Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Moeckler.
Hi Jacob, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I graduated from Purdue University with a degree in industrial engineering in 2020, the year the world shut down. I had accepted a spot in a selective leadership development program at a Fortune 500 company. Thousands of people applied for ten openings, and the program included a year of international experience. That opportunity disappeared when COVID changed everything.
After two years in the program, I made the decision to leave. I knew I had the rest of my life to work in corporate America, and I still wanted the international experience I had originally been promised. I quit my job, moved to Spain, and completed a master’s degree.
When I returned to the United States, my full time job became finding a full time job. For six months I treated the search like it was my profession. I applied to more than one thousand roles and met with every recruiter and professional I could reach. That work turned into one hundred and fifty interviews and ultimately seventeen job offers.
The success of that process revealed a passion and skill set I did not know I had. I accepted a role reporting directly to the CTO of a thirty thousand person company. The position asked for twenty years of experience and I earned it with only two.
As I began sharing my story and the practical tactics I used, I ended up speaking to thousands of students. Their stories opened my eyes to the significant gap between what students experience while trying to secure internships or full time roles and what companies believe is happening on their side.
That insight pushed me to interview employers repeatedly. I learned how often interns experienced unclear communication, delayed onboarding information, unprepared managers, and disconnected program processes. All of this signaled a real opportunity to solve meaningful problems for both sides.
That discovery process is what led me to build the product I am working on today. I am creating technology that helps companies plan, automate, schedule, manage, and track their entire early career program. The work that currently lives in spreadsheets, emails, and scattered tools will be brought into one central place.
I have now spent nearly eighteen months focused entirely on the early career space. Every day I speak with students and companies, learning their challenges and refining the solution. My goal is to eliminate as many of these pain points as possible and create a better experience for everyone involved.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has definitely not been smooth. Some of the biggest challenges have come from stepping into a world I had never worked in before. My background is manufacturing and industrial engineering. I had never worked in technology and I had never worked in software. I had to learn what SaaS even meant and what it takes to build a technology product.
Finding a developer was one of the hardest early steps. I spent months avoiding it because I was scared and did not know where to begin. Even choosing a name for the company became a challenge because I was overthinking everything. I had no experience to draw from which meant constant second guessing. Overthinking was the biggest barrier.
Another challenge has been balancing everything with a full time engineering role. I work early mornings and late evenings which makes it difficult to maintain a personal life. I expected this but it still requires discipline and sacrifice.
I also did not come from an entrepreneurial background. I did not grow up around startups and I do not have many friends who think the way entrepreneurs think. It makes the journey feel isolating at times because it is hard to talk through ideas with people who do not understand this world. It has pushed me to grow and it has challenged me in ways I did not anticipate.
As you know, we’re big fans of Giant Leap Technologies LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Our work is centered on one goal, bridging the gap between student life and the professional world. There is a significant disconnect between what students experience in or leaving university and what they encounter when they enter the workforce for the first time, whether through an internship or a full time role.
There are many ways to address this problem. Teaching, speaking, and coaching all play a part in preparing young professionals. Content is important and it has value. Our focus began with a different question. How do we support the companies that are responsible for creating the early career experiences that shape a young person’s first impression of the professional world.
Across the country thousands of companies run internship and early career programs. Some bring in only a handful of students each summer. Others bring in hundreds or even thousands. Some have entire teams dedicated to campus recruiting and early talent development. Others rely on people who manage these programs on top of their regular day jobs.
From the outside, an internship may look like a simple twelve week experience. Students arrive, learn, contribute, present their work, and return to school. What most people do not see are the countless hours of planning, preparation, communication, coordination, and problem solving that program teams carry on their shoulders. These teams work tirelessly to create a meaningful experience because they know how important these early moments are.
Our company exists to make their work easier. We provide technology that gives early career teams one central place to plan, manage, automate, schedule, and track every part of their program. Instead of operating across spreadsheets, documents, emails, and disconnected systems, they can manage everything in one platform.
What sets us apart is that we lived these experiences ourselves. Our internships and early career programs shaped our career paths long before we knew what was happening. We understand the behind the scenes workload because we have sat on both sides. We have been the interns and we have been the professionals responsible for creating those experiences.
Every minute we save for a program manager or early career leader is a minute they can reinvest in the young professionals they care deeply about developing. That is the heart of our work.
Our brand is called GiantLeap. It reflects our pride as Purdue alumni, honoring the legacy of Neil Armstrong, and it reflects the reality that leaving university and entering the workforce is a very giant leap. Our goal is to make that transition as smooth and intentional as possible for both students and the companies that invest in them.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For me, success is very simple. It begins and ends with a smile on my face. If I wake up excited for the day and I go to bed knowing I made someone else’s life easier or better, that is success.
Success is not defined by what others think or what others believe it should look like. It is defined by knowing I am doing meaningful work, helping people, and finding joy in the process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://teamgiantleap.com
