United Kingdom · Marketing · Senior (5-8 years)

Senior Education Marketing Specialist

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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Free to start: a plan built for this role, and a Future Fluency module to try first. No card.

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Where should we send it?

One email: what AI is changing in this job, and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

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Experience bandSenior (5-8 years)
Direct reportsNo direct reports
Reports toEducation Marketing Manager
UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Senior Marketing Executive (Education) · Programme Marketing Lead · Student Recruitment Marketing Manager

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

Gateway Qualifications Entry Level Certificate In Vocational Studies (Entry 3) Gateway Qualifications Limited · Entry Level · covers 1 of 10 standards

Gateway Qualifications Entry Level Extended Certificate in Vocational Studies (Entry 3) Gateway Qualifications Limited · Entry Level · covers 1 of 10 standards

OCNLR Level 4 Diploma in Digital Marketing OCN London · Level 4 · covers 4 of 10 standards

OCNLR Level 4 Award in Social Media Marketing OCN London · Level 4 · covers 2 of 10 standards

ATHE Level 4 Extended Diploma in Digital Marketing ATHE Ltd · Level 4 · covers 2 of 10 standards

City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Digital Marketing City & Guilds Limited · Level 3 · covers 2 of 10 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Digital Marketing Gateway Qualifications Entry Level Certificate In Vocational Studies (Entry 3)

Social Media Marketing OCNLR Level 4 Diploma in Digital Marketing

Content Marketing ATHE Level 4 Extended Diploma in Digital Marketing

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner

Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision

Automation Fluency building AI into how work runs

Systems Fluency seeing the whole picture

Start my Senior Education Marketing Specialist plan, free

Your Plan Illustration

Built for Senior Education Marketing Specialist

3 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

Digital Marketing Gateway Qualifications Limited · covers 1 of 10 standards Entry Level
Social Media Marketing OCN London · covers 4 of 10 standards Level 4
Content Marketing ATHE Ltd · covers 2 of 10 standards Level 4

These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Senior Education Marketing Specialist?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skills this role is being asked for

Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration
Data Storytelling & Visualisation

Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluencyworking with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluencyturning numbers into a decision
Automation Fluencybuilding AI into how work runs
Systems Fluencyseeing the whole picture

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Senior Education Marketing Specialist plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

Start my Senior Education Marketing Specialist plan, free Ready to pay? Subscribe for £70 a month

3What this role really is

This job means marketing a specific academic programme or student group, such as a Master's course or international undergraduates. You set the strategy and see it through.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

CRM / SIS Integration (e.g., Salesforce Education Cloud, HubSpot, Slate) Advanced

Building custom workflows and nurture sequences, setting up lead scoring models, creating custom dashboards for funnel analysis for your programmes. You'll be deep in the data.

Marketing Automation (e.g., Marketo, Pardot, HubSpot Marketing Hub) Advanced

Designing multi-touch attribution models, implementing A/B/n testing on emails and landing pages, managing dynamic content personalisation for your campaigns. This is where your nurture sequences come to life.

Analytics & SEO (e.g., Google Analytics 4, SEMrush, Ahrefs) Expert

Setting up custom event tracking and conversion goals in GA4, conducting in-depth competitor analysis, building attribution models to connect ad spend to applications. You'll be living in the data to prove ROI.

Webinar & Virtual Events (e.g., Zoom Webinar, GoToWebinar, ON24) Advanced

Designing interactive elements (polls, Q&A) for virtual open days, creating post-event nurture sequences, analysing attendance and engagement data to qualify leads. You'll make our virtual events shine.

Content Management System (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, TerminalFour) Expert

Managing user permissions for academic contributors, troubleshooting plugin issues, optimising site structure and internal linking for SEO for your programme pages. You'll be a CMS champion.

