As technology rapidly advances and business priorities continuously shift, professionals that want to advance their careers must keep their skills sharp — but they need support from their employers to do so.
Just ask Rohan Krishnan, a business analyst in small business bank fraud at financial services company Capital One. Upon stepping into his role, he realized he needed to strengthen his AI and machine learning skills to learn how to analyze data more effectively. Supported by Capital One’s culture of experimentation and guidance from his manager, he deepened his understanding of how to use AI to identify variables that predict fraudulent behavior, enabling him to launch a new check deposit model that catches more fraud.
“This experience has been transformative,” Krishnan said. “It provided a proven framework for addressing complex root causes and gave me the confidence to lead projects that connect high-tech execution with a truly human-centric strategy.”
Laksh Pahwa had a similar experience at cybersecurity platform provider Zscaler, where he felt a pull to learn more about the business side of the organization. He successfully transitioned from being a solutions engineer to an enterprise account executive, thanks to team members’ willingness to let him attend live customer meetings, shadow product specialists and eventually take ownership of client conversations.
“Zscaler genuinely creates an environment where, if you show a hunger to grow, the organization leans in to meet you there,” Pahwa said.
For Krishnan, Pahwa and employees at six other companies, having support to strengthen their skill sets has empowered them to advance their careers. Below, each employee shares more about the skills they’ve learned and how their employer has helped them get ahead.
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Capital One provides individuals and businesses with banking services, ranging from credit cards to automotive loans.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
Coming into my role, I had a very limited technical background. However, I knew I wanted to grow my AI and machine learning skills to better understand the data I’m looking at. In a world where the use of data is expanding at an incredible pace, I believe these technologies are integral components to the future of business analysis. I wanted to learn how to use AI tools as a guide to parse through large amounts of data and really focus on the most important highlights. Mastering this was important because I wanted to move beyond surface-level tasks and take on more abstract, white-space business challenges.
How did Capital One help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
Capital One provided me with room to test and explore through a deep culture of experimentation. Specifically, while creating a policy for fraud alerting, I was encouraged to dive directly into our machine learning models to identify variables that predict fraudulent behavior. This project involved hands-on experimentation with our AI toolkits, getting feedback and developing a data-driven methodology for our alerting. My manager empowered me to help shape our annual fraud strategy, where I aligned business goals with technical execution across our data science and tech teams
“Capital One provided me with room to test and explore through a deep culture of experimentation.”
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
We launched a new check deposit model that catches more fraud while flagging fewer honest small business owners by mistake. This meant our customers could access their funds more easily and without unnecessary friction, ensuring our fraud protections never got in the way of their daily business operations. By using machine learning to isolate which variables were truly important, we were able to create a much more precise alerting policy. This experience has been transformative. It provided a proven framework for addressing complex root causes and gave me the confidence to lead projects that connect high-tech execution with a truly human-centric strategy.
The world’s largest businesses, critical infrastructure organizations, and government agencies rely on Zscaler to secure users, branches, applications, data and devices, and to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why is this important to you?
As a solutions engineer, I was deeply comfortable in the technical lane, but I always felt the pull toward the business side of the conversation. I wanted to understand why deals stall, how executives make decisions and what it truly takes to align technology with business outcomes. I set my sights on developing skills in champion-building, navigating organizational charts upstream, executive stakeholder management and complex deal orchestration. For me, this wasn’t just about a title change; it was about becoming a complete go-to-market professional who could sit across the table from a chief information officer and speak their language. In enterprise sales, technical credibility only takes you so far; the real differentiator is your ability to build trust at every level of an organization and tie every conversation back to business impact. That was the skill set I was determined to build.
How did Zscaler help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
Zscaler’s support was hands-on and genuinely intentional. The Buddy Program paired me with seasoned account executives who openly shared their playbooks on deal strategy, objection handling and executive communication. I received direct mentorship from leadership, who invested their time coaching me on territory management, pipelines and long-cycle deals. Beyond structured programs, the real magic happened in the field. I was included in live customer meetings, shadowed product specialists and was trusted to progressively take ownership of client conversations. It wasn’t classroom learning; it was real-world, in-the-moment development. Zscaler genuinely creates an environment where, if you show a hunger to grow, the organization leans in to meet you there.
“The Buddy Program paired me with seasoned account executives who openly shared their playbooks on deal strategy, objection handling and executive communication.”
