HOW TO GET INTO ARBITRATION WITHOUT ANY EXPERIENCE? In an exclusive interview with Head of SMM at AFFX Sofia Bogdanova

HWYD: Sonia, hi! Tell us about the AFFX Academy: when and why did it appear?

Sonia: The idea to create the academy came from the personal experience of our owner, namely the lack of high-quality specialists in the market who could quickly integrate into the work and benefit the business and, accordingly, develop along with it.

When the full-scale war began and Ukrainians were forced to leave for safer cities and countries (both internal migration and migration abroad), people lost their jobs and the ability to provide for themselves and their families. That is why the main goal of the Academy is to provide knowledge and skills only in practical professions that can be quickly mastered and earned either during or immediately after training.

That is, the Academy set itself the following goals:

• creating educational programs that provide Ukrainians with the opportunity to earn money wherever they are;
• Filling the labor market with talented practitioners so that companies can fill vacancies with high-quality specialists;
• Assistance to certain categories of people - combatants and war veterans.

HWYD: Who are your students? Who comes to study arbitration nowadays? Are they elderly people who are disillusioned with classical work? Or are they mostly young people without experience?

Sonia: There are completely different categories - from mothers on maternity leave to practicing professionals. Most of them are people who are changing careers and looking for additional income alongside their main job.

We had doctors, managers, business analysts, logisticians, athletes, and those who tried to figure it out on their own but lacked consistency, knowledge, and certain technical points. The average age of our students is 25-30 years old. We are very happy to have a diverse audience of students and to be able to help them change their lives.

HWYD: What educational programs do you offer?

Sonia: We currently have 3 active educational programs:

• Affiliate marketing: Nutra vertical
• Affiliate marketing: Gambling vertical
• SMM: From Scroller to Creator

Information about them can be found on our  website.

And 2 more will be launched soon:

• Native
• Affiliate Manager

HWYD: How do you find and engage mentors? Who are your mentors?

Sonia: Mentors are searched for through various sources, from Instagram to Linkedin. Of course, not without recommendations and acquaintances. We also receive a lot of incoming requests like "I want to work with you."

The main thing when looking for a mentor and starting to work with them is that they should be inspired by our idea, be a practitioner (not the owner of beautiful statistics from Photoshop) and a responsible person. We always aim for a long-term relationship with mentors, while constantly checking the quality of training (it is very easy to measure in our country with the help of students' results), and if something goes wrong, we first look for ways to improve the situation, and in cases where the problem is in the mentor, we have to look for a replacement, which is always very painful for us). But our goal is to be the best on the market, so we only work with practices that have great results.

HWYD: How many streams have been released so far?

Sonia: 5 threads on Nutra, 2 threads on Gambling.

HWYD: How much does it cost to study at the academy?

Sonia: Tuition fees start from 399$. But we have excellent payment terms in installments, without additional % and commissions, so you can expect from 200$ per month.

HWYD: What are the additional benefits of studying with you? Perhaps employment right away?

Sonia: For each program, we have benefits: free services for work, ready-made tested connections, the best conditions from the top market players for students, and a mandatory component - job placement assistance. We have individual agreements with the best companies on the market, which are waiting for our students during their studies.

We work with students to prepare case studies and CVs, and hold online HR workshops so that they are fully prepared to apply to companies. And the companies, in turn, already know the level of our education and are "hunting" for our graduates.

HWYD: Who are some of the well-known market figures (people/companies) you have collaborated with? What was the result for you and the companies?

Sonia: Speaking of bloggers, you can see the entire list on our page and in the highlights as part of the large-scale advertising campaign "How can you do this?", in addition, we have media mentors with their niche telegram channels, and we never miss opportunities to collaborate with our partners Wild Wild Group, Everad, AFFHUB, Kupartners, SPT.

HWYD: How do you introduce newcomers to the world of arbitration besides teaching bays?

Sonia: Our students communicate directly with market leaders at online workshops, as they often come as invited guests and are happy to share information. We also practice networking at conferences with students and will soon launch the largest networking space in Ukraine, where themed meetups, events and lectures will be held. And let's not forget about the top media, thanks to How Was Your Day Media, our students will be able to learn about important people in the field, recognize their activities and navigate companies in the market.