An Interview with Deborah Adeboye

Please Note: This is an interview we conducted with Deborah, a fellow that completed the SkillBank program in the Spring of 2022. This testimonial was transcribed from an interview we conducted with her.

I currently work at Mindshare as a Paid Social Associate. Since we're working within the entertainment industry, one of the biggest projects that we launched recently was our Snapchat campaign. We typically work with Instagram and Facebook but, Snapchat is a new launch for us. It has to do more with brand safety. So far, the campaign has been going very well.

Before SkillBank, I graduated from high school in June of 2021. Prior to the course start, I was doing a variety of things. I was a sales representative for Vector Marketing, which I did for 5 months but it wasn’t something I was really passionate about. Another thing I was doing was making videos for small businesses, helping them market their business. I was also a leasing agent, which was not clicking for me, I wasn’t seeing as much momentum as I wanted to.

That was kind of how I got into SkillBank too, because I wanted to focus more on the backend of marketing, to make sure that the content I was creating was producing the results that I wanted to see.

I actually saw the SkillBank ad on Instagram. I’ve always liked being in marketing, so when I saw the ad, I thought it sounded interesting. When it came down to making the decision, I thought about what the brands are doing on the backend with the content that I was producing for them. How do they make sales and revenue from that? I applied for SkillBank and I had a conversation with the team and it kind of all came together, it was really nice. It’s just really cool how it all came together.

Going into the program, I liked the fact that I had to attend class because that was what I was previously used to a few months back and so, transitioning into that again was really helpful for me. Having a deadline and setting tasks that we had to do to get things done, was something that I really liked. I think that was what kept me focused and on track. For career services, I really liked that Sanjida (a SkillBank career coach) would send us roles to apply to, that was something that kept me motivated and helped as well. I liked both aspects of what SkillBank was producing there.

I really like the last project, it was challenging for sure, I liked that we had to do multiple revisions to understand it, and when I finally understood it, I thought this was really easy. I was also able to reference my projects in interviews, so being able to showcase the knowledge that I gained from that last project in my interview, I think that’s what made interviewing easier because it gave me a boost of confidence.

There was a time between week 3 and week 5 when I wanted to give up. I think it was because I had a lot going on mentally. I wanted to give up at that point but, what kept me going was that I felt like this was my only option. I positioned myself to say, well, “if you don’t do this, what else are you going to do?” “Are you going to go back to college?”

I made SkillBank my only option so that I would succeed.

At my current job, I am applying the skills in a lot of different ways. For example, in our Facebook campaigns, I am in charge of building out the whole campaign. I do it every other week. I launch both weekly and monthly campaigns. Those are the main skills from SkillBank that I use constantly.

One thing I was reflecting on recently is why did I finish it and keep going? Kind of going back to what I was saying before, that I kind of made it my only option. For me, I’m trying to now take that to other areas of my life. They have the resources and the tools for you, all you have to do is position yourself to follow what SkillBank has created for you. My advice is to follow that path.