Skjørestad was educated as a lawyer with the cand.jur. degree in 1978. He worked as an assistant from 1979 to 1981, before working as an assistant judge in Ryfylke from 1982 to 1983. He started in the law firm Wyller, Pedersen og Haver in 1983, becoming a partner in 1985. He sat in Sandnesmunicipal council in 1984 to 1995, serving the last two years as deputy mayor. From 1997 to 2000, during the first cabinet Bondevik, he was appointed state secretary in the Ministry of Finance.[6]