The School of Hard Knocks: How I Made It Without a College Degree
I was an academic. Or am I an academic? I am not even sure anymore. What is an academic anyway? Is an academic only one who possesses a University degree? I looked in Oxford Dictionary, and it says Interested in or excelling at scholarly pursuits and activities; Collins Dictionary: Someone who is academic is good at studying. Already two dictionaries which don’t agree. One thinks being interested enough makes you an academic; the other one thinks you need to be good at it which probably means you have to earn the diplomas. Cambridge Dictionary then: used to describe someone who is clever and enjoys studying. It seems to agree with Oxford, BUT you need to be clever, and we don’t know whether it is talking about school subjects or general stuff.
It seems there is a lot of confusion around the word academic; even dictionaries don’t seem to agree.
ACADEMIC OR NOT ACADEMIC? THIS IS THE QUESTION
For example, I excelled in school but didn’t go to University. So what does that make me? A halfcademic? A precademic? For a long time, I embodied everything you can read about being gifted; I had the label stuck on my forehead. Top of my class, curious, rapid learner, deeply focused and blessed with intense concentration, I was involved in a high level of activities. I was an avid reader with an outstanding memory, a large vocabulary, the tendency to think and talk fast : I read the newspaper by 6 years old. I devoured all the books from my childhood local libraries including all the books from my mother’s (enormous) library. My teachers often caught me reading a book hidden under my desk; calling my name wasn’t enough to get me out of my reading trance, and they had to knock on my desk with their hand. I enjoyed very much solving problems and puzzles; I had an extraordinary imagination and loved dinosaurs (I think I knew ALL of their names), prehistory, nature, and animals (I might have gone overboard the day I got some pregnant snails inside my parent’s bed to get them comfy). A top student who LOVED to learn, and still does! School activity books topped the list of my favorite activities for holidays… yes… really (but that was before adolescence, no worries, I got rid of them!). Here I was, the perfect little A student.
When I was 9 years old, I won a competition and was elected by my classmates to represent the deputy of Loire Atlantique in The Children’s Parliament Assembly. I had perfect grades. My elementary school teachers talked to my parents about me jumping a level and looking into gifted children associations. My mother refused because officially she didn’t want to marginalize me and more realistically: she “didn’t want to bother, gifted children are too complex”.
At 15, I got into an elite audiovisual high school class in the city of Nantes. With my parent’s divorce happening in the same time as my teenage crisis, the little A student took the D road and ended up at the back of the class. I failed the 1st part of my high school exam and was one of the only two people from my class who would start the second year exam with negative points. The school secretary who didn’t want to lose his prestige and his 98% success rate got worried and threatened several times to kick me out. This was the only thing he did to help.
Two weeks before the big final exam, I had zero written notes, so I borrowed all the relevant subject books from the school library. I studied hard; I so wanted to prove wrong all the ones who doubted me. Wrong motivation, right results: I got my exam, and it felt good.
I made it and had the papers needed to join my dream University (École des Beaux-Arts in Nantes) but had no hope to get in. My dream already felt short during a particular summer when my mother made it clear we couldn’t afford it and made it sound like I was capricious. Since she offered me a travel bag at the door of our house for my 18th birthday , I thought why not use it (and it looked nice!). Plan B, I left for London as an au pair and joined a Cambridge University partner school in St Albans to learn English once/twice a week. It took only three months (and an uncomfortable relationship with my hosts) to understand that I wouldn’t stay. I came back to France with no plan, no University, no job, not even proper English. Back to square -1.
I found my best friend — a brilliant student, in a depressive state: she had a plan A (u) pair in the US for three years while going to the University there and no plan B. She couldn’t find a family, it was too late for University registration — stuck in a considerable wolf trap. This was when I learned that when we take risks, we should always try to have a Plan B.
£150, A BACKPACK, AND NO BACK-UP
Both in a precarious situation despite our high school diploma and the famous name of our school, we took a leap of faith and the train to London. We only had £150 between us, some backpacks and no backup, but we had to do it: full of dreams and not ready to settle for failure in our room an entire year. We had a lot of adventures in 1 month; many times we thought about giving up, but we hung on to our tree of hope with all the strength we had and we kept going. At that point, our journey brought us to a (very) cheap hostel.
