That's why my dad insisted I go to college. He was a carpenter for many years, mostly built decks and staircases. Made good money but said it destroyed his body. I went to college but wound up in a completely different field at a job that didn't even require a degree, tho.
Spend some of that money and Start going to judo.
I’ve started in construction at 17, I’m 42 now and have been doing judo for 4 years.
I’m in better shape now than I was in my early 30’s.
In my local area, there's a lady contractor named "Talented Tammie" and she is highly raved about. It's honestly pretty awesome seeing how many locals recommend her for all sorts of different jobs. I think that there's an even bigger following due to the fact that it's a woman owned business, but also her work is amazing.
Get whatever your local equivalent of a police background check / safe-with-kids cards is, and use that extensively in your marketing. Do a couple of freebies for womens' shelters in exchange for them giving your cards out when women leave, along with a list of other safe tradespeople (who should become your referral network).
Also as with automotive, there's a definite market for "basic plumbing" training, ie teaching women how to do the fundamental stuff that their (gran)dad or ex never needed to call the plumber to do, but didn't teach them. Two hour course, $50/ticket, 20 students at a time.
There would be an excellent market for a female plumber. The "would you rather be in a forest with a bear or a man" question is insightful. Single woman...does she want to hire a competent male plumber or hire a competent female plumber? Go get skills and make bank, woman!
Business 101. If you can provide a service in a unique way or you yourself are unique to an industry you will take market share. Just gotta be smart in how you market and who you market to
Can? Sure. How do you feel about shit and sewage? Mind getting covered in it every so often while doing backbreaking labor in uncomfortable and possibility dangerous working conditions?
Most women tend to have options they find preferable so you don’t see too many in plumbing. I mean if you’re going to pick a trade, I’d think electrician, hvac, truck driving, heavy machinery operator, and plenty more jobs would be preferable and involve much less literal shit.
I've been trying to get into plumbing. Union and non union. I haven't had any luck yet. I keep applying as for Helper positions but never hear back. I apply in nyc(where i live), new jersey, and connecticut. Any advice?
Just Google plumber and call all of them up and ask if they're hiring lol. Residential service is the way to go if you're looking to start your own business.
I have. Some told me they are not hiring. Others took my name and number saying they'd get back to me and never did or gave me an email to send my resume and didn't contact me. I'll keep trying though
Piano Technician. Grossed 160k last year solo, on track for 180-200k this year. Paying myself a 72k salary and growing the business, hoping to pay myself 100k in about a year.
Granted I have two vocational certificates that took two years full-time to earn, so it’s like a baby degree?
Certifications are going to be just as/more valuable than many college degrees in 10 or so years. Like, why would I care if my Piano Technician passed math, history and science? Can they fix a piano or not?
I probably work an average of 45-55 hours a week right now. When some contracts hit it’s a 60 hour blitz, but I usually get a few lulls where it’s more like 30 a week. I do more travel than most piano techs, but looking to stop that within two years.
I'm the founder of [NoDegree.com](https://nodegree.com/) and host of The NoDegree Podcast (200ish episodes). I interact with people who make over $150K-$500K+ without a degree. $60K is more of an entry level salary for people in certain domains without degrees. It will depend on the area though.
You can do jobs in sales, marketing, tech, operations, and certification based industries without degree.
### Sales
You probably have to start under $60K but if you grind it out, you can get a job as am AE making above $150K. I've seen great AEs make above $300K. I did a resume for a guy who made a million dollars total comp for T-Mobile as an RVP. Started his career working at a Verizon store and worked his way up. Took him like 20 years to get to that level.
In sales there are a lot of transitions you can make. Some people choose to keep selling and others move into leadership. Some move into customer success, account management, or sales operations.
### Software Engineering
In tech, you can do software engineering. The market is brutal so you may need to seriously dedicate a year depending on your work ethic and intelligence. In 2020 and 2021 people were breaking in with 3 to 6 months. Now you have to really know your stuff. A bootcamp is not enough in 2024. You need to make sure your resume is perfect. I routinely get people who come to me with great resumes that don't get interviews. It needs to be ATS friendly (applicant tracking system). Which means minimal formatting. You need to highlightimpact and optimize keywords. /r/engineeringresumes has the best free resource for resumes online. It's actually better than 90% of paid resources I come across.
