“I divided my salary by three, but I'm happy”… They tell us about their professional reconversion

Dans le Gard, l’Aude ou l’Hérault, Frédéric, Marie, Jeffrey, Delphine et Antoine ont choisi de changer de métier… et de vie professionnelle. Sylvie CAMBON, Karim MAOUDJ et Mickael ESDOURRUBAILH – Montage Marion Pignot

Since the Covid-19 crisis, employees have been questioning themselves a lot. The wind of change in career direction has blown strongly. Testimonies of experience and stories from five people from our region: Marie, Delphine, Antoine, Jeffrey and Frédéric.

Professional life is not a long, quiet river. A straight, sober and linear line. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been many questions. Employees have wondered about the meaning to give to their professional future. Some have taken the plunge, that of change. They have embarked on a new career. Midi Libre met five of them in the region. Portraits.

Frédéric Salles, from French Tech to refurbished offices

At almost 50 years old, Frédéric Salles is off to a new professional life. The former co-founder, in 2012, of Matooma, specializing in the supply of multi-operator SIM cards and connected services, swapped the stressful life of tech for a more peaceful world, that of the reconversion of office furniture. Four years ago, he founded, with Sophie Scantamburlo-Contreras, a former employee of the Montpellier caterer Cabiron, Scop3, a company whose mission is “to support professionals who wish to fit out their work environment with reconditioned, upcycled and eco-designed furniture”. “I reinvented myself, but in a different, cooler way, on a subject that makes sense”, he says.

Frédéric Salles left the stressful world of tech for the more peaceful world of office furniture conversion. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON I found myself at 44 in the shoes of a retiree who was not prepared for what came next.

The man who at the time represented one of the emblematic figures of the booming Montpellier French Tech, to the point of becoming its president in 2018 and 2019, began to think about it when Matooma was bought by the British group Wireless Logic. That was in 2019. “I hadn't necessarily planned to sell, but the price offered made me think”, he confides. A year later, in September 2020, he left the company he founded. “I asked myself what to do. The children were going back to school, I found myself all alone at home. Even though I was financially secure, I found myself at 44 in the shoes of a retiree who wasn't prepared for what came next”. He joined an association that distributed meal baskets to families in need.

“We had neither chairs nor tables. At the same time, Matooma, which, with teleworking, had reduced its premises by 50%, found itself with 500 m² of office furniture on its hands. They called me to see if I would take it”. It all started from there: selling it to the association's beneficiaries at a ridiculous price and donating the profit, 200 euros, to the association. He then came up with the idea of ​​creating a digital platform (we can't change our ways) to recover furniture that companies no longer need.

Today, with the creation of Scop3, the concept has evolved. “We are responding to a demand from companies that want to furnish themselves from A to Z, explains Frédéric Salles. We work with 3 to 4 reconditioning plants in France and we take care of fitting out offices with reconditioned products throughout France”. He draws a lesson from his choice:“reality caught up with me, I always worked on opportunity and today, I prioritize quality of life, it's less stressful.”

Marie Le Douarin-Marquis, from lawyer to wine merchant

Marie Le Douarin-Marquis has a way with words. She explains the choice of the (to say the least radical) change in her professional life. “Before, I worked for reason; today, I work for passion”. The reason ? It was her job as a lawyer in Nîmes. The passion ? Wine. She was a lawyer from 1999 to 2019. “I started practicing at the age of 22, I had a firm in Nîmes and Vauvert. Five years after starting in the profession, I was already wondering what else I could do”.

She is doing a skills assessment. “To find out if I was in my place in the lawyer's robe”. She admits: “I didn't know what to do, I lacked imagination”. Wine has “always attracted her a lot”. Alongside her job as a lawyer, she enrolled in a DESS in Vine and Wine Law at the University of Wine in Suze-la-Rousse, in the Drôme. She maintains a certain professional logic: “I then refocused my activity on wine law”. His desire for something else has not left him. “I still have a few years before retirement, I might as well make the most of it”, she said to herself. Especially since the profession of lawyer “was becoming more and more difficult”. She then decided to take the plunge. With her contacts in the wine industry, she opened her first wine cellar in 2018. Then, a second, in the center of Nîmes, in 2020. "A number of former colleagues came to see me to tell me that they dreamed of it too, and that I had finally done it".

Before, I worked in a profession of reason; today, I work in a profession of passion.

“There is always a brake on change, she analyzes. We tell ourselves that we can only do one thing in life. But we ultimately realize that we can't. “Not for a second” does she regret her choice. “You have to build up a clientele, that takes energy”. From her job as a lawyer, she has kept aspects that she benefits from today. “Pungency, knowing how to listen to your clients' expectations, relationships”. She agrees: “I wasn't going to become a winemaker, I wanted a job that involved sharing”.

Before, I had a job based on reason; today, I have a job based on passion.

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“There's always a barrier to change,” she analyzes. We tell ourselves that we can only do one thing in life. But, we finally realize that no”. “Not for a second”, she does not regret her choice. “You have to build up a clientele, it takes energy”. From her job as a lawyer, she has kept aspects that she benefits from today. “Pungency, knowing how to listen to your clients' expectations, relationships”. She agrees: “I was not going to become a winemaker, I wanted a job of sharing”.

