When Lavon Davis grew up, she did not dream of becoming an astronaut, doctor or teacher … she dreamed of becoming the CEO of seven companies companies at the same time.
This ambition inspired strong work ethics, which prompted Davis to the fourteen years of workforce, when she held her first job in a black -owned flower store in her hometown in San Jose, California. Once you started work, she never stopped.
Despite her strong work ethics, Davis – whose current function has actually fell as an adult and a sustainability officer in May 2024 – HR fermented that her career was not always smooth, partially because she did not get a Bachelor’s degree.
Davis told HR Brew: “I was told that because I did not get a university degree, there were certain roles that I could not go to.
But it is not the only human resources without a Bachelor’s degree. Only 31 % of people in the United States have achieved this level of education, according to a survey in HR Brew/Harris, which was conducted in September. About 12 % have a classroom degree, while 30 % have high school diploma and 8 % have less. Meanwhile, 18 % have a graduate certificate.
Davis shared with HR Brew how to climb companies ladder without a four -year university degree.
Professional trip. After graduating from high school, Davis enrolled at San Jose State University. But she said that she found herself exceeding the lessons to go to work and decided to leak and join America. She worked in operational roles in startups during the Dotcom era, but when that bubble exploded in 2000, she lost her job. Without a Bachelor’s degree, Davis said it had moved away from new opportunities.
So at the age of twenty -two, with a newborn child, she made a difficult decision at home with her parents. But she was still determined to join the workforce of companies and fulfill her childhood dream of becoming an executive official.
During the post -rush years, Davis said that it has bent over its network from companies’ contacts, which helped her find work as a demand rate, executive assistant, and chief of staff. Each role is a new official or the skill of people. Then, in 2005, she got a great break – she was appointed as a program specialist in GoogleWhere it will work for eight years, and end her work as a business partner in human resources for diversity and integration.
She said: “I really focus (ED) on many human resource programs and initiatives and how diversity, fairness and integration can be diversified throughout the entire process for the employee’s life cycle.” “I really liked it, and I thought I found what my profession would be, instead of the job. I felt that I was already starting in a profession.”
After Google, Davis said it played the game “Tech Company Rolette”, and she moves between employee experience and DEI roles in companies including Yahoo! , EBay websiteAnd PayPal. In 2019, nearly 15 years of her career in human resources, she has already fell as a deputy for diversity, inclusion and belonging.
The first skills are the future.Davis said she is fortunate because she has a lot of opportunities to storm American companies without a Bachelor’s degree, and she hopes to employ her skills -based work.
She said: “The first movement is not an anti -college degree at all … It is more than that.
Davis said she was “ashamed” because she did not get a four -year university degree. At the present time, she has the participation of her story, and uses it to report her work in reality, as she strives to facilitate the application for the application by encouraging companies to adopt the skills approach first.
She said: “One of the things that I said when I came to reality is,” We need to drink our champagne … All we will ask other companies to do, we need to do this ourselves, “adding that the academic requirements that were already dropped from their functions in companies in 2022, and call themselves fair opportunities.
“I will not be the CEO of seven consecutive companies at the same time,” she said, but “I became part of the C-SUITE, knowing that on the trip I do not have a university degree, it was a great inspiration for others to know that they could do the same.”
This report was written Be It was originally published by HR Brew.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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