| | Rachel Leist | I am celebrating my completion of the Break Into Tech - Designer Track through Skillcrush! I had been laid off by the company I served for 18 years due to the pandemic. I had just spent four years as a Product Owner designing, managing and expanding proprietary software that literally ran the operation and drove the recruiting pipeline. It was tremendous experience, and I loved designing software... but this one job in tech wasn't enough to get me to the next one. I had earned this one through 14 years of operational leadership excellence and being a thought leader. I needed hard skills and the background to help me get a job that I wanted. Enter Skillcrush!
Once I got my bearings after the covid layoff I started doing research to try and figure out what training I needed to get me a job working in IT as a product designer. I came across Skillcrush and Adda Birnir's story which I found to be similar to mine... only Adda's struggles were during the 2008 economic crisis... and she created Skillcrush because she saw the need to help people gain hard technical skills that would keep them employed in high paying jobs. I really loved that it was founded by a woman in response to her own job loss and that it appeared to be run by mostly women! I will also tell you their marketing campaign is terrific... I would get emails from Adda every few days sharing stories of her personal journey and how she became successful again after losing her job. It was a story I needed to hear and she kept telling it until I was ready to jump in with both feet.
I started the classes in June of 2020 and its October 5th and I have completed the BIT-Fast Track for Designers! I am applying for jobs and know I will find the right one soon... and I enjoyed the classes so much that I will continue taking other classes through Skillcrush until working takes over all of my time. I am grateful to Adda and the Skillcrush team for their support and constant encouragement. I will continue using and referring to the classes I took to support me in new roles as things change or I need to review skills or processes. They also have some terrific masterclasses and career training and counseling! |
