540: How to Break Into Educational Technology at EVERFI With Tom Davidson, EVERFI [Espresso Shots]

07 Tom and his partners have since taken the company from a startup to a large organization with 550 employees.  They’ve raised over $250 in venture capital from executives from some of the leading tech companies in the world, including Amazon, Google, and Twitter. Tom graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1994, where he majored in Government and African-American Studies. Tom ran for a seat in Maine’s House of Representatives, while he was a senior at Bowdoin, and he won in an upset. He served three terms, before opting not to run again in 2000.  WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: Why being young is an advantage in the education technology field (4:47)  Why having a sense of curiosity is a key quality to succeed in Tom’s field (7:59)  Why not majoring in education or computer science isn’t a total deal breaker (11:29) What kind of extracurriculars help you stand out at EverFi (14:07)  Why Tom’s favorite part of being in ed tech is getting to solve social problems (15:49)  Why the best career advice Tom ever received was to “stab the heart and praise the back” (22:24)  How books by Clayton Christensen truly depict the profession and applying innovation to education (29:22)  How few schools have made a legitimate transition to online or blended learning (30:16)  If you want to listen to Tom’s main T4C episode please tune in to T4C episode #420