Highway Education digital marketing bootcamp review

Hi, I’m Polina! Formerly, I worked as a senior digital marketing manager and now I am a marketing mentor at Pathrise. I help job-seekers prepare for their future in digital marketing. Check out my review of Highway Education.

What does Highway Education do?

Highway Education is a new online bootcamp that helps people launch a career in digital marketing operations. Despite being remote, the program features small class sizes with lots of 1-on-1 instruction. Students participate in live video lectures, discussion sessions, hands-on assignments, mentoring sessions, and collaborative projects that simulate real on-the-job work.

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The flagship marketing course teaches students all the strategies, skills, and tools they need to become a digital marketer in 16 weeks. Classes meet full-time Monday-Friday from 11am to 5pm EST. First, students learn fundamental professional skills like problem-solving, creative thinking, and business basics. Then, the curriculum covers modern marketing strategies, marketing ops, and how to use data for marketing. Next, students spend the bulk of the program working hands-on with marketing automation systems, CRM software, and other in-demand marketing tools. This phase of the course simulates real on-the-job tasks and projects. The next phase of the curriculum focuses on the reasoning behind marketing strategies as students learn about marketing analytics, growth strategies, metrics, and what matters to marketers when assessing performance. Finally, the course focuses on more advanced topics such as lead flow, lead nurture, marketing-to-sales alignment, and account-based marketing. 

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Throughout the course, students build polished portfolio projects they can show off to employers. Meanwhile, the program recruits employers seeking marketing operations professionals. Students connect with these hiring partners, getting to chat casually before a formal interview. Moreover, Highway Education coaches students for their upcoming interviews and even helps them negotiate their salary after landing the job. In addition, grads continue to meet with hiring partners until they land a job.

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Who is Highway Education for?

People looking to break into digital marketing with little to no current experience could benefit from Highway Education. Moreover, the program is especially helpful for people interested in learning remotely in a full-time program with lots of mentoring and support.

What does Highway Education cost? How much work is involved?

Tuition for their flagship marketing operations program is $16,000. But, they also offer an income share agreement (ISA) so grads don’t pay anything until they land a job that pays $55,000+ per year. Grads then make 48 monthly payments of $415 (salary between $55,000 and $65,000), $495 (salary between $65,000 and $75,000), or $575 (salary more than $75,000). ISA payments are capped at $24,000 and cannot last longer than 8 years. However, all students must pay a $2,000 payment deposit upfront before starting class.

The admissions process begins with a fairly extensive online application followed by a 30-minute problem-solving and quantitative reasoning assessment. Candidates then move on to a final behavioral interview. The program calls one of the candidate’s personal references before offering a seat in the program. However, no prior marketing experience is required.

Ratings and reviews

As a new program, Highway Education does not have too many online reviews. However, they are listed among Course Report’s top online marketing bootcamps and were featured on Course Report’s January 2021 Podcast. Their website also hosts lots of videos describing the course’s experience in the FAQ.

Alternatives to Highway Education 

If you choose not to enroll in Highway Education, there are a number of alternative bootcamps and resources that can help you launch a career in digital marketing.

  • The tech bootcamp Tradecraft offers 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 Highway Education’s curriculum.
  • One of the most popular bootcamps with a digital marketing track is General Assembly. 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.
  • Similarly, Noble Desktop is a tech bootcamp with tracks in digital marketing. This instructor-led program has live classes and lots of opportunities for portfolio building with in-demand marketing tools.
  • The online bootcamp GrowthX Academy offers courses for people who are interested in digital marketing, business development, product management, and UX design. 
  • Likewise, other tech resources with digital marketing tracks include Pluralsight, Bootcamp Digital, Digital Creative Institute, GreenFig, and InternStreet.
  • You can also consider UC Davis Bootcamps, which has marketing, web dev, and data courses. Similarly, Loyola University Digital Skills Bootcamp and Jelly Academy have marketing courses.
More alternatives
  • Students seeking self-paced university courses can check out edX. This huge online learning platform hosts marketing courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
  • Similarly, Coursera has thousands of courses in a huge variety of tech topics, including digital marketing. They often collaborate with universities and top tech companies like Google to keep their curricula practical and in-demand for today’s market.
  • People seeking self-paced courses on a budget can check out Udemy. Their platform hosts over 100,000 video courses in digital marketing, tech sales, software engineering, UX design, and more. Students only pay around $10 per class and get lifetime access. 
  • Copyblogger, SEMRush Academy QuickSprout, and Facebook Blueprint, and all offer free online digital marketing courses.
  • Finally, the massive online learning platform Udacity also offers both free and paid courses on a variety of tech subjects, including digital marketing. Like Highway Education students in Udacity’s nanodegree programs work 1-on-1 with mentors while getting hands-on practice. Find out if Udacity is right for your career goals in our review.

How does Highway Education compare to Pathrise?

Highway Education is a bootcamp that helps people launch digital marketing careers from scratch. Most students start with no experience. However, 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. In fact, our mentors have already helped 1,000+ students and professionals land great tech jobs so we know what works and what doesn’t. 

Highway Education is an intensive full-time program that may even require time outside of class. Our program is flexible, with only 2-4 hours of group sessions per week. In addition, fellows can schedule 1-on-1 sessions as needed. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. Plus, we never require upfront payments or deposits.

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. If you are interested in working with our mentors to land your dream job faster, join Pathrise. 

Apply today.

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