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Do aspiring marketers need to study formally, or is self-learning and and a good portfolio enough to make it as a digital marketer in 2020?

While degrees were once a requirement for aspiring marketers, the digital era has made the world of digital marketing far more accessible to, well, just about anybody with an internet connection. Many new marketing professionals have gotten their start without a university degree, and many seek innovative ways of self-learning using online education platforms, or good old trial and error. High-profile marketing expert Seth Godin has even gone so far as to create a short altMBA course for aspiring marketers and business leaders.

A recent study carried out by ClickMinded revealed that attending graduate school can be up to 10 times less profitable and 3 times slower than self-learning online.

Compared with attending graduate school, learning digital marketing with an unaccredited course and starting a website is:

With these thoughts and findings in mind, weve asked marketing managers how they view degrees today. More specifically, we wanted to learn whether degrees are a requirement and why aspiring marketers may still want to get one. The experts also share some best tips for getting educated in marketing and hired without a degree.

Related Article:Marketing Certifications That Can Help You Earn More

In my opinion Marketing degrees are not a necessity depending on the role, stated Kyle Turk, VP of marketing at Keynote Search. When hiring a digital marketer, for example, its often best to choose a candidate with experiences using specific software so they can quickly hit the ground running. If the role requires technical expertise for certain softwares, Turk continued, self-learning would prove to be more valuable.

Paula Connor, chief content marketing officer at 256 says employers especially government organizations still require formal marketing or business qualifications, but thats rapidly changing. My short answer is no, [marketing degrees] arent useless, Connor began. many employers still look for formal marketing or business qualifications, especially in government organizations.However, he points out, you can definitely learn a lot of digital marketing skills by yourself for free.

Tony Mastri, digital marketing manager at MARION Marketing believes someone that wants to move into a more general business role beyond marketing will want to get a university degree. A university degree will really help expedite the move from entry-level to some sort of senior role or management position, he said. Thats because marketing degrees cover areas like accounting, finance, economics, management and other business topics as well.

Maddison agreed, A marketing degree offers the greatest flexibility to pivot, for those unsure about what area of the industry they want to specialize in. When self-learning, it can be challenging to get a comprehensive insight into all the different aspects of a role ranging from market analysis to data analysis and budgeting.

The main criticism with the material covered by marketing degrees itself is that the focus is largely centered on marketing theory. The better programs incorporate practical elements, Connor explained, like giving students the opportunity to work on real-life client projects, work experience/internship modules and include modules where you would gain practical skills such as obtaining a Google Analytics certification.

Related Article:8 Skills Every Digital Leader Needs

In a good job market, Mastri said, a portfolio of success (candidates will still need previous work experience or successful project examples) can be enough to land an entry-level position. He says companies can always try a candidate out with a contract-to-hire role rather than taking a leap of faith. That said, he still views it as a risky decision. There is a small chance I would hire a marketing employee without a degree, but still a chance, he stated.

If someone has an amazing portfolio of work to show, can demonstrate their skills and has great references from former clients/employers, Connor said, then well be interested in talking to them degree or no degree. Companies that dont value these factors often significantly limit the talent pool theyre willing to hire from and miss out on great hires.

For many organizations, however, formal education is not what matters most. The most important quality for a candidate wanting to start a career in marketing is to have a continued willingness to learn, stated James Maddison, head of content marketing at iwoca. He says a lot of whats required can be learned on the job, and marketing degrees are merely an indicator of knowledge. The industry develops at such a fast pace that the majority of things learned during a marketing course wouldve changed by the point of graduation, Maddison said.

Employees can get started with digital marketing using online learning platforms or even just online research, Mastri said. But he strongly suggests candidates build the right portfolio or examples of work to stand out from college graduates.

You can get started by learning from the likes of HubSpot, Google, SEMrush and Moz, Connor recommended. These companies all offer training programs and certifications for inbound marketing, analytics, paid ad manager, SEO and more. Whether it be a combination of some of these certifications or all of them, Turk agreed, it would be more useful for me to have someone who is an expert with the digital tools we already have in place.

