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Posts in Students and Alumni
My Worst Moment, The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me

For alumna Liz Holzman, her worst moment forced her to reassess her priorities and pursue a career path that aligned with her interests and talents.

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How My Core Values Are Giving My Career an Unfair Advantage

José Ramos spent eight months working out of a storage unit in California, grappling to define his core values. What he arrived at is a compass to guide his career.

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Finding #CareerLove and Making the World a Better Place: They Don't Have to be Mutually Exclusive

For most of our alumni, a job isn't just about building skills, earning paychecks, and climbing the ladder. Passionate, purpose-driven people seek careers they'll truly love, and the opportunity to make a meaningful impact. Chicago alumna and UX designer at Civis Analytics Alissa Ampezzan shares a powerful framework for identifying the right job opportunity for you.

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Startup Institute Students Join the Tribe at Tribe for a Sales and Marketing Hack

The team at Chicago startup company Tribe was founded when two Startup Institute instructors started discussing their project management challenges. Now, Tribe's enlisted the help of our marketing and sales students to hack their target customer and sales strategy. Read on to learn about their hack and takeaways.

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Chicago Tech Knows How To Party With a Purpose

Chicago alumni Erin Slone and Tomás de'Medici led the charge in bringing the first ever Chicago Tech Winter Soiree to the Startup Institute community and friends. The event, benefitting BLUE1647, was an overwhelming success because of the contributions of so many. Read on to learn how it all came together.

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Startup Institute Alumnae Named Forbes 30 Under 30

We're happy to congratulate Amanda Curtis and Gemma Sole, co-founders of Nineteenth Amendment and alumnae of our inaugural class, on being named in Forbes' top 30 Under 30 for 2016. We caught up with Amanda and Gemma to learn more about why they love New York tech, how they've achieved this success, and their career advice for aspiring innovators.

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CEO Diane Hessan on Setting the Bar for Bootcamps

Bootcamp programs are exploding right now. But, are they getting people jobs? In this interview, CEO Diane Hessan explains how adult education is evolving, the growth potential for bootcamps, and why these adult education companies need to put metrics around their offerings.

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Career Success Story: Charles Chuman's Path to High-Growth Sales

Charles Chuman worked in media, energy policy, and politics before pivoting his career to work in startup sales. We interviewed Charles to hear about his life as a sales executive at ContextMedia:Health and for advice on launching a sales career in Chicago's innovation sector.

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Behind-the-Scenes on Our New Video Series

Last week, we released a three-part video series in hopes of bringing our students' eight-week journeys to life. These videos were developed to give prospective students a better sense of the experience and outcomes of our full-time program. We think of them as “Inspiration” “Transformation,” and “Validation.”

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Career Success Story: From Non-profit Arts to Marketing for Startups

Emily Griffin leveraged her performance arts and non-profit background into a content marketing career in startups. In this interview, Emily talks about her experience as third hire at an early-stage startup, her day-to-day as a marketer at 3Play Media, and advice for marketing interviews.

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How to Tell a Story that Will Deeply Impact Your Career

Knowing how to tell an impactful story can take you far in your career. Whether you're giving a presentation, trying to close a sale, or you're interviewing for a new role, good storytelling helps others to connect the dots and form an emotional connection with the facts you're presenting. Read on for the four types of impactful stories, and how to use each one.

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Career Success Story: From Technical Writer to QA Developer at WeSpire

We caught up with Meredith Davies, an alumna from our web development track, to learn about her experiences as a QA Developer at WeSpire, her interview process, and advice for people who want to launch careers in software engineering.

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