Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabe Bensimon. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Gabe grew up in Venice Beach, CA and began his career journey at Cal Poly SLO, where he met his Co-Founder, Tim. Applying for colleges in 2008, he saw how the peak of the Great Recession affected those around him, especially his family. Gabe decided to pursue Industrial Engineering for a “secure” career path even though this wasn’t really his interest. Randomly he learned about Sales Engineering and how it blends business acumen with a technical focus. After 5 years working as a Sales Engineer, Gabe felt restless and decided to go back to school again, this time for an MBA at the University of Southern CA.
At USC, Gabe realized that while the education was helpful, it wasn’t necessary to pursue college a 2nd time to find out about career paths that exist. This led to the birth of OneDegree Careers. He believes access to career information should be democratized and available to everyone, regardless if you attend college or not.
Spending almost a decade in the construction industry, he saw first-hand the opportunities that exist within the trades. Responsible for hiring tradespeople like HVAC technicians, electricians, plumbers, and welders, Gabe saw the huge need to increase the workforce and at the same time, the earning opportunities for those who wish to pursue these and other careers that don’t require a 4-year college degree.
He is inspired to introduce new opportunities to young people and help avoid unnecessary student loan debt.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
With any new venture, there have certainly been challenges. We were about 6 weeks away from running out of cash when we raised our pre-seed round. In the very early days, we struggled to understand what product we should be building and for who. Our business model was unclear as we didn’t quite know where we can add the most value. Today we are still working through some of these challenges (nobody said it would be easy!) but we have a much better grasp on how to tackle challenges.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about OneDegree Careers?
OneDegree Careers helps people find out about high-paying career paths that are in demand and do not require a 4-year college degree. We then match people with the right training programs that provide the education and certification needed to make the career switch.
These careers all require a certification but is within reach for anyone. The average American is switching jobs every 2 years and is faced with the question of whether to stay in the same industry and/or role. We built OneDegree Careers to serve as a free resource to help navigate finding both your very first career and your new one.
We launched in 2021 to solve the problem of too many people attending college only to end up working in a job that never required the degree. The student loan crisis has surpassed $1.8 Trillion in the US and is growing every day.
Our co-founders come from over a decade in the Construction and Healthcare industries, where they witnessed first-hand all these amazing, high-paid skilled career opportunities that don’t require college. Committed to sharing these opportunities with the world, OneDegree Careers was born.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Luck has certainly played a role in our business. We were lucky enough to align with the right investor at the right time to give us the opportunity to work on this venture full-time. As co-founders, we have been lucky to meet each other and align on tackling the same challenge, while bringing different but complementary skill sets to the team.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.onedegreecareers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onedegree_careers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onedegreecareers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOSMRELF8_gr_jnpSj1BhWg
- Other: https://linktr.ee/onedegreecareers
