing career!

Behind the Future is a podcast for the next generation of digital talent, offering weekly interviews, real-world insights and career advice. Subscribe for more conversations like this, and follow us on TikTok and Instagram @aspirationdigital.

Hosts: Becky Simms & Bella Ashlee

Guest: Chantel Jordan

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