Like many high school students gearing up for graduation this month, I thought I had everything figured out at the ripe age of 18: which college I was going to attend, what I would study, and how I would pay for it.
Bowling and painting were my two passions in high school, so earning a full scholarship to bowl at an out-of-state university where I could major in fine arts was my dream come true.
Unfortunately, that all fell apart when a wrist injury and two consequential surgeries left me unable to bowl or paint for the foreseeable future. Just like that, my plan was foiled.
With mounting bills to pay and a lost sense of direction, I did what felt most responsible at the time: I dropped out and started working full-time.
Six months later, I enrolled in a community college in my hometown. I worked a range of jobs while earning an associate’s degree — from customer service at Blockbuster to running the writing center at my college. A few years later, I went back to obtain a bachelor’s degree in psychology and art therapy. My job search exhausted every available tool and platform, including Craigslist, where I found a role at Kaplan that ended up being life-changing. Today, I’m a CEO.
The point is: If my education and career paths were lines on a graph, they wouldn’t trend neatly upward. There would be spikes, dips, line breaks, maybe a couple of loops.
Sometimes I hear paths like my own referred to as “nontraditional,” but that’s where people get it wrong.
“Nontraditional” implies that any path outside of obtaining a bachelor’s degree immediately after high school is outside of the norm — a deviation from the standard. Yet 70 million U.S. workers — or half of the labor market — are skilled through routes alternative to a bachelor’s degree, such as on-the-job learning, apprenticeships, military service, community college, and certificate programs.
In fact, nearly 32 million of those workers are proven to have the skills for in-demand jobs that pay 50% or more above median wages, but are often blocked by unnecessary bachelor’s degree requirements.
The “traditional” path (graduate high school, attend a four-year university, get a job in your desired field after graduation) has never actually been the experience of the majority of U.S. workers — which raises the question of why it ever got labeled as traditional to begin with.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with going to a four-year institution or getting advanced degrees, but we can’t frame that experience as the expectation when it doesn’t even represent half of the working population.
Working in the education and workforce space for two decades, I’ve seen plenty of employers craft recruiting strategies that revolve around talent from paths that they deem to be the “best:” the Ivy Leagues, flagship universities, and prestigious four-year programs. My response? They’re missing out.
In the last year alone, more than 350,000 people came to Tallo’s online platform to explore career pathways that pay well without requiring a college degree.
One example of an employer building its talent pipeline to include talent from all pathways is Trane Technologies. To address the shortage of HVAC technicians, Trane stood up a U.S. Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship program in just over 90 days. In only two years, the program has grown from 25 apprentices to 200 with a retention rate of 86%.
Another example is global semiconductor leader Micron, which has a registered apprenticeship program where apprentices work as paid technicians while earning a technical–related certificate or two-year associate degree. As Janine Rush-Byers, Micron’s Director of Strategic University Partnerships, once said: “Opportunity should never be limited by a single path. Many of the best future technicians and engineers are already in our communities. We just need to meet them where they are and provide clear, supported pathways into our industry.”
But long before an apprenticeship or work-based learning opportunity occurs, students need to be aware of these opportunities in the first place. Micron is one of the employers that partnered with Tallo on Real Careers, Real Journeys — which connects students with industry professionals through virtual career sessions. Reaching more than 2,500 students in its first year, the program exposed students to industries ranging from semiconductors to generative AI, creating a far more scalable approach than your typical “career day.”
Millions of talented individuals “graduate” from other proven paths — certificate programs, military service, apprenticeships, on-the-job experience, or community college, as I did.
As graduation season approaches and you consider how to hire high-performing early professionals, don’t limit your focus to the most recruited-from schools. Apply the same recruiting efforts to all pathways.
Otherwise, you’re doing yourself a massive disservice by discounting some of the brightest, most resilient, and hardest-working people I’ve ever known — and hired.
Perhaps aside from the bowling-painting combination, my story isn’t unique. People make education decisions for a myriad of reasons: interest in specialized training, financial considerations, family members to care for, proximity or access to transportation, health factors.
Like many others, community college allowed me to explore what I was good at while gaining employable skills with lower financial stakes and the flexibility to keep working. It served as both a safety net and a springboard at the same time.
For adult learners, continuous education can be a lifeline. I saw this firsthand when my own mother enrolled at a community college at a time in her life when she was facing financial hardship and needed to provide for her three children. That decision allowed her to launch a successful career in architecture and, in turn, take care of her family.
Eighteen-year-old Allison wouldn’t have thought so, but in hindsight, my wrist injury was the best thing that could have happened to me. It set me on the path which led me to where I am today and instilled an invaluable skill: the ability to pivot when life doesn’t go according to plan.
My plea to employers: expand your recruitment efforts this graduation season to include candidates with nonlinear paths. And to any students or young professionals out there who feel overwhelmed or uncertain about the future — take comfort in the fact that there are endless pathways to career success. The key is building your skills at every stop along the way.
Nonlinear paths aren’t nontraditional. In fact, they might be the most normal paths of all.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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