“Dream Job” was built around a simple belief: working adults should not have to give up on the careers they once imagined for themselves. Many prospective students are balancing jobs, parenting, caregiving or military experience; some have college credit but no completed degree. Their barrier is rarely a lack of ambition. It is the belief that time has passed them by or that higher education cannot fit the life they already have.
Running from July through December 2025, the campaign aimed to generate awareness of Purdue Global—Purdue’s online university for working adults—and inspire prospective undergraduate students age 30+ to reconsider what was possible. We focused on nursing, cybersecurity and business: Purdue Global’s most popular program areas and fields with significant potential for career growth.
Our pro-social objective was to expand awareness of an attainable path to career mobility for adults whose responsibilities do not align with a traditional campus experience. Through creator-led storytelling, we sought to replace “I missed my chance” with “the time is now,” demonstrate how education could support a stronger professional future, and give audiences the confidence to believe they were worth the investment.
Success would be measured through awareness, video engagement and high-intent traffic to PurdueGlobal.edu/DreamJob, while strengthening Purdue Global’s credibility among career-driven communities.
“Dream Job” ran alongside Purdue Global’s established “This Is My Comeback” platform, but it served a distinct emotional role. “Comeback” celebrated what it takes to return; “Dream Job” asked working adults to picture what could come next. Our strategy was to make that future feel specific, credible and attainable through creators whose voices audiences already trusted.
We built a cross-platform program across Instagram and LinkedIn, recognizing that prospective students bring both personal and professional identities to the decision to return to school. On Instagram, creator stories made the ambition personal, reflecting the realities of balancing work, family, caregiving and self-doubt. On LinkedIn, we met career-focused audiences in a high-intent mindset through professional voices discussing advancement, career pivots and the language people use to define their potential.
Creators connected their own experiences to one of three focus industries—nursing, cybersecurity or business—and began with the human tension at the center of the brief: dreaming of something bigger while wondering whether the opportunity had passed. Purdue Global appeared as the supportive guide rather than the hero, showing how an online university built specifically for working adults could help them pursue the career they wanted. Every story carried a direct path to PurdueGlobal.edu/DreamJob.
One of our biggest strategic opportunities was also a challenge: LinkedIn was largely underutilized by competing online universities as a creator storytelling channel. Higher education marketing on the platform often stops at institutional posts or lower-funnel advertising. We treated LinkedIn as a place for human, creator-led narratives—adapting content to professional conversations instead of simply repurposing Instagram assets.
We also had to balance inspiration with the credibility required for a high-consideration decision. Clear messaging guardrails preserved Purdue Global’s identity as Purdue’s online university for working adults, while creators retained the language, lived experience and point of view that made their recommendations believable. By pairing emotionally resonant storytelling with platform-native execution, “Dream Job” moved the conversation from abstract aspiration to an actionable next step.
“Dream Job” showed that career and education storytelling can build awareness at scale while producing high-intent action. Across the creator program, content generated 13.7 million impressions and 4.3 million video views, extending Purdue Global’s message well beyond its owned channels. More than 40,300 link clicks drove prospective students toward the campaign landing page, translating inspiration into measurable exploration of Purdue Global’s education opportunities.
The work also established Purdue Global as a first mover in creator-led LinkedIn marketing within online higher education. By placing trusted voices inside professional communities, the campaign built credibility among the exact audiences it sought to reach: working adults actively thinking about career growth and what might come next.
We consider “Dream Job” successful because it did more than tell adults to go back to school. It acknowledged the responsibilities, setbacks and self-doubt that can make returning feel impossible, then offered a credible path forward. The results proved that audiences were willing not only to watch these stories but to take the next step. Across two platforms with very different audience mindsets, the campaign turned “someday” into a concrete action and reinforced its central message: your dream job—and your chance to pursue it—have not passed you by.