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
The outcome was a professional journey I’m incredibly proud of, transitioning from solutions engineer to senior solutions consultant, and now to account executive at Zscaler. Each step wasn’t just a role change; it was a mindset evolution. Moving into the AE role within the enterprise segment meant I was now fully owning the revenue relationship from the first call to close, navigating complex multi-stakeholder environments and driving outcomes that matter to the business. The skills I built — executive engagement, champion development and deal strategy — have become my everyday toolkit. More than anything, this journey taught me that growth at Zscaler isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a culture that invests in its people, provides stretch opportunities and trusts them to rise. I am a direct product of that culture, and it shapes how I show up for my customers every single day.
Cohere Health offers intelligent prior authorization in an effort to align patients, healthcare providers and health plans on an optimal care path that drives the best possible outcomes without high costs and burdensome administrative tasks.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
I am passionate about quality, the standard or measure of excellence through which we do our work. Let me take you on a quick journey through my time at Cohere Health. I started as a nurse reviewer, helping to create the review process and train new team members. From there, I moved to policy configuration, taking proprietary and client policies and placing them into reviewable formats while maintaining the clinical intent. I was proud to use my nursing skills to help patients in a totally new way, knowing that what we have to offer Cohere Health is something very special.
Now, in my new role as a quality specialist, I am taking all the skills and lessons from my career and using that knowledge to transform policy writing and clinical review.
How did Cohere Health help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
I was heard. This new role is the culmination of collaboration and discussion over the last few years. I shared my interests, talents and where I wanted to grow if given the opportunity.
I am encouraged and intentionally supported. Every day, I am both grateful for and humbled by the incredible teammates who surround me in this collaborative environment, inspiring and genuinely being there for each other. I continue to be empowered. My leadership team sincerely listens, always encouraging me to speak up about new challenges of interest or places I would like to reach in my personal growth.
“My leadership team sincerely listens, always encouraging me to speak up about new challenges of interest or places I would like to reach in my personal growth.”
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
I have been able to step into a role where I can apply my breadth of knowledge to its full potential and impact quality, while getting to continually learn. It continues to expand my understanding of other teams and structures across Cohere Health and to recognize how collaboration strengthens our work.
As a nurse, it keeps me motivated and engaged when I witness the results of each improvement, knowing the quality of policies we provide to our clients directly influences how each is able to provide care to their members. To me, this work feels like a ripple in a lake. One dedicated effort; one small stone. But oh, how far it will go!
Coursera, which partners with universities and organizations to offer personalized, scalable learning courses, recently merged with Udemy, the AI-powered skills platform provider that helps both students and professionals level up their skill sets through online learning.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
I’ve watched every role at Coursera + Udemy shift — product, finance, marketing, all of it. It’s not enough to simply add AI to your toolkit anymore. You have to understand how it works, where it fits into your decisions and how to iterate responsibly. AI fluency (basic literacy in how AI works and where it fits into decisions) is a non-negotiable skill, but pairing experimentation (empowering employees to try new things, and how to do it responsibly) and psychological safety unlocks what it actually takes to integrate successfully. In practice, one program we’ve created to help us tackle all of these skills is something we call AI Spark Sessions, or Sparks for short. Sparks are monthly all-hands sessions where people across every business unit sign up to share what they’re building with AI: which AI experiments worked, which didn’t, what surprised them and what they’re wrestling with. It’s become our way to share wins, learn from each other, demonstrate that it’s safe to experiment and build connections and trust while we do it.
“Sparks are monthly all-hands sessions where people across every business unit sign up to share what they’re building with AI: which AI experiments worked, which didn’t, what surprised them and what they’re wrestling with.”
How did Coursera + Udemy help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
On day one of Coursera + Udemy’s merger, Coursera employees got access to Udemy Business, and Udemy employees got access to Coursera Enterprise. We provide unlimited access to both Coursera and Udemy for every employee because continuous learning isn’t optional, especially when your company is going through a transformation. We’ve created Slack channels where we share what we’re learning, what courses we’re loving and peer recommendations.
We also run cohorts targeted to specific teams, and provide the space to connect, share insights and, of course, some accountability to keep making progress. For example, one of the things I’m looking forward to in the second half of the year is our entire people/HR team taking the HRCI Professional in Human Resources Professional Certificate on Coursera. We have a dedicated Slack channel and monthly check-ins where we share progress, discuss how we’re applying what we’re learning and keep each other accountable. Learning happens as part of how we work, not separate from it. Slack channels make it visible, peer cohorts create accountability, and managers are actively involved in supporting progress and providing opportunities to practice new skills on-the-job.
