Little acclaimed, literary studies are often criticized: not enough professionalizing, not enough job opportunities, too few hard skills, etc. But what abouthe really? Guillaume Frecaut, author of the book I succeed in my khâgne and at the head of a startup that recently raised nearly a million euros, gives us his experience of CEO and break all these prejudices for us!
The journey of Guillaume Frecaut
The arrival of Guillaume Frecaut in literary studies
Can you quickly introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
My name is Guillaume Frecaut, I am 29 years old and I am president of Kaptcher, a proptech startup. I am a Provincial: I was born in Nancy, then I followed all the rest of my schooling in the Province, notably at the Lycée Montesquieu, in Le Mans.
In final year, I was lucky to have been pushed to join a Parisian prep school, notably by my teachers and my family, because that’s often what happens, we’re not going to lie! But looking in detail, it was the literary preparation that suited me best and it was therefore a literary preparation that I joined once I had completed my baccalaureate, at Louis Le Grand. Looking back, I loved those years, which were particularly formative for me.
The normal route should have taken me to the ENS, but I did not pass the exam the first time (which is not abnormal, given that there are around 70 places for thousands of candidates), so I repeated. The experience of failure was very formative, already to realize that you don’t die from it (which is not useless as an entrepreneur), but also to realize that if I didn’t didn’t succeed the first time, it’s because I wasn’t mature.
The impact of literary studies on the career of Guillaume Frecaut
Has this reflection pushed you to change your plans for your future?
Completely, this introspection allowed me to see that I could not imagine spending my entire life as a teacher, despite a passion for teaching: I needed more action. So, when I took, in parallel with the ENS exam, the business school and Sciences-Po exams, the second attempt was good, since I was admitted everywhere. I then chose HEC Paris, to have both intellectual training at ENS and ultra-enriching business training at HEC Paris. I felt the need to solve concrete problems and to be able to act more than in a dissertation, because as long as it remains on paper, everything is always very simple to solve.
How did you bring your long-term plans to fruition?
This need to act is the reason why I followed up with a book on literary preparation, I joined an association at Normale Sup, then I specialized in town planning, because that’s where theory and practice meet. Although very educational, I found town planning still a little too general for me, so I ended up doing real estate development at the Compagnie de Phalsbourg. Then I worked in a PropTech startup in France and across the Atlantic. It was a great business experience which made me realize that the French vision of business often remains very theoretical. And it was upon returning from the USA that I founded Kaptcher, 3 years ago.
Fighting for literary people, the ambition of Guillaume Frecaut
What inspired you to write your book? You told me to “campaign” for information around literary studies before our interview, do you consider that there is a lack of information on the subject?
For me, the more we talk about literary studies, the better it will be: personally, I went to literary prep because my teachers and my parents recommended it to me, but I didn’t know what we did there, so it’s It was difficult to prepare for it! For example, I think that I didn’t understand everything that was asked of us when we arrived, because I didn’t have the method to successfully complete the requested exercises. For me, giving the method to students who haven’t had it elsewhere is essential: that’s why I continue to stick to prep, it seems central to me to communicate information to students.
When I wrote my book, I also did it to show that integrating an ENS is not the only way to succeed in literary preparation. The ability to work and think that we acquire there are very useful and highly valued in companies: they allow us to solve practical problems, with non-mathematical reasoning.
Generalizing literary studies, a process in progress
Do you think that we should give more importance to non-mathematical reasoning?
Of course, because that’s what managing a company is: managing people, in addition to cash flow and finance. And learning to think in ways other than math can be very enriching in business. In this regard, literary studies obviously allow us to evolve in a more human environment and make us think differently about the way we solve a specific problem. Especially math in business finance is certainly important, but overall it’s quite simple.
For you, are literary courses shunned?
Less and less: while registrations tend to decrease in commercial prep, those in literary prep are increasing very significantly. It’s not massive, far from it, but with the reorganization of the terminals and Parcoursup, the orientation choices can continue to evolve.
But, in any case, it is important to inform about them. For example, the opportunities exist and are multiple: there are competitions geared towards literary people in order to go to business school, you can also go through an AST (admission based on qualification), go to Sciences Po, to business schools. translation, etc. In the same way, the professions of web editor and copywriter are booming!
Internationally, extensive literary training can be very useful: in England or Germany, a doctorate can be extremely useful for accessing positions of responsibility and not necessarily a doctorate in hard sciences!
The role of literary studies in career paths
Why is this such an important issue for you?
It’s because it’s important, for me, that people do what they want: if you have a taste for literature, you can totally do it for 2 to 3 years, to cultivate yourself, and then redirect to do something else with your life! It is very important that information circulates on these questions, so that literary studies are not reserved for a sort of caste that reproduces itself.
Literary studies and business schools: a mix far from atypical
Having gone to HEC Paris, do you consider that there could be blind spots in the teaching provided by business schools?
That’s an interesting question. I think it’s important to remember that if my company is in good shape, it’s largely thanks to what I learned at HEC Paris: the diversity of courses allows me to speak to accountants, to financiers, lawyers, etc. The school trains the ability to speak to a financier as well as to a project team.
If I were to spot blind spots, I would probably find them in historical depth. That being said, it’s obviously not the subject of a business school, but it’s interesting in the business world to realize that you’re not much. This makes us use the word “ new »: we can start from the principle that every idea, someone has already had it, and that the only question to ask is to see how we can make it come true.
Otherwise, unfortunately, learning to pose a problem and solve it is perhaps not as much at the heart of business school training as it could be: they focus, and this is normal, more on the fact of give hard skills, because it gives more legitimacy to the diploma. While learning to solve a concrete problem is an essential skill.
The importance of pre-business school for Guillaume Frecaut
When we recruit a student, do you think we should give more importance to their background before they arrive at business school?
Before, I don’t know, because we’re still quite young and we don’t necessarily know where we’re going. On the other hand, it is very important to look at what is done during and alongside: to see a lot of CVs come through, the important thing for me is not the level of the school (and this, despite the religion of the ranking that we have in France), but in which projects the candidate is involved, in which associations he works, etc. I even know an entrepreneur who says “ a student who has not been a scout, who has not been involved in sports associations, I will not take him “. In our field, having paths that are too linear is rarely a positive aspect.
Reorientation, a good idea?
More broadly, to what extent reorienting yourself is an option that seems beneficial to you?
Reorientation is very good because it opens a student to other ways of thinking. Concretely, it’s not because you had a course at HEC Paris that you know everything better than everyone else. For example, engineers will always have a very different way of thinking than you, but they are nevertheless very good at what they do: for me, valuing reorientation allows you to listen and pay attention to everyone’s journeys . And it’s all the more positive because it forces you to step out of your comfort zone. obviously, if we see on your CV that you change direction every 6 months, it’s not very reassuring, but when you follow through with what you start, reorienting yourself, it’s proof that the we step out of our comfort zone.
It is not necessary for everyone to experience several schools or several sectors, it depends on each person’s aspirations, it is not necessary to have mad dogs all the time, but reorienting oneself demonstrates when even a certain fluidity of mind, because, when we had to move from the version to accounting courses, we have an open-mindedness which is still quite interesting.
If his portrait interested you, you can get Guillaume Frecaut’s book I succeed in my khâgne right here !
