The prevailing belief suggests that a degree is the sole route to financial success. Nevertheless, countless individuals without degrees have demonstrated that prosperity can be attained through alternative paths.
A user asked the forum, “Those with a successful career with no college degree, what do you do for a living?”. Let’s look at the top responses from the users of the forum.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMER
“Computer programmer. No degree, no certs. Saved up for a TRS-80 in 1980 and never looked back.”
QC INSPECTOR
“I went to community college to learn welding. From there, it branches out into machining. Now, I’m a QC Inspector for a large industrial manufacturer.
Never had any student debt, and I’m making over $100k with a good retirement account that my employer matches 8% of my contributions.”
WORKING IN IT
“I work in IT. I’ve been in this career field for 20+ years, and back when I started, you didn’t really need a degree. A certificate or two and the ability to demonstrate aptitude with computers was enough to qualify you for many IT jobs.”
OILFIELD TRASH
“Oilfield trash here. I make between 150 and 200k USD a year, making sure completion consultants don’t blow us up.”
FULL-STACK WEB DEVELOPER
“I’m a full-stack web developer, somehow got a job in the field and managed to keep it for close to 2 years already.”
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGER
“Construction project manager. Started by swinging a hammer in my youth and transitioned to management due to my years of experience in the field.”
CHIEF ENGINEER
“I’m a chief engineer. I do have a college degree now (in business management, so not the field I work in), but I didn’t have it when I started this job.”
SMALL BUSINESS AND CONSULTING
“Own a couple of small businesses. I published a few books. Do some consulting.”
FLOOR LAYER
“I’m a floor layer. At 23, I own a house (I bought it with my brother, also a floor layer) and am almost at the point of a 6 figure income (I can almost taste it; I’m so close)
Really anyone can lay floors, too; 95% of the job a trained monkey can do (my evidence is the fact that I can do it). The last 5 percent requires some real skill, but that comes with practice; y all got this!”
PHOTOGRAPHER
“I’m a photographer, and I love what I do. I always wanted to do this.”
ROUTE CO-ORDINATOR
“Route co-ordinator. I spent my 20’s starting fights with stupid management until I ended up job-hunting my way into a position where I manage.
Now I fight everyone around me and reality-check them.”
SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYST
“Senior business analyst working with some of the largest global financial and telecommunications companies in Europe and US. Was it what I wanted to do when I was younger? Not really, but god, I enjoy it, and the salary more than makes up for the harder, more messy jobs I did before getting into the field.”
PRESSURE WELDER
“Union Boilermaker pressure welder, $52.07/hr on the cheque and $70/hr total wage package.”
BAKER
“Baker. Kinda successful, I guess.”
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
“Satellite communications/RF. I build/design ground stations and help build/design low Earth satellite RF comm systems. Help set up ground stations around the globe and help with SC build/test. Never went to school, really, and mostly self-taught.”
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
“Air Traffic Controller. You don’t need a degree to be hired, but they do end up sending you to their own school called The Academy. It’s a 3-4 month intense program, and if you don’t score high enough, you don’t get the job.
I’ll add that I DID go to college for Air Traffic but was hired before getting my degree.
FYI you can apply via the USAjobs website. They do off-the-street “open hire” type bids yearly. There’s a list of requirements, but imo they’re pretty easily met.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.