Shouting ‘Midway, Not Over’ Amidst the Job Market Crisis

In most online courses, the learner’s motivation plays a crucial role. Even after enrolling, it is often difficult to follow through with the initial study plan due to a busy life or the temptation to delay tasks until tomorrow. However, Snowball’s employment boot camp is different, even if it’s an online course. To prevent students from falling behind during the course, which can last from as short as four months to as long as six months, there’s a dedicated mentor assigned to manage and guide them closely. This is the role of Snowball’s Operations Manager (OM). We had a conversation with H, who has been working as an Operations Manager at Snowball for a year and a half.

Q: It’s quite a unique role. Could you introduce what you do?

A: My job is to ensure that learners achieve their goal of ’employment’ as efficiently as possible by managing their learning process throughout the boot camp. I monitor what the students are doing weekly, where they are struggling, and if they face any challenges with assignments, I figure out the specifics of the problem and how to help them. The main part of my job is solving these issues. It’s somewhat similar to being a teaching assistant at a university, but it goes beyond just managing schedules. I constantly think about how to keep students from giving up, understand why things aren’t working, and figure out how to make them succeed. 

Q: How does your role differ from that of a PM at Snowball?

A: At Snowball, the planner (PM) and the Operations Manager (OM) are like partners working as a team. Every course has both a planner and an operations manager. The planner is responsible for designing the course, sourcing instructors, and differentiating the curriculum—essentially everything that goes into creating the educational product of the boot camp. Once the boot camp is launched and potential customers become our students, the responsibility shifts to the Operations Manager for a period ranging from four to ten months. The PM’s planning and the students’ goal of employment are the shared goals we all strive to achieve, and the OM is responsible for fine-tuning the details to reach these goals as efficiently as possible.

Q: It seems like you manage quite a number of students, given that new cohorts start every month and the courses last for several months. How do you manage this?

A: I’m in charge of the Backend School and Performance Marketing School, and I manage up to six cohorts simultaneously per school. Each cohort can have anywhere from 50 to over 100 students, so, yes, it seems like a lot in numbers. But we categorize the students based on their progress, which helps manage them more efficiently. For example, if there are 50 students in a cohort, about 20 will be doing well, 10 will be struggling in the middle, and 20 might not be keeping up. I encourage those who are doing well, sometimes giving them more challenging tasks, and focus on providing personalized counseling to those who are having a hard time. It’s also my job to help those who have dropped out or disappeared to return. If many students face the same difficulty, we actively work to solve it and put measures in place to prevent it from happening again in future cohorts. 

Q: Taking responsibility for someone’s education sounds like no easy task. Amidst all of that, what’s the most appealing aspect of this job?

A: The interesting part is that I don’t just continue to run the same educational program; I also get to plan the operations. After the content is developed, my role is to manage the service so that the content is utilized in the best way possible. I constantly think about how to improve the service, and I can incorporate my ideas into the next cohort. I didn’t start off being able to do this from the beginning. Initially, I followed the operational guidelines and performed the tasks assigned to me. But once I became more familiar with the role, I started making new attempts. Snowball gives us the authority to improve existing processes and experiment with new ideas, thanks to its culture that encourages change. It’s exciting to think about how to make operations more special and differentiated, and to introduce new methods. If someone were to think, “I’m an operations manager, so I’ll just stick to managing operations and leave the planning to someone else,” they might not find this role a good fit. 

Q: What part of your job gives you the most sense of fulfillment?

A: Since the goal is to help students complete the course and secure employment, I feel proud and happy whenever we hear the news of someone getting a job. It’s particularly rewarding when students who struggled during the course finish successfully and get employed. Of course, it’s great if they get a job right after completing the course, but that’s not always the case. Some students are worried, asking, “I’m a mid-level performer, can I still get a job, Manager?” Even after completing the course, we provide post-course support for job applications, technical interviews, and portfolio building for one, two, or three months. When they finally let us know they’ve secured employment, it feels really great. Overcoming the anxiety of not knowing where you stand and persevering through difficulties is a tough challenge. When students manage to achieve this, despite setbacks, the whole Snowball team shares in their joy. 

As the interview concluded, H compared the role of an OM to that of a homeroom teacher for high school seniors. While most people assume that operations are about keeping projects running smoothly according to plan, managing a Snowball boot camp goes beyond just making sure the course finishes after a few months. Just as a homeroom teacher’s goal is not just graduation but helping students succeed in their college entrance exams, the OM’s goal is not just to finish the course, but to get students employed. Since results don’t automatically improve over time, OMs must continuously strive for better outcomes. Reflecting on the past year and a half, H mentioned that as students grow, managers grow as well. 인터뷰를 마쳤다.