Project Management (e.g., Asana, Monday.com, Trello) Advanced

Building detailed project plans and timelines for major campaigns (e.g., application season launch), managing dependencies across teams like Admissions and Creative. You'll keep everything on track.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choice	Coming in	Where you are now	The step above
Campaign Strategy & Messaging	Proposes initial ideas, seeks approval for all messaging and channel choices.	Develops full campaign plans, gets sign-off from manager on overall strategy, but has autonomy on specific messaging and content within guidelines.	Designs and owns the complete campaign strategy for assigned programmes, including messaging, channel mix, and budget allocation (within agreed limits). Consults academic leads for factual accuracy, informs manager of approach.
Budget Allocation (per campaign)	No budget authority. Follows pre-approved spending.	Manages budget up to £1K per campaign, escalating anything above.	Recommends and manages budget up to £5K per campaign, with manager approval. Identifies areas for cost optimisation and re-allocation.
Vendor Selection & Management	Assists with gathering quotes, no decision authority.	Researches and recommends vendors for specific tasks (e.g., stock imagery), manager makes final decision.	Identifies, evaluates, and manages relationships with specialist agencies or vendors for specific campaign elements (e.g., video production, niche ad platforms) up to £10K, with manager's final approval.
Project Timelines & Priorities	Follows assigned timelines, escalates any potential delays immediately.	Manages own project timelines for assigned campaigns, informs manager of any minor shifts, consults on major changes.	Sets and manages project timelines for multiple programme campaigns, proactively communicates potential impacts across teams, and makes recommendations for re-prioritisation to manager when conflicts arise.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Inquiry-to-Applicant Conversion Rate

This measures how many prospective students who initially show interest (fill out an RFI) actually go on to complete an application.

Target · Achieve an Inquiry-to-Applicant conversion rate of 15% for your assigned programmes.

If 1,000 students submit an RFI for the Master's in AI programme, we'd expect around 150 of them to complete an application. You'd track this in our CRM.

Cost Per Inquiry (CPI)

This tells us how much we're spending in marketing to generate one initial expression of interest (an RFI). Lower is better, obviously.

Target · Reduce Cost Per Inquiry (CPI) by 10% year-on-year for your portfolio.

If last year it cost £50 to get an RFI, you'd be aiming for £45 this year, without sacrificing quality or volume, of course.

Campaign On-Time & On-Budget Delivery

This is about managing your projects effectively. Did you get the campaign out when you said you would, and did you stick to the agreed budget?

Target · Deliver 90% of your assigned marketing campaigns on time and within ±5% of the allocated budget.

Launching the new undergraduate prospectus campaign by 1st September, with total spend not exceeding £20,000 (give or take a grand).

Website Engagement for Programme Pages

How sticky is the content you're creating for your programmes? Are people actually reading it and spending time on the pages?

Target · Increase average time on page by 15% and reduce bounce rate by 10% for your key programme pages.

If the average time on the 'BSc Computer Science' page was 2 minutes, you'd aim for 2 minutes and 18 seconds, and fewer people leaving after just one page view.

Strategic Input & Recommendations

Are you just executing, or are you actually bringing ideas to the table? We want you to challenge the status quo and suggest better ways of doing things.

You're regularly presenting data-backed recommendations to your manager and academic leads. Your ideas are often adopted, leading to tangible improvements. People come to you for your opinion on market shifts or new programme launches.

Mentorship & Team Support

Even without direct reports, your ability to guide and support junior team members is crucial. Are you helping them grow and learn?

Junior team members proactively seek your advice on tricky campaign issues. You're regularly providing constructive feedback on their work, and they feel supported. Your manager notes improvements in the junior team's output and confidence.

Cross-Functional Collaboration Quality

How well do you work with other teams like Admissions, Web, and Academic Departments? Are you making their lives easier or harder?

Other teams consistently praise your communication and responsiveness. Projects involving multiple departments run smoothly, and you're seen as someone who can get everyone on the same page. You're proactively identifying and resolving potential roadblocks between teams.

Content Quality & Relevance

Are the marketing messages you're putting out genuinely engaging and helpful for prospective students? Does it sound like us?

Student feedback (from surveys or focus groups) consistently rates your content as clear and informative. Academic leads are happy with how their programmes are represented. Your content is picked up and shared organically more often.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy

Making a Tangible Impact on Lives

You'll feel a real sense of purpose knowing your work helps students find the right educational path. Seeing enrolment numbers rise for a programme you've championed, or reading a student testimonial that mentions how helpful your content was, will genuinely make your day.

Receiving an email from Admissions saying a student specifically mentioned a blog post you wrote as a key reason they applied.

