We didn't know what LinkedIn was either.
A couple of years ago, we were lost. Internships, jobs, and networking felt like things that started in college or later, and that never sat right with us. We had friends who were ready to work now, so why should they wait?
School had it half-covered. There was plenty of help getting into college, and college is supposed to get you a job, but nobody taught the part in between. Nobody showed us how to interview, how to talk to someone at a networking event without freezing, how to build a LinkedIn profile that doesn't look empty, or how to write a resume a person will read. Those skills open doors, and no one was teaching them.
So we built the thing that didn't exist.
We pitched a club to the faculty member who ran our school's alumni relations, starting with LinkedIn and growing from there. He loved it and added the piece that made it work, which was using the alumni network to bring in people who do these jobs. Our speakers included a recruiter from Zoox, someone who works at LinkedIn, and people in sales.
We weren't experts. We started this to learn it ourselves, right alongside everyone who showed up. Our job was to build the club and keep it growing, not to lecture from the front.
At first, it was boring.
We'd rent the biggest room on campus, bring in a great speaker, and watch people start to nod off through a 45-minute talk. The information was good, but it wasn't landing, so we changed how we taught it. We sent out surveys and asked people what they wanted. We cut the talks to twenty minutes and added a hands-on activity right after, like building a resume from a template and getting feedback on it, practicing what the speaker had just covered, or asking the speaker anything. After that, people stopped checking out and started showing up.
It became the biggest club on campus.
From there it grew. We expanded past LinkedIn into AI and sales, and we even ran a sales competition, because selling done right is something you do for people, not to them. We built a team, set up a Notion board to track everything, and held weekly check-ins to keep it moving. We promoted it in the school announcements, the newspaper, and our own Instagram. It took everything we had, and one of us even walked away from a varsity rowing spot to give it the time it needed.
What started as a handful of people in a room became the largest club on campus, with more than 210 members. Our members have used those resume templates, interview reps, and LinkedIn profiles to land jobs, internships, and mentors they wouldn't have found otherwise. We graduate soon, so we're already training the next group to carry it forward.
Why should this stay at one school?
That question became SkillBridge. We're taking what we taught in that room, from LinkedIn and resumes to interviewing and networking, and putting it where anyone can find it on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and in a community you can join.
We've been to networking events where students our age don't have a LinkedIn yet. They meet someone who could change their path and then have no way to stay in touch. That's what we want to fix.
High school is one of the best times you'll get to start networking, and the skills you build now will stay with you. You're not too young for this, and starting now puts you ahead. Let's get you a head start.