How to build startup skills
Knowing and improving your professional skills will be important throughout your career. In the world of startups, skill-based hiring is very popular and companies are often looking for students who have the right blend of experience and demonstrated skills for their internships and entry level roles. If you’re thinking about founding a company, having a clear understanding of your skills can help you build functional teams, lean into your strengths and set your business up for success.
What skills do I need?
First, take stock of your own skills and the skills that are in-demand. Then, decide what skills you most need to develop. An easy way to do this is to connect with MySkills in Career Services. MySkills offers industry data and resources for you to think about your skills from courses and previous work experiences. Once you’ve explored, feel free to connect with a Career Advisor for a more in-depth look at next steps.
Where can I build my skills?
CU Boulder offers a variety of ways for you to upskill quickly and over the long term so you are ready for the world of startups! Here are some top options below:
Self-paced, flexible, in-demand trainings led by industry leaders like Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Tableau, Adobe and many others. Sound interesting? Check out the Career Academy that was recently launched for free to CU Boulder students. You can build skills in startup ready fields like Business Intelligence, Digital Marketing, UX/UI Design, Project Management and so much more!
Internships at Startups
CU Boulder has thousands of jobs and internships posted by startups every year on Handshake. Many of these are posted by local companies specifically to CU Boulder meaning you have a much better chance of securing a role. Check out this custom search link anytime(and you can save the search to make it easy) to find positions posted by a wide variety of Colorado startups!
Want to really get to know how to build an idea into a business? The New Venture Challenge at CU is a months-long program held every year that connects student-led teams to mentorship, entrepreneurial skill building resources and hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money!
The Idea Forge at CU Boulder has incredible staff, faculty, and facilities that teach students how to build ideas from concept into real products. The Idea Forge hosts regular workshops to help students at CU learn how to fabricate from scratch.
CU Boulder students have free access to LinkedIn Learning, a tool that allows you to build skills in short bursts through expert-led videos. Choose a professional skill, and more than likely, you'll find tutorials on LinkedIn Learning with a variety of instructors and applications. Examples skills might be team building, Photoshop or coding in Python, but there are so many more. Best of all, these courses are flexible and self-paced, making it easy to fit into your schedule!
Still want to dig deeper on skills? Check out the multitude of programs and opportunities that our CU Boulder Innovation & Entrepreneurship ecosystem offers to students!