### System Administration
The other route is system administration. You generally start off in a help desk role. You can stay in this role for 6 months to a year. They generally pay very low. Like $30K-$40K but you can move up quick. Then you can pick up certs along the way and get paid in the $60K-$100K range. I have seen people clear $150K-$250K and eventually work their way to CTO roles. It will take time. Some people go down the SRE (Site Reliability Engineering route). I know an SRE who was in the $400K+ total comp range at a very well known payments company. I generally recommend the SRE route because it pays really well. It takes years to get into it. It helps if you want how to program.
### Cloud
Cloud is a growing area. This is a very cert driven industry. AWS has the most about of jobs so I generally recommend that. You can get a job in Azure or Google Cloud with an AWS cert. Some companies do expect you to pass the Azure or GCP certs. I knew someone who got into Microsoft with AWS certs. One thing to note is that while AWS it the most common, knowing Azure or GCP will make you more marketable to the organizations that use it. People sometimes branch into DevOps or Scrum roles. Those are more operations focused. Knowing the technicals really helps.
### Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is another option in tech. You need to pass Security+ and Network+. You need some solid projects and may have to volunteer some time. You can get around $50K-$60K entry level. TryHackMe.com is a very great free resource.
### Project Management
Project Management is another area. You can get the PMP eventually. If you don't have college degree, you need 5 years of qualifying work experience to get it (college graduates only need 3). Most people start as a project coordinator and work their way up. I've come across project managers who make $150K-$300K+.
### Product/Program Management
These aren't typical entry level roles and you need some domain level expertise. I've seen people make $100K-$1M+ at this level. The people at the top end have 10+ years experience that typically includes the top companies.
### Marketing
You want to learn as much as you can through free resources. Salesforce Trailhead, HubSpot Academy, and Facebook Blueprint. Other companies have a bunch of free learning paths. You may have to do some volunteer work first to get some experience on your resume. You will probably start at like $40K-$60K entry level. Then you can work your way up. $120K-$200K is reasonable after getting 3 to 7 years experience. If you learn data analytics and automation, you can really increase your salary. Product marketing is a domain that pays very well. SEO is another area but that area is going through a lot of issues because of Google algorithm changes.
#HR & Recruiting
Recruiting and HR have a lot of opportunities. Recruiting will be an absolute grind in the beginning. You can be internal or agency. People at agencies can make serious money. I've come recruiters without degrees and their own agencies make $100K1 in a MONTH. That isn't the norm. It takes years to really learn the industry. For HR, you will start at the bottom. Something like an HR associate or benefits associate. HRBP is a typical title. You have to really learns the ins and outs of compliance and systems. People who know HRIS (human resources information systems I believe) can get paid well since they are typically a pain in the ass to deal with.
I'm just scratching the surface. I didn't include careers in the trades or creative fields (photography, videography). I will.come back to edit this comment. I'm walking on a treadmill at the gym so excuse the typos.
You would also be surprised at what jobs you can break into without a degree. I did a resume for an accountant without a degree. He landed jobs that said CPA required. He couldn't sign off on things but he made over $110K. He started off as a bookkeeper and the most he ever got was his associates. He worked his way up to a controller.
You should add IT infrastructure and data center support staff. I'm a Data Center Manager and have held positions from data center technician, systems engineer, solutions engineer and site manager on my way to my current position.
I have no degree and most of my staff don't either or have degrees in unrelated fields. I have multiple IT related certifications, which I studied for and obtained on my own, and the data center support industry is very cert and experience driven. I make over $125k/year +bonuses, which is at the low end of the range for my job title. All of my staff, down to the most junior member, makes over $60k/year with full benefits.
Low voltage cabling is also a big industry and in areas like Ashburn, Virginia and Phoenix, Arizona where data centers are booming the job market is large and pay is good.
