Lylia Aabidou

In her parents’ food business, Lylia discovered the day-to-day life of a store at a very young age. She helped at the checkout and stocked shelves, assisted customers and observed the tasks that kept the shop running, from the butcher counter to the fruit and vegetable section. When the business closed, this first experience remained a reference point: she already knew that she enjoyed interacting with others.

After middle school, Lylia did not obtain her lower-secondary school certificate and began to doubt her place at school. She nevertheless chose to continue with a vocational baccalaureate in ASSP. Her internships in a daycare center, home care and a retirement home introduced her to several environments. She passed her baccalaureate with honors, but an experience in a retirement home made her realize that she could not see herself working in this profession all her life. She then decided to change direction.

At 18, she was accepted into a BTS MCO program focused on retail and business-unit management. The start seemed more difficult after her vocational baccalaureate, but she persevered. She also worked in home care. For her internships, she returned to a Norauto center where she had already completed her middle-school work-experience placement. She knew nothing about the automotive industry and did not yet have a driving license, but she enjoyed interacting with customers and thought that everything could be learned over time. The internship went well, and she then accepted a summer job.

After her BTS, Lylia continued with a ROR degree in Distribution Operations Management, followed by a master’s degree in Business Unit Management at the business school in Pau. She completed these programs through work-study at Norauto, first as a sales associate handling the store, shelf stocking and merchandising. She failed the TOEIC on her first attempt, which she needed in order to complete her master’s degree, but persevered and earned her diploma. Overall, she spent five to six years at her first center, between work-study programs and summer contracts.

After her master’s degree, Norauto offered her a position as assistant manager at the Bizanos center. For the past year and a half, Lylia has managed a small team in the store and at the workshop reception desk: she assigns tasks, tracks targets and supports team members in their development. Changing centers worried her a little because she did not know the new team. In the end, she found a young and dynamic team. She sees herself becoming a sales manager, then a center director.