As a marketing leader, Turk concluded, I would definitely hire a candidate without a formal degree as long as they have tangible self-learning certifications that are relevant to our business. It looks as though marketing degrees wont be going away anytime soon, but there are alternate paths for todays aspiring digital marketers.

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Are Marketing Degrees Worth the Paper They Are Printed On? - CMSWire

Quba's Owner and MD, Matthew Williams, is optimistic about this coming year. Reflecting on what went well in 2019, he explains that collaboration between specialists is much more important than being a Jack-of-all-trades.

2019 was an interesting and turbulent year - to say the least - but we all got through it and Id like to think theres an air of optimism as we have the whole of 2020 laid out in front of us.

Much of our success in 2019has been down to an outward-looking and collaborative approach to how we do business; and I believe that way of working will be one of the biggest trends and growth areas for the entire marketing and digital sectors.

The term collaboration does tend to throw up some rather dodgy marketing speak connotations, butits all about adding value to our clients. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do; fromhow we work with our clients and suppliers, to how we communicate internally.

But more and more, its been focussed on working more closely with other agencies who can deliver first-class and complementary services that we dont offer for the ultimate benefit of our clients.

Let me wind back a bit... In my view, full service agency is a bit of a misnomer for most of the companies that claim to be one. You need tobe specialists in what you do.

For example, a PR or ad agency that brings in a junior developer to work on small scale projects and then claims to be a digital or full service agency isnt being honest.Theyre simply not one.

You can count the number of truly full-service agencies - andmoreimportantly, first-class ones -in the UK on a couple of hands. I dont want to knock anyone as were all trying to do the best we can, but it takes courage to focus on one thing, ignore the noise and do what you do well.

We should all be proud of what we can deliver, but when the need arises the most switched on and commercial firms look outside for the extra skills that are going to add the most value.

Take our own sector, for example. The scope and breadth of software used within the marketing and digital industries has expanded exponentially over the last 10 years.For example,software like CMS platforms have become far more complex to build in and they have to do a lot more than just manage page content; the growth of CRMs and marketing automation software has been unprecedented; whilst cloud software such as Azure has taken off in a huge way.

This means that from a technical perspective, all but the very largest of agency networks are able to fully deliver all the potential requirements a client may have via their internal resources. So my question is this: why do companies still feel the need to be seen as full service when theyre not?

The answer is simple - agencies dont want to turn work away and they dont want to risk their client looking to others to deliver their projects, so they claim to be all things to all men. However, it doesnt have to be this way - if onlywe all started to work together more strategically and openly, by building stronger relationships with other agency partners. We shouldnt view each other as threats, but as opportunities to grow and develop together.

During 2019 we took the decision to take specialising to the next level at Quba. We decided to pull out of providing SEO and PPC services. We felt the market had become too diverse and that we would actually provide a better service to our clients by using a select number of specialist SEO and PPC partners.

Over the past 12 months, this approach has benefited Qubas bottom line. By building a trusted network weve been able to be 100% transparent with our clients and they really appreciate that honesty. They know who is delivering what and they can see the benefits that collaborative working brings.

This has particularly been the case with our larger and more complex clients as they just want the best tools for the job rather than a one-stop shop. They appreciate quality, insight, strategic knowledge and technical expertise over and above anything else. In the most simplest of terms, they now know that with great agency integration comes great work and first-class results. Thats all they care about.

On a far more practical level, collaboration also makes agencies far more competitive and nimble as it mitigates the need to take on the extra overheads and the expenditure of additional staff, training or technologies in order to service what may only be a short- to medium-term client or requirement. Partnering with another agency removes all of this, as you can spin up the resource quickly and with minimal financial outlay.

My prediction is that collaboration will become much more the norm and the growth in networks likePimento, Agency Hackers and The Network One clearly backs this up. Agencies just need to become far more open to partnering and realise that its the best way to retain clients and provide the highest levels of service.

My advice? Choose your partners carefully to ensure they fit the blend of clients you have, and ensure your clients know you've spent time ensuring you use the best possible partners, and havent just pulled them out of a hat. Finally, be loyal to each other, be transparent and work together when things dont quite go to plan.