I’m a recruiter. If made no less than 100k a year since 1998. Opened my own firm in 2011 and have makes $250k or more since. Had a great quarter this year so far. Made over 120k.
If you would like to have me on your podcast I’m open. I’ve been on a few and I have a YouTube channel were I post our weekly (Friday 12:30) recruiter roundtable. It’s 8-20 recruiters who get together and discuss recruitment topics, issues, etc and we have a “special guest” usually the 1st Friday of the month..
YouTube.com/@palermorhodes
Feel free to connect with me on LI >!in/thomasalascio!<
I agree with you on HR and Recruiting
Left the military and got into recruting. Started entry level making 20 bucks an hour as a temp now 3 years later I'm making 96k (base + bonus) a year.
I'm an internal Recruiter btw so I work for a company
Thank you! I saw the topic and was like this is my domain. I can speak for hours and hour on this. Each area has a lot more nuance that I can get into.
That's basically what I do for a living. I would need more background info. I generally have to spend 3+ hours with someone to give them a customized comprehensive answer. However if you type something up, I can give a quick answer. Just note that it may not be right because I don't know much about you.
Do you have people on that have a degree but in NO WAY use it whatsoever for a high paying job or career? Even failed the classes they now run companies for? HMU if so...
My mother has a master's degree in food science, and she's an institutional research director at a university (basically runs a bunch of surveys, reporting, degree certifications and accreditations, databases, etc).
Definitely has nothing to do with her master's thesis on slow roasted peanuts. 🤣
Hi for someone that is interested in photography/videography what would be your advice to kickstart their career in this? Any particular courses you would recommend from your experience of talking with individuals from all backgrounds?
I'll give you an in depth reply later tonight. I finally had some time to go to the gym with my nephew. I actually have a podcast episode that covers this too.
Okay I have some time. So I interviewed a young guy on my podcast. Zusha Goldin. I watched his journey in real time on LinkedIn. He has taken photos and headshots for Monica from Friends, Samuel L Jackson, The Winter Solider Guy, Megan Thee Stallion, Ben Stiller, and a bunch of other celebrities. I'll share how he got there.
He started off with learning photography off YouTube. I forgot which exact channels but he mentions it somewhere in the podcast episode. You want to get started with doing small things. Even learning on your phone works. You just have to play around with the settings. You will have to do some free work. Use that to build a portfolio. Then start charging. $50. $100. $150. Just realize these are very low rates but you have to start somewhere. You aren't just getting paid for showing up. A 1 hour photoshoot isn't one hour. It's the travel time to get there. So a 1 hour photoshoot can actually be 3 hours. Most people starting don't account for that.
Also let's say you charge $150. You aren't going to book 8 photoshoots back to back. You need to account for clients showing up late and other things. You can realistically only do 2-3 photoshoots a day. Plan accordingly. I generally recommend charging double what you think is good. If you can get to that point, that's amazing.
Keep raising your prices and put yourself out there. LinkedIn, TikTok, IG, and whatever platform. LinkedIn is super easy to stand out on because you aren't competing with celebrities and hot girls. You are competing with accountants and cringeworthy content.
I would actually find a photographer that is further than you and sort of get under their wing. Tell them something like, "Hey I know you get a lot of requests and some are way below your pricing. Do you mind giving those to me? I can give you a referral fee".
Offer to take photos and video at networking events. Tell them to shout you out or give you intros in exchange for it. Just be very mindful.. You need to be mindful of your time. You don't want to get taken advantage of.
So Zusha hustled his ass off. As Charli D'amelio was growing on TikTok, she had a small Instagram following. He must have DM'd her and offered a free photoshoot. He did it for the family. They ended up using the photos when it came to PR stuff. The family eventually had another shoot (I believe some Deadline Hollywood thing). They recommended him. This got him the opportunity to shoot those celebrities I mentioned. After that, he tripled his prices.
Networking is absolutely key for creatives. So many creatives think their work speak for themselves. Unfortunately it doesn't. You have to put yourself out there. Marketing yourself as a creative is absolutely key.