Solving Complex Marketing Puzzles

You enjoy the challenge of figuring out why a certain demographic isn't applying, or how to reach a new international market. You like digging into data, experimenting with new approaches, and seeing if your solutions actually move the needle.

Successfully increasing applications for a niche postgraduate course by identifying and targeting a specific professional group through LinkedIn ads.

Owning a Project End-to-End

You thrive when given a goal and the autonomy to figure out how to achieve it. You'll enjoy the responsibility of taking a programme's marketing strategy from concept to execution, rather than just doing small pieces of a larger puzzle.

Designing and launching the full marketing campaign for a new online degree, from initial awareness to final enrolment communications.

What frustrates people

The Faculty Review Bottleneck: You'll often wait weeks for academic departments to approve a single sentence of marketing copy for their programme, only for them to fill it with jargon that no prospective student will understand. It's frustrating, but it's part of the job.
Attribution Anarchy: Trying to prove that your carefully crafted digital campaign directly led to an application can feel like chasing ghosts. Students' journeys are messy – they might see an ad, go to a school fair, talk to an alum, and then apply. Connecting all those dots is tough.
The Last-Minute Programme Change: Imagine launching an entire marketing campaign for a new course, only for the Provost's office to change its name, curriculum, or admission requirements two days later. Yes, it happens. You'll need to be able to pivot quickly.
"But We've Always Done It This Way": You'll definitely encounter resistance to new marketing channels or messaging from long-tenured staff. Changing minds and getting buy-in for fresh ideas can be an uphill battle.
The "Summer Melt" Helplessness: You'll work hard to get students admitted and deposited, only to watch some of them disappear over the summer for reasons completely outside your control (e.g., a better offer, family issues). It's a tough pill to swallow.
Budgetary Whiplash: Your budget is often directly tied to enrolment targets. A tough year means fewer resources to fix the problem in the next cycle, which can feel like a vicious circle.

What this role does not give you

Complete creative freedom without any institutional constraints or review processes.
A purely independent role with no need for cross-functional collaboration or consensus-building.
A predictable, unchanging work environment where priorities never shift unexpectedly.
Immediate, direct control over every aspect of the student enrolment funnel beyond marketing.

8Who you work with

Your work directly impacts our enrolment numbers for specific programmes and student demographics. Get it right, and we fill our classes with bright, engaged students. Get it wrong, and we're scrambling to hit targets, which affects everything from budget to institutional reputation.

Inside the business

Education Marketing Manager (your direct boss)
Admissions Team (they're your closest partners, you'll talk daily)
Academic Programme Leads / Deans (they own the programmes you're marketing)
Web & Creative Teams (they'll build your campaigns and content)
Data & Analytics Team (they'll help you prove what's working)

Outside the business

Marketing Agencies (when we use them for specific campaigns)
Platform Vendors (CRM, marketing automation, etc.)
Prospective Students & Parents (they're who you're talking to!)

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

A solid track record (at least 2-3 years) of independently managing marketing campaigns from start to finish.
Proven experience in setting up and optimising email nurture sequences within a marketing automation platform.
Demonstrable ability to analyse campaign performance data and translate it into actionable insights.
Experience working directly with sales or admissions teams to achieve shared targets.
A strong portfolio of written marketing content (web pages, emails, social posts) that demonstrates clear, engaging communication.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Marketing Automation Orchestration

As student journeys become more complex, simply setting up nurture sequences isn't enough. You'll need to orchestrate highly personalised, multi-channel journeys that react in real-time to student behaviour, integrating across CRM, email, and even SMS. This moves beyond basic automation to truly intelligent engagement.

Complex Decision Trees & Branching Logic · API Integrations for Custom Data Flows · Predictive Lead Scoring Models

This week: Review the 'advanced' features section of our current marketing automation platform. What aren't we using?
This month: Design (on paper) a truly multi-channel, real-time nurture journey for one of your programmes, incorporating SMS or retargeting ads.
Month 2: Work with our tech team or a vendor to understand the API capabilities of our marketing automation platform.
Month 3: Propose and build one new, highly personalised automation workflow that uses advanced logic or external data.

Quick win: Identify one current nurture sequence that could be made more dynamic with existing features, and implement that change immediately.

