The school of advertising & marketing

I trained at The Atomic Garden because I thought that later on, like on Mad Men, I would have a secretary and wearing a suit, with a cocktail in my hand, I would be explaining to clients what women want.

During the course, I realised that this is pure nonsense. It’s a good thing that my teachers and my creative partner helped me to notice these things when I was 22 and not much later in life.

This course was a memorable experience for me, with a comprehensive, enriching process, lots of interesting insights and a quality outcome. It gives more than you can take: branding that critically touches all aspects in a way that brings different lessons, benefits and value to everyone. Practical knowledge, real-life examples and discussions with professionals in the field are what this course can really promise. The whole path is not easy, it requires commitment and active participation, but the end result and the lessons learnt during the process are even more rewarding.

The brand management course was like a springboard to my dream job. From the beginning of the course, I had the goal of finding a job, so I tried to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. And it just so happened that on the day of the presentation of diplomas I could also celebrate the first day of my dream job! I chose this course knowing exactly what I wanted to learn and gain, but it exceeded my expectations, opened up pathways and gave me confidence in both myself and my knowledge. The teachers of the course – extremely diverse and exceptional personalities, true specialists in their field – after systematizing and selecting all the necessary information, perfectly involved both in distance learning and in discussions and workshops. I feel that I have gone through brand building and repeated the entire marketing course from A to Z. I am very happy that I chose this particular course. It’s experience and knowledge that you won’t get from reading books.

Since my school days, I have dreamed of establishing a community that would have a positive impact on the world around me. While working as a programmer in a product team, I saw that product managers are a part of the community that controls the levers of influence, which made me want to try this position myself. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to look far for opportunities, as The Atomic Garden was just recruiting for its first class of people who wanted to become Product Managers. What I expected from the course was a demystification of the producer role, heated discussions with teachers, and feedback-dominated mentoring. Expectations met. I know the difference between a Project and a Product Manager, I managed to pit teachers against each other, and I don’t even know where to put the amount of feedback I received from mentors and teachers. As someone with a fairly high quality standard, I was pleased with the competence of the teachers and the level of knowledge of their craft. The most important thing is that they did not lack empathy, which is especially important in the training of new knowledge and skills. During the course, we went through the product cycle, taking away 3 practical works that you can put in your portfolio. The teachers kept sharing different career stories with us. It was very useful in forming a multifaceted perspective of working in product companies.

After spending some time at school, you realise that you know even less than ever. It makes you feel anxious that you weren’t previously interested in this horrible but wonderful thing called advertising. And then comes the real breakthrough. You become an avid reader, experiencer and listener of all things related to advertising. You become more open to life in general and, in the end, you start to create appalling, and maybe sometimes brilliant, advertisements yourself.

It was a real school of contemporary life. As I hadn’t been involved in advertising before, this gave me a basic understanding of the threads that go into one or another type of advertising and the kind of material that can be produced from a single sentence of a task. Our brain is an unstoppable machine if you just let it work. I have seen it hundreds of times. You can generate lots of innovative ideas that change people’s perceptions of what has been normal for them. And this, strange as it may sound, can be achieved even through the most concise, one-word advertisement. All you need is the creativity to find it.

In short, the course gave me the courage and the understanding that I can try and make mistakes over and over again, but that it only makes me more creative and productive. Not just at work, but also in my life.

I would like to say that I discovered this school unexpectedly, however, it would be more accurate to say that it was the school that discovered me. The Atomic Garden is an entirely unique phase in my life, which has thrown me onto the merry-go-round of the advertising market.

During my studies, I met my teacher Arnas Aukštikalnis, who invited me to become the art director at DDB Vilnius, and just a few months after graduation, having gained the knowledge from The Atomic Garden, I won Lithuania’s Young Cannes Lions competition and went to Cannes to compete among the world’s best young talents. I came back ranked in Top 9 and very eager to catch my own lion in advertising.

My experience in Lithuania helped me to enrol in the Master’s programme at the Miami Ad School, where I am gaining international experience and striving for new achievements.

For me, the course started at the same time with my new role as a Product Manager. This allowed me to put what I learned during the course into practice. The structure was well thought out, with an introduction and then delving into different areas. The teachers were experts in their respective fields, highly skilled and capable of adressing any queries, all the while making the 2-hour session seem like just 30 minutes. I also appreciated that the whole course was in English and all the course members made a great effort to maintain English communication throughout the course. Since everyone is eager to step into product management, the course is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded people and expand your professional network. The course provided a strong foundation for my future role. Now it’s on me to check back on the slides sometimes and remember all the strategies, dos and don’ts. In case you’re still hesitating, sign up now.

During the course, we got a broad overview of the product manager role from a variety of experiences. The enthusiasm of the course leaders to share both their experience and to talk about their product and the problem it solves was particularly noticeable. What I liked most were the teachers who shared their personal, very specific experiences and product (failure) stories. All the presented theoretical material is well summarized and arranged in slides, which will be used and opened when I want to delve into one or another topic when a similar situation occurs in practice. Overall, the course was a good set, where the lessons flowed from each other. In summary, I would rate it as suitable for both those completely new to the product journey and a great refresher for those already experienced. The main takeaway I took away from the course is that the purpose of the product manager role is to identify the most important problems to be solved for your audience and to put together a winning strategy.

I hesitated long and hard about joining The Atomic Garden, and had a lot of doubts about whether the school would meet my expectations. Now I can safely say that it was more than worth it. I met many professionals of this market and learned more in six months than others do in four years of university. And, of course, I got the job I wanted and loved. What more could you ask for?