Two days later my friend got a call: a family finally accepted her application, New Jersey was waiting. She would make her dream happen and go back to the trail of college success and a life full of excitement. I was thrilled for her. She sounded happy but also worried to leave me there alone at the exact moment we only had about £20 remaining and no jobs in sight. I pushed her and told her I would manage better without her: £20 pounds for one was better than for two! Earning around €2 pocket money per week since my parents divorce, I got used to finding my way around. I remember going door to door selling flowers I would pick up; cleaning cars, selling my stuff to flea markets, doing seasonal jobs (stay away from picking up garlic!) and other little things like that. I insisted on those street smart traits and convinced her I would be ok. She left. It terrified me. I didn’t speak English well at all, and I didn’t understand much… I used to live in the countryside… and the biggest city I have ever lived in was Nantes during my high school years. It was in a safe boarding school, surrounded by supervisors and students and I didn’t need money to eat. A lot of thoughts bullied my head: it scared me to death. I would not leave my room for days.
My £20 pounds vanished quickly since the (very) cheap hostel had still a cost of £10 per night, and I was lucky enough to find out that one manager and sometimes receptionist of the hostel was from my city Nantes. His beautiful girlfriend would always cook and bring me food every night. Out of kindness, he gave me a job where I would hand out flyers in the street in exchange for free accommodation and breakfast. It might not sound much to you but through my almost 19-year-old eyes, lost in the middle of such an overwhelming and exciting city, surrounded by some of the strangest but (I would find out later) kindest people I ever met, it was a miracle. This job taught me a lot about trusting myself and how to go over any type of fears to make it a success. It was tough for me to approach people in the street, but after a few weeks, I would bring so many customers I even surprised myself. Then I got a promotion (whoop! whoop!), and here I was, cleaner and breakfast maker of the hostel. I would move in a two-person room instead of 8, and I would get extra money; it was a relief not to have to lean on other people’s kindness for food.
GIVE A MAN A FISH AND YOU FEED HIM FOR A DAY; TEACH A MAN TO FISH AND YOU FEED HIM FOR A LIFETIME
I will always be so grateful for everyone I met in this place, I learned to never again judge a book by its cover and that help is there if we are willing to accept it. I didn’t clean well, and I would often start the breakfast late or with burned toasts, but it was without counting the support of colleagues, friends and even customers who helped me learn and get it right. It was when I learned that teamwork, self-discipline and perseverance could get you anywhere. Once I met two artists from San Francisco, traveling the world with their two small children. In the following morning, I ran to the supermarket and bought little boxes of cool cereals for them. Small gesture, big impact: they seemed very touched. A few days later, they checked out and left me a box full of food, and a pot of gold (some call it Nutella as well). I have helped countless people in this hostel, and I have received so much in return. I learned that kindness and compassion were not weaknesses but strengths.
My manager would always push me to find another job (this is how kind he was, he could have enslaved me instead); something better paid that would involve less shitty cleaning (and I can tell you that tourists in a hostel are not famous for their extraordinary hygienic skills). Sometimes they would even confuse their room with the bathroom. So yep, I can say shitty cleaning.
I listened to him and started the hunt for a babysitting/nanny job. I was and looked like a 19-years-old, redhead, living in a hostel, not a very Mary Poppins look. Determination is in my blood though so I kept looking. Then I met a wonderful family, who took a chance with me. They didn’t look desperate at all; they thought I had a strong connection with their child from my 1st visit and followed their guts. They nailed it. I quit my cleaning job under the applause of my manager, but I remained living in the hostel: this time I could pay for my room. It was when I learned that perseverance and determination often pay, no matter how unlikely it looks.
I worked there for ten months as a full-time nanny; everything looked perfect. I adored the little girl, and her parents were great. They gave me not only a chance to step up in my independence, but they also treated me like family. In the meantime, I moved out of the hostel and moved in a (less than 10m2) room with the love of my life whom I just met (this is another long story!). He has been a pillar since then, his constant moral support and belief in me is probably the biggest reason I never gave up.
Then my perfect adoptive family had to move to Switzerland because of work and they offered me to come with them. I thought about it a lot, and it made me realize that if I followed them, it would mean choosing to be a nanny as a career for a long time. As much as I loved them and the offer was excellent, it didn’t feel right: I couldn’t commit yet to a career path and a little girl’s heart, so I let them go. The hard choice I had to make taught me how to listen to my guts and how to self-reflect wisely. We should always take decisions based on the long-term goals/successes rather than short and convenient ones.
THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS IN EVERY SITUATION, AT EVERY CORNER, WITH EVERYONE
I went to Switzerland for eleven days to help take care of the little girl while her parents were busy setting up everything. When I came back to London, I had no job but rent to pay. BUT I wasn’t back to square one: I spoke English, I built up experience; I had references, and I wasn’t alone.
I didn’t find a full-time job, but the little girl’s French pediatrician, well-known in London, took the initiative of giving my name to anyone who would look for a nanny. I ended up taking care of many (many) children around. I would replace sick/in holidays nannies, would babysit children in the evening or on some special days, I became the emergency red-haired nanny everyone in the much-hyped area of Earls Court/High Street Kensington would trust. The experience was nice, but it was also tiring to go from house to house, sometimes several per day. I ended up accepting a temporary full-time nanny job for a three-year-old boy and a four-month-old little girl. Once it ended, I decided with my partner to leave for the Netherlands, which we heard had a lot of career opportunities despite the financial crisis in Europe. It was another critical decision and another chance to learn.
We gave notice to our landlord (who unsuccessfully tried to withhold our deposit, but this another story for another time!) ,packed everything our shoulders could handle, gave the rest away and took a plane.
SELF-DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES
Amsterdam, good afternoon! We arrived there full of hopes and excitement. It went down the toilet quickly when we realized that unlike London, every (cheap) hotel we visited was full and not so cheap. We settled in a Hostel, a nice room with zero views and shared with ten tourists. Here was the catch: Instead of lockers, we had to go five floors down to lock our stuff into some kind of huge blue metallic barrels. So when you pick up your belongings to take a shower, it already takes at least 15mn to go downstairs, get everything out of the barrels, find what you need and put everything back. Then it is often on the 4th floor back that you realize that you have forgotten your toothbrush (or the toothpaste, or your hairbrush, or your moisturizing cream) and down you go again, get things out of the barrel-find-put everything back-go up again-repeat-go nuts! We found another hostel that had lockers INSIDE the room (and a lot of drunk people).
I found a job at a souvenir shop five days after my arrival. My salary would be precisely €5/hour. I would get up at (not precisely) 6.30am, jump in the shower full of souvenirs from my roommates (the level of disgust would depend on the level of drinking during the night, it was always high though), run to make sure I got on time for my standing performance. It was so exciting to stay standing outside the shop 6h/day to watch the thieves, whatever the weather, whatever the conditions. It is during the coldest months that I learned how to be patient and survive the freezing hours by switching my brain to the positive side of the situation.
A few months, a proper room and a lot of work later I got promoted inside after earning everyone’s trust. I would stock take, clear, stock, organize, display, decorate, welcome the customer and sell. They would leave me managing the shop alone for a few hours sometimes. I became also good at making the many display cases stand out, and it became my responsibility.
After a while, management changed, and my new misogynist manager fired all the female staff but me: the owner would not allow him. So he sent me back outside. Since I was still standing strong despite his tries to get me to leave, he played one last card: not allowing a toilet break. He played the right card. I left on the spot.
It is when I learned that we should never rest on our laurel, even when we think we are climbing up the ladders.
A few days later, I was working at a restaurant next door. A first for me; they didn’t know; I had to learn a lot and fast. Bring plates without making it fall, make drinks, take orders, remember orders, be patient, use the all-in-dutch order system. I learned how to focus on customers, be more patient and remain calm under pressure.
GOING OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE OR THE SCARY RIDE TOWARD SUCCESS
I didn’t enjoy myself, so I searched for some corporate jobs online and applied to some with little conviction. I had no diploma, and the experience of handing out flyers, cleaning a hostel, babysitting children, standing up, playing saleswoman in a souvenir shop and being a waitress for three months would not be too helpful, so I thought.