SEO & Content Strategy for Programme Visibility

With so much information online, just having programme pages isn't enough. You'll need to become an expert in making sure our programmes rank highly in search engines and that our content genuinely answers student questions, not just promotes. This is about being found and being helpful.

Technical SEO Auditing for Programme Pages · Advanced Keyword Research for Student Intent · Content Clusters & Topic Authority

This week: Run a basic SEO audit on one of your key programme pages using a free tool like Google Search Console.
This month: Conduct in-depth keyword research for a new programme launch, focusing on long-tail keywords and student intent.
Month 2: Develop a content cluster strategy for a specific academic discipline, identifying existing content and gaps.
Month 3: Work with the web team to implement one technical SEO improvement on a programme page and track its impact.

Quick win: Optimise the meta descriptions and title tags for your top 3 programme pages to be more compelling and keyword-rich. It's a small change with a big impact.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up

Attending industry conferences and webinars focused on education marketing or digital marketing trends (e.g., CASE Europe, EUPRIO, Digital Marketing World Forum).
Participating in online courses or workshops on advanced analytics, content strategy, or AI in marketing.
Reading key industry publications and thought leadership blogs to stay current with best practices.
Joining professional marketing associations or local networking groups to share knowledge and build connections.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration

Honestly, competitors are already using AI to draft reports in 10 minutes that used to take 2 hours. Marketers who figure out how to effectively 'talk' to large language models (LLMs) will outproduce their peers significantly. This isn't future-gazing; it's happening now.

Context Windows & Token Limits
Temperature Settings for Different Tasks
RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) Architectures
Output Validation & Hallucination Detection
Prompt Chaining for Complex Workflows

Data Storytelling & Visualisation

You're already analysing data, but simply presenting numbers isn't enough anymore. Senior leaders and academic departments need to understand the 'story' behind the data – what it means for them and what action they should take. The ability to make data compelling and easy to grasp is becoming a superpower.

Narrative Structure in Data Presentations
Audience-Centric Visualisation
Highlighting Key Insights, Not Just Data Dumps
Tools for Interactive Dashboards (e.g., Tableau, Power BI)

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

Student Journey Mapping
Enrollment Funnel Management
Persona Development (Student, Parent, Counsellor)
Lead Nurturing & Scoring
Content Strategy for Education
Compliance & Accreditation Marketing

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

1
From Education Marketing Specialist (L2)
2-3 years
Skills to master
- Moving from owning specific campaigns to leading entire programme strategies, taking on more analytical depth, and starting to mentor junior colleagues.
You're ready to move on when
- Consistently hitting campaign targets independently.
- Proactively identifying and solving campaign-level problems without constant supervision.
- Demonstrating a strong understanding of the full student recruitment funnel.
- Showing initiative in supporting and guiding newer team members.
2
From Marketing Generalist (non-education sector)
3-5 years (plus 2-3 years in education marketing)
Skills to master
- Adapting general marketing principles to the unique nuances of the education sector, understanding student personas, and navigating institutional complexities. You'd likely need some prior education marketing experience before this senior role.
You're ready to move on when
- A strong portfolio of successful multi-channel campaigns in a consumer-facing industry.
- Quickly grasping the unique challenges and opportunities of education marketing.
- Demonstrating a keen interest in student behaviour and the higher education landscape.
- Successfully completing a more junior education marketing role first to learn the ropes.
3
From Content Specialist / Manager (education sector)
3-4 years
Skills to master
- Expanding beyond content creation to encompass broader campaign strategy, digital advertising, analytics, and CRM automation. You'd need to develop a more holistic marketing skillset.
You're ready to move on when
- Proven ability to create engaging, high-performing content for education audiences.
- Demonstrating an understanding of how content fits into the wider marketing funnel.
- Taking initiative to learn about digital advertising, SEO, and marketing automation.
- Successfully managing content strategy for specific programmes or departments.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work can lead to managing a marketing team, directing enrolment strategy across an institution, or overseeing marketing and enrolment at the top level.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Senior Education Marketing Specialist is actually changing.

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Digital Marketing, worked against Senior Education Marketing Specialist.

