Today we’d like to introduce you to Julian Espinosa.
Julian, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Our company was looking for office space and we came across Hub101 after taking a few meetings there. Hub101 is a co-working space that was built by Cal Lutheran University. It’s an interesting mixture of students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and retired executives. Between the mix of these groups really cool things happen. When we started working at the space we were approached to mentor students. This quickly led to internships. Over the last few years, we’ve worked with over 40 interns. We noticed many of these interns weren’t career seeking ready. We did some digging and discovered that systematically from high school to college, these institutions weren’t preparing kids for the world of job seeking. We interviewed college/high school students, teachers both at high school and college. We spoke with business owners as well. We discovered that the schools weren’t delivering on some key things like Resume Writing, How To Find A Job, Interview Skills, and how to negotiate your salary. We decided to create a workshop to solve for this, it’s called Leaving The Nest. We help high school and college students become career ready.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This road has been much smoother than my other companies. The reason is this is a huge need and no one is filling it. You talk to high school students (seniors) and ask them if they have a resume or been taught how to make one, a majority of them haven’t. In our local districts, Resume Writing isn’t a requirement and in fact, offered only at some high schools as an elective only. The struggles have been talking to school officials. Not all of them are believers.
Leaving The Nest – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Leaving The Nest = Helping High School & College Students To Become Career ready. We teach the skills schools aren’t teaching. Creating careers early. We help students build their resumes, learn how to find a job, apply for a job, and show up confidently in an interview. This program packs the important life skills needed today when career-seeking!
Right now, we are operating in three ways. 1. Private Coaching 2. Weekend Bootcamps 3. School Guest Speaking
We are most proud of the students we have worked with and helped find careers for. One of our interns completed our program and went on to intern at NASA.
What sets us apart is two things. We took a customer-focused approached to build the Leaving The Nest curriculum. We interviewed the key stakeholders’ students that are looking for jobs and business owners hiring. Through that process, we discovered holes that were missing. We then crossed referenced those holes with the curriculum taught at high schools and colleges. Through this process, it was pretty clear what we needed to do. This is our main differentiator.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
In terms of success, we look at outcomes. Our curriculum was designed in direct relation to actionable items a student can have after and during our program. Here is what we look for:
1. Students find their career paths
2. Students find an internship
3. Students find a job
4. Students are “career seeking ready” (Resume, Cover Letter, Where To Apply, How To Apply, LinkedIn Profile, Portfolio)
Contact Info:
- Address: 31416 Agoura Rd #105, Westlake Village, CA 91361
- Website: www.leavingthenest.co
- Phone: 818-850-0397
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeavingTheNestBootCamp
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