The Power of Being Underestimated
When no one believes in your potential, you have to learn to believe in yourself. And once you have learned that, the sky is the only limit.
This is my story. It’s a story of being underestimated. It’s a story of traditional upbringing, of hard work, of finding purpose in the midst of struggle, and a story of walking your own path. It’s my story but I hope it’s a story that many can relate to and maybe learn from. And that’s why I want to tell it now 😊
Early Childhood
I grew up as a pretty quiet kid in the countryside. Both my grandparents were farmers and we spent a lot of time on farms or on the fields helping out wherever we could. We lived a simple life, wore the carried-out clothes of my older cousins, and barely went abroad — my first flight was at the age of 14.
I was born into a family of entrepreneurs. Everyone around me was running their own business: either it was their own farm, their transportation business, their hairdressing salon, or anything else that could serve as a source of income. Growth wasn’t the driver of any of these small, family-run businesses. I’ve been told from a young age that it’s better to have just enough money so that you can live comfortably than to have so much that you don’t know what to do with it.
Most of the women around me were full-time mums and wives — often pulling the strings of their husband's businesses in the background, but never receiving or asking for any acknowledgment. My family has exemplified very traditional roles. For a long time, I grew up thinking that I had to be married and have my first child at the age of 25 — following my mum’s footsteps. Even though I know better today and I do not live by those traditional roles, my mum is still one of my biggest role models 💛
School
Education was not at all a focus in my family. I was never expected to have good grades in school. Nevertheless, I was a diligent student from an early age and I was extremely curious about all sorts of things. I believe that I wasn’t born smart because I always had to work hard for my success in school. I studied meticulously for all subjects — without any exceptions.
At the age of 11, I wanted to go to a high school which was out of town. Even though my grades were good, my teacher at the time recommended that I shouldn’t apply because I wasn’t resilient enough. I was a shy teenager and not particularly known for standing up for myself.
My parents did not want me to go to high school either. No one in my family has ever gone to high school (let alone university), and I guess they were simply scared to let me depart into this new world. A world that was foreign to them and where they probably wouldn’t be able to help me anymore. They would have preferred that I attended secondary school and did an apprenticeship like everyone else in my family. (*)
But I wanted to learn more and stay in school, and my intuition told me that I could do it. I convinced my parents and my teacher that it wouldn’t hurt to try. I took the aptitude test for high school and passed it. I also passed the first three trial months and graduated in 2011 with a specialization in maths & physics — with excellent grades across the board.
To this day, I am convinced that the fact that neither my parents nor my teacher believed that I would be able to graduate from high school, has motivated me to become a better student. The situation has also forced me to grow personally and become more independent at an early age.
(*) Side note for readers who might not be familiar with the Swiss school system: we have a dual system in Switzerland where about 25–30% of students attend high school (leading to university) whereas the rest attends secondary school (leading to apprenticeship & potentially university). Both paths are equally acknowledged as having the potential for successful career paths.
University & part-time jobs
When I graduated from high school, I went straight to university. I enrolled in a study program at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology — also known as ETH Zurich — which is famous for having a high drop-out rate (up to 40%).
I did not expect to pass the first year, also because many of my high school teachers saw great potentials for me in any other subjects than maths or engineering. I believe based on my interests I could have studied many subjects, but for some reason, I was drawn to study something that felt like a challenge. And again, my intuition was that I should give it a try.
I started studying Geomatics Engineering, a study field that is so small and unknown that you often have to explain to people why it even exists. And it exists for very good reasons (GPS, navigation, maps, surveying, etc.), from which one has attracted my attention when I was looking for a study subject. I was mesmerized by the high-precision measurements that were achieved by engineers when constructing the Gotthard Base tunnel, the world’s longest railway tunnel. And I wanted to learn how they did it!
Looking back, it’s no surprise to me that I instantly felt at home in an engineering discipline in the construction industry. I was raised in a 300-year old building that constantly was in need of renovation. I sometimes joke and say that I grew up on a construction site. And it’s probably not that far off as some type of renovation took place every year.
My dad always did a lot of the manual work by himself, and we were often allowed to assist him. I also have a lot of memories of looking at construction plans over the dinner table, listening in on discussions with the architects, carpenters, and foremen, and watching cranes lifting heavy parts from the building. The construction industry literally felt like home to me.
Against all odds, I did pass the first year at university — and I loved it. In my second year, at the age of 20, I moved into my own apartment — partly because I wanted to prove to myself that I was independent enough to do it. I started to take on part-time jobs to finance my studies — and to pay for my rent and other expenses. Money had always been a difficult discussion at home. I decided it was easier to earn my own money than to ruin the relationship with my family.
I was working 30–40% in multiple part-time jobs while studying full-time. Juggling the double workload wasn’t always easy but I am insanely grateful for all the experiences that I gained from different jobs over time — from working in factories at assembly lines to teaching assistance. While my studies at university have taught me all the engineering concepts and tools, all the various jobs have taught me a lot about myself and a ton of soft skills alongside. And I met amazing people through them too!
Today
In 2018, I graduated with a master’s degree in Geomatics Engineering at the top of my class — and as the first in my family. Today, I am working as a software engineer building web applications for urban planners to plan for the cities of the future. And my parents — even though they might not be 100% sure what I do — have realized that I had to walk my own path so that I could find my purpose.
I am still being underestimated sometimes today. It happens for example that I show up as a speaker at an event with my slides and get mistaken for being the assistant of another speaker. Or that my success in school or my career gets attributed to the fact that I am a woman in a field dominated by men — not because I have worked hard for it and have actually earned it.
But this usually only happens when I meet strangers. Those who know me well are aware of what I am capable of. And this is because I have proven in the past that I am capable of achieving whatever I am deciding to do — especially when I am being underestimated.
And this is what I call the power of being underestimated 😁
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