Alyssa Oullami Jubien

Born and raised in Nantes, she initially pursues care work. She works with children in daycare and older people in nursing homes. But her mother's illness forces her to interrupt her vocational baccalaureate program: she cares for her at home, then also supports her father when he falls ill. At 19, after her mother's death and her father's remission, she has to find a new professional path.

The grief of losing her mother is a profound ordeal. She says she fell into depression and sometimes withdrew, in a family where emotions were rarely discussed. Returning to work helps her leave the house, meet other people, and regain a routine. She also draws on support from her brothers, her father, her older sister, and a few trusted friends, while taking her teenage younger brother under her wing. Little by little, she learns not to keep everything to herself.

After getting her driving licence, she went to the Norauto centre in Saint-Herblain in 2021 to obtain a vehicle registration certificate. The centre was short-staffed, and the manager approached her and offered her a permanent position as a sales assistant. She was 19 at the time. She was not yet familiar with the automotive world, but agreed to give it a try. The interview took place on Christmas Day, and she started at Norauto on 10 January 2022, aged 20. An administrative errand thus became the starting point for a new path.

At Norauto, she starts at the checkout, then quickly moves into sales: appointments, estimates, calls, and customer contact. She also learns how to receive pallets, organize inventory, and stock shelves, before becoming more involved in workshop operations. She gradually takes on responsibilities and is already doing the work of an assistant manager, without the corresponding title or pay. When she is denied the chance to progress, she resigns rather than continue putting herself last.

Her director eventually transfers her to Saint-Nazaire. After a year getting to know this center, she joins the workshop and becomes assistant workshop manager; she now sees herself moving into the workshop manager role. In a still very male-dominated environment, she acknowledges that she does not know everything about mechanics and asks to learn. She relies on listening: some team members tell her things they do not tell the workshop manager. For her, a woman can find her place in automotive mechanics and bring a different way of communicating.