When LaFawn Davis was rising up, she didn’t dream of changing into an astronaut, a health care provider, or a instructor…she dreamed of changing into the CEO of seven corporations, without delay.
This ambition impressed a robust work ethic, one which propelled Davis into the workforce at 14, when she took her first job at a Black-owned flower store in her hometown of San Jose, California. And as soon as she began working, she by no means stopped.
Regardless of her robust work ethic, Davis—who landed her present job as Certainly’s chief folks and sustainability officer in Might 2024—informed HR Brew that her profession hasn’t all the time been clean, partially as a result of she didn’t have a bachelor’s diploma.
“I used to be informed that as a result of I didn’t have a university diploma, there have been sure roles I couldn’t go for. I used to be a believer that, no matter what the job description says, if I felt like I might do it, I’d go for it anyway,” Davis informed HR Brew.
However she isn’t the one HR professional with no bachelor’s diploma. Simply 31% of individuals execs within the US have achieved that degree of training, based on an HR Brew/Harris Ballot survey carried out in September. Some 12% have an affiliate’s diploma, whereas 30% have a highschool diploma and eight% have much less. In the meantime, 18% have a graduate diploma.
Davis shared with HR Brew how she climbed the company ladder with no four-year faculty diploma.
Profession journey. After graduating highschool, Davis enrolled at San José State College. However she mentioned she discovered herself skipping lessons to go to work and determined to drop out and be part of company America. She labored in operational roles at startups through the dotcom period, however when that bubble burst in 2000, she misplaced her job. And with no bachelor’s diploma, Davis mentioned she was turned away from new alternatives.
So at 22, with a new child to look after, she made the tough choice to maneuver house together with her dad and mom. However she was nonetheless decided to rejoin the company workforce and fulfill her childhood dream of changing into an govt.
Throughout these post-dotcom years, Davis mentioned she leaned closely on her community of company contacts, who helped her discover work as a claims adjustor, govt assistant, and chief of workers. Every function taught her a brand new admin or folks talent. Then, in 2005, she acquired her large break—she was employed as a program specialist at Google, the place she would work for eight years, ending her tenure as its HR enterprise accomplice for range and inclusion.
“I actually focus[ed] on a variety of HR packages and initiatives and the way range, fairness, inclusion will be woven all through the entire technique of the worker life cycle,” she mentioned. “I actually cherished it, and I believed I discovered what my profession path was going to be, versus a job. I felt like I used to be truly embarking upon a profession.”
After Google, Davis mentioned she performed a recreation of “tech firm roulette,” transferring between worker expertise and DEI roles at corporations together with Yahoo!, eBay, and Paypal. In 2019, practically 15 years into her HR profession, she landed at Certainly as a VP of range, inclusion, and belonging.
Expertise-first is the longer term. Davis mentioned she was fortunate to have had so many alternatives to interrupt into company America with no bachelor’s diploma, and needs the skills-based hiring her employers practiced had been extra widespread.
“The abilities-first motion shouldn’t be anti-college diploma in any respect…It’s extra {that a} faculty diploma is simply not the one path to gaining expertise, and serving to each folks and corporations perceive what it means to rent for expertise,” she mentioned.
Davis mentioned she was “ashamed” that she didn’t have a four-year faculty diploma. These days, she enjoys sharing her story, and makes use of it to tell her work at Certainly, the place she strives to make the applying course of simpler for candidates by encouraging corporations to undertake a skills-first strategy.
“One of many issues that I mentioned once I got here into Certainly was, ‘We have to drink our personal champagne…No matter we’re going to ask different corporations to do, we have to do it ourselves,” she mentioned, including that Certainly dropped college-degree necessities from its company job postings in 2022, and calls itself a good probability employer.
“I received’t be the CEO of seven consecutive corporations on the similar time,” she mentioned, however “changing into a part of the C-suite, figuring out alongside the journey that I don’t have a university diploma, has been an incredible house of inspiration for others to know they might do the identical.”
This report was written by Mikaela Cohen and was initially revealed by HR Brew.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