 

Antoine Estrade, from Airbus to the microbrewery

The transition is somewhat surprising. Going from Capgemini, in residence at the Airbus client in Toulouse, to his small microbrewery, in a modest artisanal premises in Gruissan, in the Aude, is not usual. And yet, this is the choice that Antoine Estrade made. With his computer science degree in hand, he joined the Capgemini group in 2011 and set up at one of its major clients in Toulouse, Airbus. “I started on a work-study contract, then on a permanent contract, to develop software that Airbus needed”, he explains. He stayed 11 years at the subcontractor of the world leader in aviation. “In 2015, my father, who was a police officer, became a plumber, while creating a microbrewery. He showed me that you could change jobs”. That was the trigger.

Antoine took a sabbatical year to help his father start making beers. During a trip to Canada, he “discovered craft beer”. Then came the weariness of “working at Airbus”.“I was looking for the meaning of life. I spent my time writing lines of code, the purpose of which I didn't really know.”

Antoine Estrade left his career as a developer at Capgemini and Airbus to invest in its microbrewery, in Gruissan. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH I divided my salary by three, compared to when I was at Airbus, but I'm happy

The Covid-19 crisis was the other trigger. “A project I had been working on for 13 years for Airbus was abruptly abandoned. It put me in a bit of a slump.” Back in Gruissan, he decided to take over his father's microbrewery, called La mer à boire, in the chalets district. “I wasn't taking any risks because there was strong demand.” But there was a problem: his company refused to give him a mutual termination agreement. “I learned about the Transition pro scheme, which allows you to benefit from unemployment benefits, even after resigning.” At 33, he has no regrets. “I divided my salary by three, compared to when I was at Airbus, but I'm happy”, he says. “It's a bit harder work, but I work for myself, I have a product in my hands, I shaped it.” He made “a life choice”, quite simply.

Jeffrey Legoff, from prosthetist to… animal prosthetist

It's probably one of the least practiced professions in France: animal prosthetist. This is the choice that Jeffrey Legoff, 30, has just made. A job he knows in part since he was until then… a prosthetist for humans. “In 2014, when I started in this job, in Marseille, there was already talk of working with animals,” he confides.

He thought about it then and he quickly put it into practice. At the bottom of his grandfather's garden, in Lunel, in Hérault. “I set up a small workshop to test this idea that didn't exist in France,” he explains. “I made prosthetics for animals for free at the request of their owners.” After eight years working with humans, he is launching in April 2023.

It's a real challenge, there's everything to do with animals.

“I love animals. At my grandparents' house, who have a large plot of land, there is everything, I grew up surrounded by animals”. And then Jeffrey has another ambition: “I wanted to work for myself”. He is taking a business creation course in Lunel, with the Hérault Chamber of Trades and with the financial support of the CEP scheme. With his van, converted into a workshop, he travels the roads of the region, but also far beyond, “between Biarritz and Saint-Tropez”. He has done his calculations: “in two years, I have made prostheses for 69 dogs, four cats, two horses, three sheep, a hen and a rabbit”. And “even a goat,” he adds. Compared to working with humans, “it's a real challenge, there's everything to do with animals.” A challenge dictated by a passion.

It's a real challenge, there's everything to do with animals.

“I love animals. At my grandparents' house, who have a large plot of land, there's everything, I grew up surrounded by animals”. And then Jeffrey has another ambition: “I wanted to work for myself”. He is training in business creation in Lunel, with the Hérault Chamber of Trades and with the financial support of the CEP scheme. With his van, converted into a workshop, he travels the roads of the region, but also far beyond, “between Biarritz and Saint-Tropez”. He has done his calculations: “in two years, I have made prostheses for 69 dogs, four cats, two horses, three sheep, a hen and a rabbit”. And “even a goat”, he adds. Compared to working with humans, “it's a real challenge, there is everything to do with animals”. A challenge dictated by a passion.

 

Delphine Deroin-Valette, from fruit juice to wine

Even if the thing was necessarily written in time, Delphine Deroin-Valette probably did not think that the change would happen so quickly. Holder of a BTS in industrial maintenance, obtained in Narbonne, in the Aude, she was hired by the Unisource factory (or Refresco), in Nissan-lez-Ensérune, in the Hérault. “I was bottling fruit juice”, she explains. She will stay there for a good fifteen years after her BTS, from 2007 to 2022. “I left a little before the factory closed for good”, she adds. She turns to the CEP démissionnaire system, or career development advice. “This allowed me to keep my salary after my resignation for the duration of the training”. Training funded by the Transitions Pro Occitanie organization.

Delphine Deroin-Valette very quickly turned to her father's wine business in Cébazan. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH I'm not afraid to work the vineyard, but it's from Monday to Saturday.

“Having a young child while working 3X8 was complicated”,explains the woman who is now 38 and has a little girl who is 4 and a half years old. Her first experience after her BTS discouraged her. “I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn't expect so many pitfalls as a woman”, she says. “No one told me this explicitly, but I was made to understand that as a woman things were different”. And then, bottling fruit juices did not correspond to her training. So she decided to turn to viticulture. “My father, who is now retired, was a winegrower. I always knew that one day I would take over the business”. A vast exploitation since it reaches a total of 18 hectares, in the commune of Cébazan, near Saint-Chinian, in Hérault. After a transitional period of training in order to acquire the necessary skills. “I'm not afraid to work the vineyard, but it's from Monday to Saturday”, she admits.

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