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2020: The year of greater agency collaboration - Prolific North

The National Security Agency is the official U.S. cryptologic organization of the United States Intelligence Community under the Department of Defense.

Responsible for the coordination of communications intelligence activities throughout the government, the top secret NSA was covertly formed in November 1952 under a directive from President Harry S. Truman and the National Security Council.

Secrecy around the agency's activities has suffered, however, as security breaches have exposed global surveillance programs and cyberweapons -- malware agents -- developed to target computers and networks of U.S. adversaries.

The agency exists to protect national communications systems integrity and to collect and process information about foreign adversaries' secret communications to support national security and foreign policy. The classified information is disseminated to 16 separate government agencies that make up the U.S. Intelligence Community.

In October 2017, Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed new guidelines to enable the NSA to provide intercepted communications and raw signals intelligence -- before applying domestic and foreign privacy protections -- to 16 government agencies, including the FBI and CIA.

The National Security Agency works in close conjunction with the Central Security Service, which was established by presidential executive order in 1972 to promote full partnership between the NSA and the cryptologic elements of the armed forces. The director of the NSA/CSS, in accordance with a Department of Defense directive, must be a high-ranking -- at least three stars -- commissioned officer of the military services.

Although the organization's number of employees -- as well as its budget -- falls into the category of classified information, the NSA lists among its workforce analysts, engineers, physicists, linguists, computer scientists, researchers, customer relations specialists, security officers, data flow experts, managers, and administrative and clerical assistants.

It also claims to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the U.S., and possibly worldwide. NSA/CSS mathematicians perform the agency's two critical functions: they design cryptographic systems to protect U.S. communications, and they search for weaknesses in the counterpart systems of U.S. adversaries.

The NSA denies reports claiming that it has an unlimited black budget -- undisclosed even to other government agencies. Nevertheless, the agency admits that, if it were judged as a corporation, it would rank in the top 10% of Fortune 500 companies.

NSA surveillance operations, which intensified after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. soil, have come under scrutiny. U.S. surveillance laws changed suddenly when the USA Patriot Act -- Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 -- was enacted by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001.

The Patriot Act expanded the government's surveillance powers beyond the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, established in 1978, which provided exceptions to the Fourth Amendment when the search -- or wiretap -- was to gain foreign intelligence. For example, the Patriot Act authorized law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to secretly search personal and business records of U.S. citizens, including telephone, email and financial information, without judicial or congressional involvement.

In 2013, details about some of the NSA's surveillance programs became public when former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor Edward Snowden leaked troves of confidential NSA information, first travelling to Hong Kong to meet with reporters and then seeking asylum from U.S. authorities in Russia. Russia extended his asylum in January 2017 until 2020. The documents indicated the agency had broadened its domestic surveillance activities to bulk collection of U.S. communications.

Questions of legal authority were raised when Snowden's NSA disclosures revealed the organization collected internet data stored by internet service providers, as well as surveillance metadata on U.S. citizens' telecommunications -- phone records. The agency's surveillance operations also targeted third parties, such as business owners required to turn over customers' records, and U.S. companies involved in any type of foreign communications.

The exposure of the details of the NSA's widespread surveillance programs also embarrassingly revealed that the agency intercepted allied government communications, allegedly tapping mobile phones of world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The unauthorized leaks also provided information on the NSA's Tailored Access Operations program, an elite offensive hacking unit created in 1998 that conducts technical surveillance. According to Snowden's disclosures, in addition to computer networks, TAO infiltrated satellite and fiber optic communications systems, which are the backbones of telecommunications providers and ISPs.

The NSA and FBI also appeared to gain access to servers and stored internet communications through a top secret project code named PRISM. While Snowden's documents alluded to PRISM, U.S. technology providers claimed to provide government assistance only when the law required it, or to have no knowledge of the data collection program. The NSA revelations raised concerns worldwide that U.S. hardware and software manufacturers may have shipped compromised products with malware or backdoors installed, enabling the agency to access customers' data.

The USA Freedom Act -- Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring Act -- was proposed by Congress in October 2013.

Provisions of the Patriot Act, including roving wiretaps and bulk metadata collection, expired on June 1, 2015. The next day, the USA Freedom Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. It restored the Patriot Act provisions with modifications and imposed limits on bulk collection of telecommunications metadata. However, the NSA could still access that information through telecommunications companies.