Digital Marketing Entry Level

Applied to your work in Senior Education Marketing Specialist

This unit aims to provide learners with an understanding of digital marketing principles and techniques. Upon completion, learners will be able to identify and explain key aspects of digital marketing via social media, email campaigns, and online advertisements, and apply these to market a product digitally.

How the thinking builds

1 Remember
2 Understand
3 Apply
4 Analyse
5 Evaluate
6 Create

An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

Start my Senior Education Marketing Specialist plan, free

See Your Progress Grow Illustration

Senior Education Marketing Specialist

Student Journey Mapping
Enrollment Funnel Management
Persona Development (Student, Parent, Counsellor)
Lead Nurturing & Scoring
Content Strategy for Education
Compliance & Accreditation Marketing

This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Senior Education Marketing Specialist is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

Lead Education Marketing Strategist (L4)
3-5 years

This is a significant step up, moving from owning specific programmes to architecting and optimising the entire student recruitment funnel across multiple programmes or even the whole institution.
- Designing and implementing advanced attribution models to precisely measure ROI across all channels.
- Leading the selection and implementation of new marketing technologies.
- Developing comprehensive market entry strategies for new student segments or geographic regions.
- Budget management and resource allocation for multi-million-pound initiatives.

Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be honest, marketing can be a bit of a grind sometimes. Repetitive tasks, endless content drafts, digging through competitor sites... it all eats into your time. But what if you could offload a big chunk of that? That's where AI comes in.

As a Senior Education Marketing Specialist, you're constantly juggling strategy with execution. AI isn't here to replace your creativity or your strategic brain, but it's brilliant at handling the heavy lifting, giving you back precious hours to focus on what really matters: connecting with students and driving enrolments. Think of it as having a tireless assistant who never sleeps.

Personalised Nurture Sequences

Imagine dynamically adjusting email content and timing based on a prospect's real-time behaviour – pages they've visited, content they've downloaded, even how long they've spent on a specific programme page. AI can move beyond simple pre-set workflows, making every email feel uniquely tailored, without you manually segmenting lists all day.

Competitor Messaging Analysis

Instead of spending days manually sifting through competitor websites, social media, and ad copy, use AI tools to scrape and analyse it all in minutes. You'll quickly identify key themes, unique value propositions, and crucial messaging gaps that you can then use to differentiate our programmes. It's like having a strategic intelligence unit at your fingertips.

First-Draft Content Generation

Staring at a blank page is the worst, isn't it? Use generative AI to create initial drafts of programme descriptions, student life blog posts, or social media captions. Just give it specific prompts and some institutional data, and you'll get a solid starting point. This slashes the 'blank page' problem, letting you focus on editing, refining, and adding that essential human insight, rather than starting from scratch.

FAQ & Chatbot Knowledge Base

Think about all those repetitive questions students ask. AI can analyse historical email inquiries and website search data to build and continuously update a comprehensive knowledge base. This powers our website chatbots, answering common questions 24/7. It means fewer inbound emails for you and the Admissions team, freeing up time for high-value strategic work.

Common questions

How do you become a Senior Education Marketing Specialist?

Common routes in include From Education Marketing Specialist (2-3 years), From Marketing Generalist (non-education sector) (3-5 years (plus 2-3 years in education marketing)) and From Content Specialist / Manager (education sector) (3-4 years). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Senior Education Marketing Specialist progress to?

This role can lead on to Lead Education Marketing Strategist (3-5 years), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Senior Education Marketing Specialist?

Increasingly, Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration and Data Storytelling & Visualisation. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my Senior Education Marketing Specialist plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.

Senior Education Marketing Specialist

Where should we send it?

Two short quizzes about you

Will AI change your work as a Senior Education Marketing Specialist?

What's rising in its place

Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration

Data Storytelling & Visualisation

Skills this role draws on

Technical

How you actually get there, here

From Education Marketing Specialist (L2)

From Marketing Generalist (non-education sector)

From Content Specialist / Manager (education sector)

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

Roles this leads to

One to one, on the work you already do

Everything else the record holds

The career path, and where it branches

Lead Education Marketing Strategist (L4)

Where AI is starting to help

Personalised Nurture Sequences

Competitor Messaging Analysis

First-Draft Content Generation

FAQ & Chatbot Knowledge Base

Common questions

Want a read on where you stand?