But then an agency recruiter called me. She called me! After a quick interview, she understood that despite my clear lack of corporate experience, I had what it took for a Sales/Account Managing job. She created my profile and emphasized the sales part of my job at the souvenir shop. She must have emphasized it well because she got me an interview at the world’s largest flexible working space provider. 1st interview: I had no clue and wore jeans. I knew nothing about the product and when he asked the most straightforward question: what did you understand of our product? I depicted for him a picture of a cool product, but it had nothing to do with what they were doing. However, I got complimented on my imagination and passed the 1st round. My interviewer kindly told me in a hushed voice: next time, wear a suit and know what our product is about. I listened and nailed the 2nd interview.
“Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” — Erin Hanson
I was the youngest and the least experienced one, and it felt weird. The what are you doing here — this is too difficult weird. The awkwardness faded away as fast as it took for me to become the number one salesperson there: 3 months. This was how I learned that attitude, grit and hard work are three important pieces of the key to success. I didn’t have the academic stamp stuck on my forehead; I didn’t have the experience of a seasoned salesperson; I wasn’t even of legal age in some parts of the world for god’s sake. But I had two things that mattered above all: hunger and passion. Hunger for success. Hunger for not ridiculing myself, for learning, for making a difference, for earning more than €5/day. I just turned 21 years old, I was passionately in love with life, with helping people, and with my work. This was how I started my corporate career and it became a very successful one. I have constantly been a top achiever for 10 years, earned tremendous respect in my industry and served 1000s of customers, including some of the largest companies in the world. I am a woman in technology and sales without a college diploma, and despite all the challenges it brings: I love it, and I made it; and so can everyone who has a strong desire for something. Like Zig Ziglar would say: It’s your attitude, not your aptitude that will determine your altitude.
‘TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN A WOOD… I TOOK THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED BY, AND THAT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.’
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think going to university or getting a diploma is bad at all. I would probably have gone this way if I have had the opportunity. But after walking the path of self-made professional, I also believe what you can do does not rely on a few years of your life in a classroom, but on what you do during your entire life. You should always LEARN, no matter how no matter where, but matter what. It is a lifelong process. What you can and can’t do is never an end, every day you change the course of your potential. Whether you choose to open that book or not, whether you get out of your comfort zone or not, whether you try and fail or not. Going to a University can be a part of the journey, but it is only a premium option on a product, not a mandatory step for learning.
It was probably the most efficient (if not the only way) to get enough information about a specific subject in one place many years ago, but in the 21st Century, we are lucky to be in the Information Age; resources are now everywhere. Not being able to afford a higher education or not liking school or not being accepted somewhere are no longer excuses for not developing yourself. There are now so many ways you can specialize yourself while broadening your knowledge and widening your mind. Reading, listening and practicing are the core concepts of learning; and there are plenty of tools around for you to master what you love and grow to the best of your abilities. The School of Life is the school that will put a score at the end: don’t disappoint yourself and do keep learning.
Many companies are still rejecting applications from non-universitarian, but they will learn and are learning through hard experiences that a diploma is nice to have, but is not the key to certainty and success. Remember, it is never about the rejections but the way you handle them that will matter. You might not find something as fast as someone with academic qualifications but we are going there, and you will see this era. You might not find something ‘just crossing the street’ and we didn’t build Rome in one day: You will be fine.
If you are a hiring decision maker reading this and you reject everyday applications from people who do not have a university badge: broaden your mind and learn how to spot rising stars based on their real skills and potential, just not a stamp on paper. Get inspired by Apple, Google, Bank Of America, Apple, EY, Hilton, IBM who understood that success is about attitude, grit and personality, not appearances. They are visionaries. They value the learning experience from academic qualifications, but they also value other ways to get there.
If you don’t want to hear anything about this, please listen to them: (and aren’t listening and reflecting two important bases for self-development? Or did learning stop after we get our exam?)
Lazslo Bock, Former Google People Chef: When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings. And we should do everything we can to find those people.
Maggie Stilwell, Ernst and Young’s managing partner for talent: Academic qualifications will still be taken into account and indeed remain an important consideration when assessing candidates as a whole, but will no longer act as a barrier to getting a foot in the door, she said. Our own internal research of over 400 graduates found that screening students based on academic performance alone was too blunt an approach to recruitment. It found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken.
So getting back to my first question: Academic or non-academic? I had three bad years at school due to adolescence and my parents divorce. But from a shining star to the worst student to the successful professional, what will define me at the end? And what about you? Will you let a label stop you from your dreams? Should we let others define us or should we define ourselves?