Early interception techniques relied on radio signals, radar and telemetry.

The Army Signal Corps developed the Signals Intelligence Service in May 1929 after taking over cryptology from military intelligence. Civilian William F. Friedman became chief cryptologist at SIS and was tasked with educating a small team of civilians on cryptanalysis so they could compile codes for the U.S. Army.

After the armed forces saw success cracking German and Japanese codes during World War II, the National Security Agency was established by President Truman. SIS, renamed the Signal Security Agency, and then the Army Security Agency in the mid-1940s, became part of the National Security Agency, headquartered in Fort Meade, Md.

In 2012, the New York Times reported that Stuxnet malware, discovered in June 2010 after a damaging attack on Windows machines and programmatic logic controllers in Iran's industrial plants, including its nuclear program, had been jointly developed by the U.S. and Israel. Neither country has admitted responsibility for the malicious computer worm.

A hacker organization dubbed the Equation Group allegedly used two of the zero-day exploits prior to the Stuxnet attack, according to antivirus company Kaspersky Lab, which is based in Moscow and made the claims in 2015.

In addition to protecting national security through cryptography and cryptanalysis, the NSA has weathered security breaches beyond Snowden that have caused embarrassment for the agency and affected its intelligence-gathering capabilities.

An unidentified NSA contractor removed classified U.S. government information from the NSA in 2015 and stored the material, which included code and spyware used to infiltrate foreign networks, on a personal device. The files were allegedly intercepted by Russian hackers. The contractor acknowledged using antivirus software from Kaspersky Lab, a company that, according to some reports, may have ties to the Russian government.

In 2017, Israel intelligence officers revealed that they detected NSA materials on Kaspersky networks in 2015. Kaspersky officials later admitted that they became aware of unusual files on an unidentified contractor's computer, and they did not immediately report their findings.

In December 2017, the U.S. government banned the use of Kaspersky Lab products for all federal agencies and government employees.

A hacker group calling itself the Shadow Brokers claimed they had stolen NSA files in 2017. They released batches of files on the internet, some of which allegedly contained the IP addresses of computer servers that were compromised by the Equation Group -- hackers reported to have ties to the NSA.

The continual dumping of NSA files has exposed zero-day exploits targeting firewalls and routers, Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities, and other cyberweapons. The NSA, according to the ongoing leaks, has been stockpiling vulnerabilities, most notably the Windows EternalBlue exploit used by cybercriminals in the global WannaCry ransomware attacks.

Harold T. Martin III, a former NSA contractor employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, was arrested by the FBI in August 2016 and accused of violating the Espionage Act for unlawful possession of terabytes of confidential materials allegedly taken from the NSA and other intelligence agencies over a 20-year period. He was indicted by a grand jury in February 2018. The case is still pending as prosecutors wrestle with criminal counts and the sheer volume of materials.

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What is National Security Agency (NSA)? - Definition from ...

7th January 2020 12:22 AM ET

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On NBCs hit sci-fi series Manifest, Robert Vance was the NSA director who was giving the survivors of Flight 828 a hard time.

However, over the course of the first season, Vance came around and seemed to realize there were bad things afoot and started to help the passengers.

See, there were 11 missing passengers from Flight 828 that UDS took and was experimenting on. In the episode, Dead Reckoning, Michaela, Jared, Vance, Ben, and Fiona head to the warehouse hoping to find them.

When Cal shows up and finds a hidden door, a shootout takes place and the 11 missing passengers are freed. However, Vance, Jared, and Laurence are caught in an explosion and all of them die.

The funeral for Robert Vance takes place in the next episode, called Crosswinds.

As people should expect in science fiction, and especially science fiction that includes people seemingly escaping death, dont believe everything that you see.

In the first episode of Manifest Season 2, titled Fasten Your Seatbelts, Robert Vance turns out to still be alive.

As with any explosion that does not result in a dead body pulled out of the wreckage, never assume someone is dead. Remember, he was loaded into an ambulance and the police said he didnt make it. That does not mean it is true.

