The field of marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Businesses of all sizes need skilled marketers to help them stand out from the competition. 

Part of its appeal is that it attracts both creative types as well as analytical types—so whether you’re a left-brain or right-brain thinker, there’s a place for you in marketing.  

Jennifer Miller is the department chair of the FVTC Marketing program, and she joined WHBY’s Hayley Tenpas to discuss why this field is the “It Girl” of business programs.  

Tap the video to listen to the interview or scroll down to read the transcript. 

Tenpas: Welcome back to Focus Fox Valley on WHBY. Haley Tenpas joining you from the Miron Construction Studios. This hour is brought to you by Sturdivant & Associates. It's our Focus on Careers with Fox Valley Technical College, an opportunity to highlight careers of promise and the pathways to them through Fox Valley Tech. I joked with our guest before we popped on the air, we’re marketing the marketing department today. Jennifer Miller joins us as department chair of the Marketing program at Fox Valley Tech. Jennifer, hello. 

Miller: Hello. Thank you. 

Tenpas: Good morning. We've got to first get to know you a bit. Tell us about your journey to Fox Valley Tech, and your career along the way. What does that look like? 

Miller: I started my career in sales, and it evolved over time into marketing. As marketing evolved, I decided to go back to graduate school and get my master's degree in digital marketing. I worked in e-commerce, social media management, corporate strategy, and that type of thing. My long-term goal was to teach full-time. While in a corporate marketing role, I was also adjunct teaching at another college online. Then this opportunity opened, so it was perfect. 

Tenpas: That is perfect. Marketing has evolved with technology over the last few years. You are the department chair for the marketing program at Fox Valley Tech. What does that program look like? What do the offerings look like? I understand there are two, correct? 

Miller: There’s our main associate degree program in marketing, a two-year program with 62 credits. Built into that, we have two technical diplomas, one in digital marketing and one as a sales specialist. If you go for the associate degree, you earn both, but you can take them separately as well. Our associate degree focuses on basic marketing and gets into digital strategy, analytics and social media. Our technical diploma in digital marketing focuses more on social media, data analytics and promotions. 

Tenpas: The curriculum feels detailed, looking into the digital world and technology but also including core marketing strategies. What does that curriculum look like? 

Miller: From the core perspective, it is intro to business, psychology and written and oral communication. We have a tech tools class to get students ready for more advanced classes, design work, Adobe, Canva. Further along, it’s social media marketing, content creation, they’re creating videos, blogs, vlogs, SEO and Google certificates. It goes from foundational business to deep dives into promotional skills and adapting to technology. 

Tenpas: That’s fantastic. A lot of what you're mentioning relates to many careers. I know it applies to colleagues I work with every day. What other positions or careers are students prepared for with this degree? 

Miller: There are so many opportunities. That’s a question we get a lot. It depends where your passion lies, which you learn through the classes. If you love social media and promotions, you can go into social media management or strategy. If you love data, you could become an SEO analyst. With sales built into the program, some students go into real estate. Startups are a great opportunity too. They leave with skills and are ready to go. Marketing is wide. If you take a job as a marketing manager, you’re doing many things. That’s why we built the program the way we did. 

Tenpas: It’s fascinating. Many people are asked to take on marketing tasks in addition to their full-time jobs. I love that this is being acknowledged as a career in itself and that it applies in every industry. In manufacturing, agriculture, radio, there’s marketing happening. You can apply this literally anywhere. We're talking with Jennifer Miller, department chair for the marketing program at Fox Valley Tech. Flexibility, you offer a few different options for students to take courses. Different campuses and online? 

Miller: Yes. Both technical diplomas and the associate degree are available online, in Appleton and in Oshkosh. We stagger our classes, so you can complete your degree at any of those locations or mix them. We have a great advisor, and our team helps students strategize. Some classes we recommend in person based on the content, but there’s a lot of flexibility. We work with students to complete their degrees on their timeline. 

Tenpas: In today’s world, you have to be flexible. I love that you’re offering that. We're going to pause, but when we come back, we’ll talk more about the program including internships and how the marketing role has evolved. Stick with us. 

Tenpas: It is our Focus on Careers with Fox Valley Tech here today. Jennifer Miller joins us as the Department Chair of the Marketing program. Jennifer, you require something that I can say was one of the best experiences that I have ever had. That would be internships. I cannot say enough about internships, and that it is a component of this associate program. Correct? 

Miller: Yes, it is. 

Tenpas: Let us talk a little bit about what these internships might look like. Why does a student need to go through an internship for this program? 