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
Building Spark Sessions from scratch was itself an experiment. I had a hypothesis: If we gave people a structured, regular forum to share AI wins and failures, it would build both psychological safety and organizational learning. But I had no playbook for how to make it work at an all-hands scale. That taught me a lot about what it takes to actually run something like this. I learned how to identify and coordinate with the right speakers, working across business units to surface the stories that matter, then coaching presenters on how to tell them. It’s one thing to find someone doing interesting work; it’s another to help them translate that into a narrative that lands. I also learned how to manage competing priorities: drumming up attendance, securing executive support, coordinating logistics across time zones and keeping the format tight and meaningful so people actually show up next month. And honestly, the part I didn’t expect was the creative challenge. Designing a logo, tweaking the session structure, figuring out how to make storytelling the format, building in moments for connection and humor — that stretched me in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
AlertMedia’s threat intelligence, emergency communication and travel risk management solutions help companies of all sizes identify, respond to and recover from critical events faster and more confidently.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
I wanted to grow into a role where I could use my experience to make a broader impact across the organization as a cross-functional partner. I started at AlertMedia as a sales development representative, moved into Implementation and eventually found my path to learning and development. With each move, I began to recognize and deepen expertise in that the skills I enjoyed using most — for example, active listening, anticipating needs, collaboration and helping others succeed — were foundational to the work of our learning and development team.
As I moved through each role I’ve held at AlertMedia, I gained a deeper understanding of our customers, our teams and what employees need to be successful. Moving into learning and development brought those experiences and strengths together, giving me the opportunity to positively impact our culture, help employees grow and enable customer operations to provide the best possible experience for our customers.
How did AlertMedia help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
Throughout my time at AlertMedia, across multiple departments and roles, the support for my development has always been consistent. My managers and leaders have taken the time to understand what I enjoy, where my strengths are and how I want to grow. Even when I did not recognize certain skills or strengths in myself, they saw that potential and helped me see it, too. Their guidance and recommendations gave me opportunities to take on new challenges, work across teams and develop the skills that ultimately helped me land where I am today. I also took advantage of quarterly professional development opportunities offered by our learning and development team, with topics ranging from executive presence and personal brand to expanding my software skills.
“My managers and leaders have taken the time to understand what I enjoy, where my strengths are and how I want to grow.”
Most recently, AlertMedia continued to support my growth through the Aspire Emerging Leaders Program. Aspire gave me the opportunity to reflect on my leadership style and strengthen skills like communication, emotional intelligence, adaptability and building trust.
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
As I continued building my skills through AlertMedia’s professional development opportunities, my managers encouraged me to think about what I was passionate about and where I could make the greatest impact. I realized learning and development brought together what I enjoyed most: supporting others, working across teams, improving the employee experience and helping customer operations deliver the best experience for our customers.
I transitioned into my current learning and development role, where I support customer operations through onboarding, training and ongoing enablement. Since then, Aspire has helped me recognize my strengths and identify how I want to continue developing as a leader. I’m putting those skills into practice as a mentor in AlertMedia’s formal mentorship program, supporting another employee’s development by drawing on my prior experiences and knowledge. Together, these cumulative experiences have helped me find a meaningful career while continuing to shape where I want to grow next.
McMaster-Carr is an e-commerce company that supplies industrial products to plants around the world.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
After three years as a systems engineer at McMaster-Carr, I wanted to move into an engineering management role. Two things drew me to it. The first was impact. I wanted to move beyond shipping individual features to shaping the direction of a project by translating high-level goals into achievable objectives, creating work plans and evaluating technical design. The second was the people. I had previously enjoyed being a peer mentor and a new-hire orientation lead, and I wanted a role where I could spend more of my time coaching and developing others.
Though I had some mentoring experience, it would be different to be responsible for development of engineers on my team. To be successful, I wanted to build my skills as a coach and manager: giving technical feedback, selecting appropriately sized features and setting others up to do their best work.
How did McMaster-Carr help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
McMaster-Carr helped me build these skills in a couple of ways. First, I was given the opportunity to coach a new engineer on my project by helping her with technical designs and performing the first reviews of her code. After that, I led a cohort of new engineers through Tech Training, a multi-week program where we taught the fundamentals of coding at McMaster-Carr and delivered a capstone website. Through these experiences, I had the opportunity to provide feedback, scope work and lead a group through delivering a product.
