Top French Baccalaureate Score, Elite Engineering School — Yet 70+ CVs for a First Internship
In 2019, Yahya Achou Ouiy scored 20.42/20 on the French baccalaureate. Seven years later, the son of Moroccan parents, now an engineer and consultant, says he sent more than 70 CVs to land his first internship.
He speaks four languages, studied at Louis-le-Grand and entered ENSTA Paris. Yet while looking for an internship, Yahya Achou Ouiy says he sent out application after application. “I had to send more than 70 CVs to get my first internship,” he said in an interview with Courrier de l’Atlas on October 7.
Born in Rome in 2001 to Moroccan parents, Yahya moved to Lille in 2016, aged 15, without speaking French. Three years later, he scored an average of 20.42 in the science track of the baccalaureate. He was among France’s top baccalaureate graduates.
His father cannot read or write. His mother left school early. In Marrakech, his uncle gave him mathematics problems to solve. Yahya went on to study in a preparatory class at Louis-le-Grand, then at ENSTA Paris.
Degrees are not always enough
The obstacle was not only professional. For his first internship, the young man says he ended up staying with a friend after his application for housing was rejected, despite having an engineer as a guarantor. He attributes the decision to his first name and his Italian-Moroccan nationality.
Now a strategy consultant and content creator, Yahya has published Un vécu de prépa, a book bringing together 200 anonymized accounts from students. In a profile published in July, he describes himself as a “statistical anomaly” and criticizes the role of family networks in gaining access to elite schools.
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He wants to open elite schools to young people from modest backgrounds. In his October interview, he argues for a revamp of Parcoursup and checks to tackle discrimination in hiring.