Miller: The internship course is one of the final courses our students take. It is an opportunity for them to take everything they have learned up to this point and put it into practical action. With the guidance of our instructor who manages it, Teri Stark, as well as the partnerships with the businesses that we work with and the nonprofits, our students work with local companies. So, they can be in a local manufacturing facility, they could be with the Herd or Silver Star Brands. We also have internships internally with our College Marketing team and other places around the campus. Our students have done things from managing social media to video content creation, blogs and writing. Recently, we had a student undertake a huge website redevelopment. 

Tenpas: Oh, wow. 

Miller: He successfully accomplished it. It was a huge, huge, huge project. It was a little intimidating at first, but the great thing is that internships are jobs, but they are also learning opportunities. So, you are not jumping into a job and have to know everything. You get to learn as you go. 

Tenpas: You can take what you have learned and apply it, and you are also able to make a mistake, be mentored through it, and work through those mistakes. I cannot say enough about how powerful an internship opportunity can be, and the confidence it can give you as well. 

Miller: Absolutely, and it prepares the students to be ready for those interviews and have that confidence because they have been in that work environment. Many of our traditional students have worked retail jobs or in coffee shops where they are around people. This puts them in a different environment where then they can go for the interview and be more confident and prepared for that. 

Tenpas: Let me know if anyone's interested in a radio marketing internship. 

Miller: Oh, I am betting we already have a couple we could give you. 

Tenpas: That is so cool. Well, let's highlight the digital marketing aspect of this. You mentioned it briefly, but you have a technical diploma in Digital Marketing. Which skill sets or added skills are covered in that in that technical diploma? 

Miller: Sure. That technical diploma is also built into the associate degree. That is where students learn Google Analytics; they learn the data behind all of that. Marketing is all about relationships. A lot of times, coming into marketing, we are thinking relationships, fluff and creating content, which is incredibly important. But we do all of these things on social media, creating videos and posting, but where is that data to make sure that there is a return on that investment? That is where that data part comes in. It is interesting with that digital side because there is a fun, creative kind of part in social media, and then there is that data side. It really blends those two together. 

Tenpas: You often see marketing skills listed in all different types of job listings. You add it in there. Why do you think that's the case? And why is this career becoming kind of the “It Girl” in a lot of in a lot of spaces? 

Miller: We have seen a lot of interesting things. When we have conversations with companies and with us being previously in the marketing field, sometimes with smaller businesses, they don't necessarily have an allocated marketing person. So, there is maybe an office manager who is this hybrid marketing person, right? And that is where learning some of these skills through a technical diploma at FVTC will help build those skills that they did not have with marketing unless you are working for a big company where these roles are more separated or siphoned, where there is a social media specialist, there is a web developer, that type of thing. If you are a marketing manager or a marketing director for a smaller company, and maybe you have a team of one, you need to know all of these things. That is why those job descriptions are very lengthy, and they range from that creative side to the data side, which sometimes are two different people. That is why we try to teach that, so that they have those skills, but marketing is not going to go anywhere. We have conversations all the time, especially with AI, and how that is developing. AI is just changing the way we do things, just like when social media and websites changed marketing. It does not replace things. 

Tenpas: So, there is still more to come. 

Miller: More to come. Our marketing is just going to continue to evolve. 

Tenpas: Who is an ideal student in this program? Do you know what might make them a good fit? 

Miller: From a demographic standpoint, we have students ranging from right out of high school, those who have transferred from four-year programs for various reasons and then we also have returning students at different ages. It kind of depends on where it fits in, you know? A lot of people are returning to work, or their job is evolving, and they need those marketing and sales skills to grow into the job they are in or to be promoted. From a good fit perspective, like a personality or what you care about, in general, it’s having that interest about why businesses do what they do. A lot of the conversations we have with students are maybe someone who is super creative and loves art, loves digital art and am I going to be able to do that in marketing? Yes, but then we also have the people who could spend hours and hours and hours looking at data from Google and Meta and every other platform that is monitoring that, and they love that part, too. You might not like the creative side too much, but the thing is that the program has such a wide range of skills that we teach because we know that is needed. The biggest thing is just having that passion for why businesses are doing what they are doing. How are they selling to people? A lot of those relationships. 

Tenpas: Yes, we have to leave it there, but I hope we have intrigued a few listeners. And if you want to learn more, www.fvtc.edu/marketing is where you will head. Jennifer, thank you so much for your insight today into what is clearly an exploding opportunity for so many folks. I appreciate your time today. 

Miller: Thank you so much.