Ask the typical marketing student what their career path looks like, and they're bound to start rattling off all the agencies at which they could work, post-commencement.
"Marketing is changing, and the curriculum isn't reflecting that," said Anum Hussain, an inbound marketing manager for the inbound sales division of HubSpot.
Because of that, Hussain and the nine other members of MITX's Future Leaders Group decided to host a day-long hackathon for aspiring marketers, called "Hack the Campus Bubble."
Last semester, the industrious group held a panel about landing a job in the marketing field, primarily to open students' eyes to the unrealized opportunities in the space. More than 100 students showed up to learn about business development, content marketing, social media and brand management — areas rarely discussed in the traditional classroom.
Hack the Campus Bubble is meant to further students' understanding of the growing tech and innovation sectors. Hussain described the event as "a day in the life of a startup founder," which she noted participants "could very well end up being."
Roughly 40 students from Boston College, Emerson, Northeastern and Boston University will be taking to the HubSpot offices on Saturday, March 22. And what they will be met with are two business prompts intended to serve as a springboard for development: "community engagement" and "cross-campus integration."
The former is focused on how the gap between communities and students can be bridged so fewer leave Boston after graduation to take a job on the West Coast. The latter will hone in on how students can break down the barriers between campuses, thereby fostering communication and collaboration.
Participants will be told to choose one prompt and then "think of a startup or business that can help solve that problem," according to Hussain.
Young professionals from the MITX Future Leaders Group will be giving short presentations throughout the event, including Harvey Simmons, dean of marketing affairs for alumni engagement platform EverTrue, and Sasha Hoffman, head of strategy and partnerships at online payments solution provider Plastiq. The group will also be on hand to provide one-on-one mentorship throughout the day, helping guide teams as they're building the beginnings of their business.
After a day of hacking, students will have five minutes to present their project to a panel of judges who will be acting as investors. The winning team will receive free tickets to MITX's upcoming FutureM conference — two days focused on the future of marketing.
Referring to communications students of today, Hussain said they likely think they'll be given a $1-million budget to be used on billboards, magazine advertisements and other outdated forms of marketing someday. That's not the career path that will be taught at Hack the Campus Bubble, however.
As Hussain said, "I want them to come and leave knowing there are so many opportunities to develop the skillsets they are learning in school that they haven't realized yet."
If you go: Saturday, March 22; HubSpot; 25 1st Street, 1st Floor, Cambridge; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; For more information, click here.
Image via Shutterstock
