Leaving school at the age of 19 and starting a career requires a lot of courage. Jakub joined Sygic as a disappointed student and made it to a Product Manager.

Can you tell us a few words about how you joined Sygic and got promoted?

I have been working at Sygic for 4 and a half year now. It all started when I decided to quit my studies and started to look for a job. My friend told me Sygic is looking for someone at the Customer Support. At that time I did not even know what Sygic really does.
After a year or so I became a Product Specialist. Later, as a Junior Product Manager, I joined a bigger team dealing with maps. In January 2014, the Automotive team was estalished, I was appointed as a Product Manager and became a business owner of Sygic Car Navigation.

How difficult was it to quit your studies?

I have to admit starting off with no degree in really not easy in Slovakia. One has to really work hard to gain the same reputation the others have diploma for. However, as someone who's been through it all I would still recommend to your people who find out in the middle of their studies that they are not happy to quit. It is no use forcing themselves and continue to study when they see no future in it.

It is much better to follow their own intuition and find out what they enjoy. There is always a possibility to return back to school and that's actually what I did.

What do you think, is it still possible to join Sygic with no degree neither experience and make it to a Manager as you did?

Absolutely. Ok, I gotta say I was really lucky but yes. It all depends on how much determination one has to achieve their goals.

Read the whole interview.