It’s about where you want to go, not where you study

So who am I? My name is Mathieu Lozar and I’m the Outbound Marketing Lead South-West Europe at CupoNation and Black-Friday.sale, a company with headquarters in Munich, Germany. Every month I receive internship applications from all over Europe, and quite a few of these students end up doing an internship with us to get work experience in an international business environment.

And who was she? A talented woman within the field of marketing. She had a really strong portfolio, solid experience, good grades and most importantly: ideas about how she could contribute to “Team CupoNation”. She was ready to learn and contribute, which are both really important from my point of view. What she didn’t have was a university background. She’d studied at another, private institution that offered the same kind of education and because of that, she thought she’d be at a disadvantage.

For me, it’s not about where you studied, but where you want to go. Within certain limits, of course – “the hard school of life” doesn’t cut it! But if you have decided to pursue higher education, then you’ve decided to reach a goal. You’ve taken the first of many steps and said to yourself: “I will spend time and money on this because I want to get there.”

There can mean a lot of things. Teacher, journalist, designer or psychologist… the profession is completely up to you. The most important thing is that you have a goal, and that you’re focused on reaching it. You don’t move to Munich from another city if you’re just “kind of motivated” to see what it’s all about.

As long as someone’s got a relevant and solid education, then they interest me as a potential employee. If I focused solely on university students, I would miss out on a lot of talented people. Don’t get me wrong, I hire university students as well (there are a lot of extremely talented people there), but not in higher numbers than from other higher education schools.

It’s about so much more than grades. It’s about talent, wanting to learn, wanting to contribute and last, but not least, hunger. It’s about people who want to succeed, and will give their all to reach their goals. That’s what matters to me, not what kind of status your school has.

I can’t answer for all modern companies, but my impression is that most feel the same as me. So if the fear that ‘university is the only option’ is what’s holding you back from getting an education elsewhere, throw those fears away and go after what you want.

You might be just the person I’m looking to hire.

If studying’s not for you, then there are lots of other options out there. Why not give vocational education and training (VET) a try? Check out our articles on VET for some great advice, opportunities and information.

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