![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Allison-Danielsen.jpg?w=2048\")
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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0plan was foiled.<\/p>\n
With mounting bills to pay and a lost sense of direction, I did what felt most responsible at the time:\u00a0I dropped out and started working full-time.<\/p>\n
Six months later,\u00a0I enrolled in a community college in my hometown. I worked a range of jobs while earning an associate\u2019s degree \u2014 from customer service at Blockbuster to running the writing center at my college. A few years later, I went back to obtain a bachelor\u2019s 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\u2019m a CEO.<\/p>\n
The point is: If my education and career paths were lines on a graph, they wouldn\u2019t trend neatly upward. There would be spikes, dips, line breaks, maybe a couple of loops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes I hear paths like my own referred to as \u201cnontraditional,\u201d but that\u2019s where people get it wrong.<\/p>\n
The Cost of Mislabeling\u00a0Alternative Education Paths<\/p>\n
\u201cNontraditional\u201d implies that any path outside of obtaining a bachelor\u2019s degree immediately after high school is outside of the norm \u2014 a deviation from the standard. Yet 70 million U.S. workers \u2014 or half of the labor market \u2014 are skilled through routes alternative to a bachelor\u2019s degree, such as on-the-job learning, apprenticeships, military service, community college, and certificate programs.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s degree requirements.<\/p>\n
The \u201ctraditional\u201d path (graduate high school, attend a four-year university, get a job in\u00a0your desired field after graduation) has never actually been the experience of the majority of U.S. workers \u2014 which raises the question of why it ever got labeled as traditional to begin with.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with going to a four-year institution or getting advanced degrees, but we can\u2019t frame that experience as the expectation when it doesn\u2019t even represent half of the working population.<\/p>\n
The Business Case for Hiring from Multiple Pathways<\/p>\n
Working in the education and workforce space for two decades, I\u2019ve seen plenty of employers craft recruiting strategies that revolve around talent from paths that they deem to be the \u201cbest:\u201d the Ivy Leagues, flagship universities, and prestigious four-year programs. My response? They\u2019re missing out.<\/p>\n
In the last year alone, more than 350,000 people\u00a0came to Tallo\u2019s online platform to explore career pathways that pay well without requiring a college degree.<\/p>\n
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%.<\/p>\n
Another example is global semiconductor leader Micron,\u00a0which has a registered apprenticeship program where apprentices work as paid technicians while earning a technical\u2013related certificate or two-year associate degree. As\u00a0Janine Rush-Byers,\u00a0Micron\u2019s Director of Strategic University Partnerships, once said: \u201cOpportunity 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 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 \u201ccareer day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Millions of talented individuals \u201cgraduate\u201d from other proven paths\u00a0\u2014 certificate programs, military service, apprenticeships, on-the-job experience, or\u00a0community college, as I did.<\/p>\n
As graduation season approaches and you consider how to hire high-performing early professionals, don\u2019t limit your focus to the most\u00a0recruited-from schools. Apply the same recruiting efforts to all pathways.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, you\u2019re doing yourself a massive disservice by discounting some of the brightest, most resilient, and hardest-working people I\u2019ve ever known \u2014 and hired.<\/p>\n
The \u201cRight\u201d Choice Looks Different for Everyone<\/p>\n
Perhaps aside from the bowling-painting combination, my story isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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,\u00a0in turn,\u00a0take care of her family.<\/p>\n
Eighteen-year-old Allison wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019t go according to plan.<\/p>\n
My plea to employers:\u00a0expand 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
Nonlinear paths aren\u2019t nontraditional. In fact, they might be the most normal paths of all.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Fortune.<\/p>\n
#wrist #injury #derailed #college #plans #CEO #today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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