Heejae Lim
TalkingPoints
San Francisco, CA USA
"Luck finds you and it only comes to people who are ready. It’s not ‘if’ luck finds you, it’s ‘when.’"
Career Roadmap
Heejae's work combines: Education, Entrepreneurship, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Be curious and open-minded. That approach of always wanting to learn more turns fear into excitement. Go and experience as many things as you can.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Philosophy
University of Oxford
Bachelor's Degree
Political Science and Government, General
University of Oxford
Bachelor's Degree
Economics, General
University of Oxford
Graduate Degree
Development Economics and International Development
London School of Economics and Political Science
Graduate Degree
Business Administration and Management, General
Stanford University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
I was born in South Korea, but later immigrated with my family to the U.K.
2.
Attended the University of Oxford where I received my bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE).
3.
I then attended the London School of Economics and Political Science where I received my master’s degree in international development with the goal of helping people in the developing world.
4.
After graduating, I decided to travel the world for eight months—spent time learning Japanese in Japan and learning Spanish in Columbia.
5.
Upon returning to the U.K., I decided that my passion was not in international development and instead accepted a position as a business analyst at a consulting firm.
6.
As a consultant, I worked with governments in the Middle East on education reform and later worked as chief of staff to a special advisor to the Secretary of Education in the UK.
7.
Attended Stanford University where I received my MBA—one of my class projects was figuring out ways to get parents more engaged in their children’s educations.
8.
That project eventually turned into my company, Talking Points, which I launched in 2015—it’s a multilingual platform that’s targeted towards underserved, diverse immigrant communities.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
What am I going to do??
How I responded:
After graduating from college, the world was my oyster. But, because of that freedom, I had no sense of direction. You get used to a routine at school and then all of a sudden that is gone and you have to set your own path. The hardest part for me was getting started, but it got easier as I took more and more steps ahead.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I was born in South Korea and immigrated to England when I was 8 years old. We lived for a long time within the Korean community in London. My mom spoke English and became a parent leader in our community. She helped me navigate everything.
I had a lot of student debt, so when I was starting my company, I felt a lot of pressure to make smarter financial decisions because I couldn't afford to be the typical "bootstrapped" founder. I applied for a lot of funding and luckily got all of it!