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 firms, 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 sturdy work ethic, Davis—who landed her present job as Certainly’s chief folks and sustainability officer in Could 2024—informed HR Brew that her profession hasn’t at all times been easy, partially as a result of she didn’t have a bachelor’s diploma.
“I was told that because I didn’t have a college degree, there were certain roles I couldn’t go for. I was a believer that, regardless of what the job description says, if I felt like I could do it, I would 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 schooling, in accordance with an HR Brew/Harris Ballot survey performed 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 take care of, she made the troublesome choice to maneuver dwelling along with her dad and mom. However she was nonetheless decided to rejoin the company workforce and fulfill her childhood dream of changing into an government.
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, government assistant, and chief of employees. Every function taught her a brand new admin or folks ability. Then, in 2005, she bought her massive 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 companion for range and inclusion.
“I really focus[ed] on a lot of HR programs and initiatives and how diversity, equity, inclusion can be woven throughout the whole process of the employee life cycle,” she mentioned. “I really loved it, and I thought I found what my career path was going to be, as opposed to a job. I felt like I was actually embarking upon a career.”
After Google, Davis mentioned she performed a sport of “tech company roulette,” transferring between worker expertise and DEI roles at companies 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.
Abilities-first is the long run. Davis mentioned she was fortunate to have had so many alternatives to interrupt into company America with no bachelor’s diploma, and desires the skills-based hiring her employers practiced have been extra frequent.
“The skills-first movement is not anti-college degree at all…It is more that a college degree is just not the only route to gaining skills, and helping both people and companies understand what it means to hire for skills,” she mentioned.
Davis mentioned she was once “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 firms to undertake a skills-first method.
“One of the things that I said when I came into Indeed was, ‘We need to drink our own champagne…Whatever we’re going to ask other companies to do, we need 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 likelihood employer.
“I won’t be the CEO of seven consecutive companies at the same time,” she mentioned, however “becoming part of the C-suite, knowing along the journey that I don’t have a college degree, has been a great space of inspiration for others to know they could do the same.”
This report was written by Mikaela Cohen and was initially printed by HR Brew.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
