Hi, I’m Polina! Formerly, I worked as a senior digital marketing manager and now I am the marketing mentor at Pathrise. I help job-seekers prepare for their future in digital marketing. Check out my review of Somerville Academy.
- What does Somerville Academy do?
- Who is Somerville Academy for?
- What does Somerville Academy cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Somerville Academy
- Alternatives to Somerville Academy
- How does Somerville Academy compare to Pathrise?
What does Somerville Academy do?
Somerville Academy is an online bootcamp that helps women launch a new career in digital marketing. Despite being remote, the program is very close-knit and hands-on, with a 4:1 student to teacher ratio.
Career catalyst course
Their flagship “career catalyst” course lasts about 16 weeks and includes a mix of instructor-led and self-paced learning. Students participate in weekly live seminars, training videos, and a Slack community. Lessons and office hours are live. In addition, students get lifetime access to course content, including tech how-to’s, templates, slides, videos, the Slack channel, and other resources. The course includes 3 projects for real clients that students can add to their portfolios to impress employers.
The curriculum teaches students all the skills they need to land an entry level digital marketing job. The curriculum covers paid search, email marketing, SEO, and content marketing. Students also work with real tools like Facebook ads, HubSpot, and Google Analytics as they build projects for clients.
The final 2 weeks of the course focus on the job search. This final stretch of the course helps students write resumes, optimize their LinkedIn profiles, and prepare effective job applications. Students also get opportunities to participate in mock interviews and training. The program even prepares students to compare offers and negotiate salaries when they land a job. In addition to working with career coaches to build a 90-day job search plan, alumni also get weekly career coaching calls until they find a job.
Bonus courses
Two bonus courses covering more specific marketing job search skills are also available. Their “Freelancing For Fun And Profit” class teaches students how to find work as a freelancer by packaging, pricing, and selling their skills online. Students get templates for proposals, pitch emails, and reports. Their second bonus course teaches more advanced interviewing and negotiation skills. Students in this mini-course learn strategies to ace phone, behavioral, and technical interviews. They also learn how to add $5k+ to their salary when they get a job offer.
Who is Somerville Academy for?
Women looking to break into digital marketing with little to no current experience could benefit from Somerville Academy. The program is especially helpful for women interested in online courses.
What does Somerville Academy cost? How much work is involved?
Tuition for their flagship digital marketing program is $2,500. Students can also pay in 12 installments of $297. Their bonus freelancing course costs $997 while their bonus interviewing/negotiation program is $297. However, students who register for the flagship bootcamp early get both bonus courses free.
Unlike many other bootcamps, there is no formal admissions process. Candidates are admitted based on a first-come, first-served basis. However, they keep class sizes small, so their courses may fill up.
Ratings and reviews
As a relatively new program, there are not too many online reviews of Somerville Academy. However, they currently hold a 5/5 star review on Course Report. In fact, one grad described the program as “a great environment to pivot careers.” Although they warned that “It’s tough and a lot to learn”, they felt “the small class sizes (4:1) creates the space to ask tons of questions so you don’t feel stuck or get lost.” The student also appreciated that “resume and portfolio development are built into the program and they have career coaches on staff”.
The course also holds a 5/5 star rating on Facebook based on only 1 review that described the program as “world class.” Their website also hosts positive reviews.
Alternatives to Somerville Academy
If you choose not to enroll in Somerville Academy, there are a number of alternative bootcamps and resources that can help you launch a career in digital marketing.
- The online bootcamp GrowthX Academy offers courses in digital marketing, business development, product management, and UX design. Likewise, School16 and GreenFig teach marketing, sales, and product management.
- Another bootcamp with a digital marketing track is Noble Desktop. This instructor-led program has live classes and lots of opportunities for hands-on practice with real marketing tools.
- Similarly, NJIT Digital Skills Bootcamp, Pepperdine Graziadio Bootcamps, allWomen Academy, SDSU Bootcamp, Highway Education, and Miami Ad School have online courses in digital marketing and other topics.
- With both in-person and online courses available, General Assembly has tracks in digital marketing, UX design, and other subjects. Their program is project-based, with students graduating with polished portfolios to help them get a job. Learn more about General Assembly in our review.
- Tradecraft is another tech bootcamp with courses in growth marketing, sales, product design, and more. Their 12-week program is designed for people looking to land a job at a high-growth startup, with an emphasis on practical entry-level skills students can use to impress employers, similar to Somerville Academy’s curriculum.
- Similarly, Pluralsight, Bootcamp Digital, Digital Creative Institute, DeltaV Code School, One Month, Kellogg Executive Education, and InternStreet offer tracks in digital marketing and other topics.
- Those interested in self-paced, remote learning can look into Skillshare, which is a massive online platform that hosts free and paid courses in digital marketing, tech sales, tech entrepreneurship, and other tech subjects.
More alternatives
- edX is another huge online learning platform with marketing classes. They host courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
- Another self-paced, online learning platform is Udemy. They have 100K+ video courses in digital marketing, tech sales, software engineering, UX design, and more. Students only pay around $10 per class and get lifetime access.
- Similarly, Coursera has thousands of courses in a huge variety of tech topics, including digital marketing and sales. They often collaborate with universities and top tech companies like Google to keep their curricula practical and in-demand .
- The massive online learning platform Udacity also offers courses on a variety of tech subjects, including business analytics, data science, software engineering, and more. Like Somerville Academy students in Udacity’s nanodegree programs work 1-on-1 with mentors while getting hands-on practice. Read more about Udacity in our review.
- Similarly, Loyola University Digital Skills Bootcamp and Jelly Academy have marketing courses.
- Finally, QuickSprout, Facebook Blueprint, Copyblogger, and SEMRush Academy offer free digital marketing courses.
How does Somerville Academy compare to Pathrise?
Somerville Academy is a bootcamp that helps women launch digital marketing careers from scratch. Most students start with no formal experience. Alternatively, fellows in the Pathrise program should already have a background in their chosen field so that they get the most out of our technical curriculum.
Pathrise is a full service organization that helps students through all phases of the job search. Experienced mentors work 1-on-1 with fellows in our program to optimize their resumes and LinkedIn profiles, build their portfolios, prepare for technical and behavioral interviews, negotiate salaries, and much more. Our mentors have already helped 1,000+ students and professionals land great tech jobs.
Like Somerville Academy, our program is flexible. Pathrise only requires 2-4 hours of group sessions per week and fellows can schedule 1-on-1s as needed. Plus, our curriculum is tailored to fit each individual fellow.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that optimizes the job search through 1-on-1 mentoring. Fellows in our program have seen their interview scores double and their response rates triple, landing jobs in just 3-5 months on average. If you are interested in working with any of our mentors to land your dream job faster, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