I also participated in McMaster-Carr’s mentoring program, where I worked with an assigned mentor on my development goals. Since my mentor was an engineering manager, she was able to provide helpful insight into the role and act as a sounding board while I worked through these new experiences. Her feedback and coaching helped me feel prepared to take on management responsibilities.
“Since my mentor was an engineering manager, she was able to provide helpful insight into the role and act as a sounding board while I worked through these new experiences.”
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
Not long after leading Tech Training, I was promoted to engineering management. I led a team focused on building software to prepare our receiving operation for a transition to a more automated warehouse. In that role, I got to work directly with operational partners to describe how our day-to-day operations would change with automation and create a technical plan for incorporating our existing software with the automated system. I enjoyed thinking through the project at a high level and found it especially rewarding to be a major part of improving productivity and ergonomics for our entire distribution operation.
Since then, I have continued to grow as a manager. I spent two years as the operational manager for our receiving department, a role that pushed me to develop my ability to lead through others as I managed a larger team. Now, I’m a senior manager responsible for helping operations around the company use LLMs to improve customer experience and productivity. This ambiguous project has helped me grow in shaping work and setting direction amidst uncertainty. Each of these roles has felt like a natural progression of the management skills I started building years ago.
ClassWallet’s platform is designed to help government agencies, nonprofits and K-12 schools manage funds securely and transparently.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
In my role, it’s important to give feedback that both demonstrates active listening and empathy. I’m a very direct person, so ensuring the message is received as I intended it is paramount to my success in this role. By affording me a series of very challenging growth opportunities, I developed this skill, and it is essential to my continued success.
How did ClassWallet help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
ClassWallet supports growth both within the department where you started as well as the ability to move laterally throughout the company. I began my career here seven years ago, and six months later, I was in a new role. There’s an inherent belief system that one person can lead and learn simultaneously, and I was given the opportunity to stand up whole departments and create the corresponding processes. That came with the ability to fail, learn quickly from my mistakes and continue improving both personally and professionally from these experiences. Our senior leadership values drive and innovation, with a realistic lens that version 1.0 will likely be imperfect. A specific example is our new Learning Management System. I recently led the LMS transition, which underscores ClassWallet’s belief in professional development. Colleagues have the opportunity to take classes for fun that speak to their interests, and my team is also creating specific paths for individual career mapping and department-specific learnings.
“There’s an inherent belief system that one person can lead and learn simultaneously, and I was given the opportunity to stand up whole departments and create the corresponding processes.”
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
I recently served on a Women’s Panel, where we discussed imposter syndrome. I grew with this experience, as it helped me better know my value and increase my confidence. A big take-away was living the difference between nice and kind. I used to place a stronger emphasis on being nice and today, I’m less concerned about being liked because I’m nice versus being respected for my contributions (which I share in a kind paradigm). I’m an introvert, and this helped me expand my voice. ClassWallet has been incredibly impactful in my career development, primarily by affording opportunities and believing in my abilities (occasionally, more than I even believed in myself). Today, I freely give and receive feedback with an eye on moving the business forward and personal improvement.
Invoice Home offers customizable invoice templates for small businesses and freelancers.
What new skill or role did you want to learn, and why was this important to you?
As a digital marketer, managing online advertising campaigns through multiple channels is a crucial skill. I sought a way to hone these skills alongside my daily workload. Thankfully, there was a solution: Udemy. Thanks to the platform’s diverse number of training courses, I was able to select one based on specific advertising platforms. In my case, I was able to delve deeper into advertising on the social media platform X.
How did Invoice Home help support this time of learning and/or professional development?
Invoice Home has offered to pay for any online training course that we request. It is refreshing to see an employer offer tools to empower their employees. By offering to pay for these courses, it gives me a sense of relief. Many companies treat their marketing talent like fodder; a revolving door of young, disposable talent. Invoice Home, on the other hand, would rather invest in their marketers and their upskilling.
“Invoice Home has offered to pay for any online training course that we request. It is refreshing to see an employer offer tools to empower their employees.”
What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
As a result of my Udemy coursework, I feel more confident in my ability to create and maintain paid advertising campaigns through a variety of social media channels. By paying for my courses, I feel secure in my role as a marketing specialist here at Invoice Home. I hope to take more courses in the future to further expand my digital marketing knowledge.