Robert Vance is a spy and he can disappear if he wants to, and that appears to be what the show pulled off as the second season begins.

Ben was taken near the end of the Manifest Season 2 premiere and he ended up face-to-face with Vance.

Now that Vance is presumed dead, he can help Ben and the passengers better than he could as a government employee. In an underground manner, and thanks to his experience as a spy, Vance could be their most valuable ally now.

Of course, Robert Vance was gone for a while and there is no telling what he was up to while everything was going down last season after his death.

Manifest airs on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.

Link:
What happened to Robert Vance on Manifest? NSA director rises from the dead - Monsters and Critics

BOSTON A nationally recognized expert in corrections and criminal justice is coming to Massachusetts to run the Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association as its new executive director.

Carrie Hill, who most recently worked as director of the National Sheriffs' Association's National Center for Jail Operations and has worked in the corrections field for more than three decades, has been hired to lead the MSA effective Jan. 16, Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian announced as president of the organization.

"I am thrilled and honored to be joining President Koutoujian and each of the Massachusetts sheriffs as we work collaboratively and cooperatively with our federal and national partners to elevate the office of sheriff as well as the jails and communities in which they serve," Hill said. "Massachusetts sheriffs have led innovative programming and initiatives that have become national models. It is our privilege to provide a voice for both those served by and those serving in our nation's jails."

A frequent speaker at corrections conferences and professional development summits around the country, Hill has worked at the state and county levels, and served as a consultant to organizations like the National Institute of Corrections. Before her work with the NSA, Hill "focused on providing training and consulting on national, regional, state and local levels for a variety of private and public entities," according to a conference biography.

Her previous roles include serving as general counsel to the Utah Department of Corrections, senior administrative manager for former Hennepin County, Minn., Sheriff Richard Stanek, and as editor of Corrections Managers' Report, a bi-monthly industry bulletin published by the Civic Research Institute.

"The Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association is extremely visionary to hire Carrie Hill as their next executive director," Newport News, Virginia, Sheriff Gabe Morgan, who chairs the NSA's Jail & Detention Committee, said.

Retired Associate Deputy Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice Steven Cook said, "The Massachusetts Sheriffs are fortunate to be bringing Carrie Hill on board. She is a widely recognized expert on jail and detention issues, and she has been a leader at a national level building relationships and coalitions to protect and pursue the interests of sheriffs and law enforcement."

Koutoujian, who has led the MSA as president since 2018, described the hiring of Hill as executive director as "a milestone moment" for the 15-plus-year-old MSA.

"To attract someone of Carrie's caliber to the ranks of the MSA is a testament to how respected Massachusetts sheriffs have become nationally. We have earned this position through the diligent work of each sheriff and the generous assistance of our longtime executive director, James Walsh," the former state representative said.

As executive director of the MSA, Hill is also expected to continue to work with national initiatives like the NSA-National Association of Counties Joint Task Force, which the MSA said is "studying the impacts of the national behavioral health crisis on county jails" and with partnerships and programs that the NSA is engaged in to benefit sheriffs across the country.

The hiring of Hill comes while the MSA has been active on Beacon Hill and among its peer organizations, and in rebuilding relationships with state policymakers.

In 2016, Auditor Suzanne Bump's office found that the MSA was not meeting its statutory transparency and reporting requirements, and she said the organization "did not have the tools or the policies and procedures in place to do" what it was established in 2004 to do, facilitate communication between the state's 14 sheriffs.

Since then, under new leadership at the sheriff level and now soon at the executive director level, the MSA has been active in Beacon Hill's debate of criminal justice reform. Koutoujian worked closely with lawmakers in 2018 to craft a bill that has allowed correctional facilities in Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Norfolk and Franklin counties to run a three-year pilot program using medication-assisted treatment to combat opioid addiction.

The state's 14 sheriffs run county jails and houses of correction, as well as inmate rehabilitation programs that seek to provide social services to people who are incarcerated. As an organization, the MSA has gotten involved in criminal justice reform and advocating for the sheriffs' positions during debates over other public policy issues, like marijuana legalization.

Read more:
Sheriffs group nabs national expert to serve as director - Fall River Herald News