Back

Why I started Skillful - mentorship & upskilling for BizOpshttps://www.joinskillful.com

My name is Loren and I’m the co-founder of Skillful. We help people land strategy and operations roles in the tech industry. Our program is project-based and led by mentors who work in BizOps at Uber, Instacart, Google, LinkedIn and DoorDash. The goal is to learn SQL, data visualization and advanced data analysis through hands-on projects led by mentors. I co-founded Skillful to solve a problem I’ve cared about for a long time. In college, I often heard some version of “careers are all about who you know, not what you know.” This advice always bothered me. For one thing, it conjures images of some exclusive old boys network. But more importantly, it’s not actually true. I think a more accurate piece of advice for today’s ever-changing tech industry is: “learn what you need to know, from who you need to know”. That’s why we connect talented professionals with mentors who work in industry, so that they can master the precise skills and workflows to help them not only land their dream job, but thrive in it. One interesting side effect of this model is that it gives our students a strong ally who understands what they are capable of and gives them a boost of confidence - one of our recent grads has joined her mentor’s team at DoorDash! Pretty soon she will return to Skillful as a mentor herself :) If this resonates with you, I'd love to connect! Finally, if you’re keen to build a business career in tech, please reach out directly or visit https://www.joinskillful.com/sign-up.