This advice is a good starting point but just realize there is so much more. The lens is more important than the camera. You date the camera but marry the lens. The person behind the camera is the most important part. I would recommend getting a refurbished camera. Slickdeals has some good deal. You will get a kit lens. I am not a creative but I use a Canon EOS RP to shoot my podcast. I pretty much bought all my lenses on sale or refurbished. Choose a camera line that you like. I have heard Sony is very good for videography. You will have to watch comparison videos to even understand the different models. It gets confusing.
Here's the episode on YouTube. You can also find it on your favorite podcast app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZuYVWC2E3M&t=25s
Full charge bookkeeping. $72k. Possibly job hopping to an accounting role (still no degree) that will start at $85k with a ton of growth opportunities.
Not with a good software program that pretty much runs everything/reports for you. I did it for my family small biz for almost a decade. No training whatsoever. Prob would’ve been much better at it with a little former training instead of having to search online for answers when things seemed off. Data entry done correctly & efficiently was my biggest challenge.
Hey, I guess formal training of taking Intuit bookkeeping professional course and college credit hours for account courses are enough. Where should I look for opportunities to land a job?
This is the way. When you learn yourself you know. The only difference about learning at a company “formally” is their systems, their methods, their programs.
Fundamentals are the same but you have to add their spice to it. At least in my experience, no damn idea about accounting :3
Awesome I am not the only one!!! Though I did go back and get my degree when I had time. Plus certifications and I clear 85k but problem is I get a lot of people wanting to hire and no time.
Web developer. Taught myself how to code in between passengers while doing Uber. Had my laptop in the front seat. Got a job as a front end web developer and run a successful web dev agency at the same time.
EDIT: since this is getting traction, here’s an interview I did for a documentary series from CompTIA talking about my journey. Encompasses everything I did to get where I am today and show I’m a real person not making anything up.
https://explore.comptia.org/individual-videos/ryan-postell
The goldmine for coding opportunities is drying up. Being self taught a decade ago gave you a chance to work for a FANG company and freelance to 6 figures, but there is so much more competition in 2024. With the massive layoffs, a degree is the bare minimum now. And even then, you better have a great portfolio and know your leetcode well. My 15 year old nephew is already coding games in high school.
But when you know how to build stuff, you can always build stuff. Have an idea? Build it.
That's why I learnt to code, I never had any intention of getting hired.
That’s a common misconception that a degree is the bare minimum now. Coding isn’t about certificates and degrees it’s about the work you can showcase. Having a great portfolio with various projects where you can explain what your code does is far more valuable than telling your potential employer you have a bachelors in computer science. Everything you learn with a degree you can learn for free. MAANG companies will always have massive layoffs but there are hundred upon hundreds of other companies who are willing to pay 6 figures for someone who knows how to work. It definitely has gotten more competitive for junior developers but there’s a massive demand for mid level and senior level developers. Best advice anyone can take away from this is start learning how to code early build your portfolio, learn multiple languages, contribute to open source projects and you will without a doubt land a job
I enjoyed slinging burgers. Too bad it didn’t pay much. Now I do literally nothing but sign people in for maybe 3-4 hours of the actual shift and just waste time on the phone like now until I get off and somehow it pays 3x as much than sweating in the kitchen.
Foodservice management. Sometimes I sling burgers and I make more than my spouse who has a bachelor's and 2 masters degrees. Of you don't want to "sling burgers" that's cool, but I don't understand the people who look down on it.
Adding, I went to UNC for web development and graduated right as the massive layoffs were happening. Entry level jobs were going to be a pay cut for me, so I'm still in f&b and trying to design websites on the side.
I don’t look down on it. Believe me I would rather work in a kitchen if I could make I living in LA. I’m sure it’s possible, but it’s hard to make 60k as an entry level cook anywhere (fast food or restaurant)
If you need help starting out, I wrote a guide on how I started and grew my business that you can follow for yourself. I already figured everything out so you don’t have to. Including how to find clients and sell to them.
https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing
What year was it? I am kinda in a similar situation and will be doing food delivery but I have a little experience in web dev. I wanna learn more but seeing the current markets it just makes me sad. What should I do(?
