CinEd

My ex grew up pretty poor. Born in Switzerland. Her mom basically stole her and her siblings from her father one night and she didn’t talk to him for 10 years. She lived in a double wide trailer. Her mom was an interstate oil pipe layer (literally). Poor. Blue collar. Gone for months out of the year. Her and her siblings basically raised themselves.

She was never told to go to college. Education was never a thing.

She always worked hard. Restaurant Jobs. Etc. when she was 18 she worked at a Nissan dealership. She stayed there for 4 or 5 years or so. Had various roles.

She was looking for a better job.

She was broke. She didn’t like being broke. Her family/ siblings didn’t mind. But she liked nice things.

She applied to a company called Fiskar, one of the first EV companies (Tesla’s first roadster was designed by Henry fiskar, the car designer and owner of Fiskar cars).

Bachelors required.

Got a phone interview. Somehow. Impressed them.

There were dozens of applicants.

She was one of four that got a face to face interview.

She prepared like crazy. Compiled everything she knew about the company and the car business and the role. Brought in a thick three ring binder and was prepared as hell.

Her interviewer was a PhD from MIT.

He was so impressed with her he ended up giving her the job.

The other candidates all had bachelors degrees.

After 3-4 months into the job he called her into his office and said: C, You have a lot of potential, but you’re going to limit your opportunities by not having a

degree. You need to get a degree if you want doors to open. As someone who cares, I encourage you to look into it.

She never thought seriously about education. But was like, okay. I’ll go to school and get a degree.

She enrolled in community college and online classes, and worked a bartending job on the weekend.

Within a few years she completed her associates and then enrolled online bachelors and got a BA degree in management. Mostly online.

No debt.

She worked her way up to be Global Sales Operations supervisor at Fiskar, now Karma, the Electric Vehicle company.

She then got a job with Nissan USA where she’s a regional sales operations manager.

Meanwhile her family is still very broke, and she’s this black sheep with an education and a secure job.

I think it’s a nice story.