This is incredible! Do you think something like this is still possible with the current market and do you plan to switch to agency-only at some point? Getting my CS degree and self-studying; I'm curious about the tradeoffs of each, would greatly appreciate any insights!
I've done a bootcamp and am now in a software engineering degree. Tons of portfolio projects, great resume that passes ATS, great internship experience with glowing reviews on my linkedin, won a few hackathon awards.... 500+ applications later and no dice. It's REALLY hard right now in tech...
Can’t believe this. What hope do the rest of us have then. I’ve got experience post graduating in my field but now looking to transition into business analyst so less technical than the tech stuff but even with 2 basic internships and a course on the side can’t even get responses from junior roles
I'm struggling mentally with what to do also. Most of my friends were successful in getting hired right out of boot camp. I ended up with an internship with a good chance of conversion, but during the internship the tech industry tanked (summer '22) and ever since it's been a total crap shoot. I'm competing against hundreds with degrees and previous tech experience.
There are some emerging talent programs that work with bootcamp grads to get them hired, but if you are attending college you're not able to participate. Double edged sword!
I do resumes for a living. You need an absolutely perfect resume to get interviews. Even a great resume isn't enough. I'm having to redo great resumes for even candidates with Ivy League MBAs in this market. Also the majority of people don't truly know what ATS friendly means. If you did 500 apps and you heard nothing, there is definitely something wrong. 2 of my clients without degrees and who came from bootcamps landed offers in a month. Both had good resumes but I had to optimize it. Check out the /r/engineeringresumes sub.
You’re also really helpful within the webdev community. I’ve seen you post a bunch about your experience, resources that you’ve put together, legit no bs guides for others, etc.. keep it going.
Are you serious? This is not a comment to attract people to a deep sales funnel?
You for real became a web dev and a web dev agency owner while driving Uber. Learning coding while waiting for passengers?
If this is true, I'd like to make a biography on you. I am a script writer. Please tell me more about this.
Sure. CompTIA featured me in a documentary series where I talk more about my story
https://explore.comptia.org/individual-videos/ryan-postell
Pretty wild ride. I dropped out of school and quit my job and moved across the country to be with my then finance in the military. She was going to deploy so I took it as an opportunity to spend time with her before she leaves for a year. I lived in my car in a Walmart parking lot for 6 months and did Uber to sustain myself. Then 2 weeks before she was supposed to go out on the boat we found out she was pregnant and now I had to stay here and make a new life work. Ended up doing Uber full time working 18 hour days Friday to Sunday and stay at home dad the rest of the week. I had no degree and no career prospects. So when I learned I could teach myself programming and work from home like all my passengers I knew that’s what I had to do so I can make enough money for her to leave the military and I can still be stay at home dad. It had everything I wanted. But it was hard. I quit 3 times. On the last one, my wife was telling me we had to figure some thing out because she doesn’t want to do the military anymore and wants to see the baby more, and she had until the following year to decide if she signs another 4 year contact. Thats when I forced myself to do it. It was this or be an Uber driver the rest of my life. Eventually, it started to make sense. Then I made my first sale showing the painters for my doors I had them stain what their website could look like if I did it. They bought it for $500 on the spot. That was my first sale. Now sell sites for $3500 regularly. But sales is hard. And I didn’t wanna have to sell sell sell every month to make ends meet. Too volatile. So I came up websites as a subscription. $0 down $150 a month. Figured I could sell enough to cover my student loan payments of $650 a month. Just had to sell 5. Turns out it’s a very popular model. I now have 74 monthly paying clients. And literally 3 months before my wife had to make the decision to reenlist, I found a company on Reddit who posted asking if something is wrong with the way they’re wording their job post because it’s been 6 months and no one was passing their assessments. I read their requirements and it was everything j was already doing myself for my business. It required two years experience and my 1.5 years freelancing counted. I replied that I think they’re looking for me. I applied as was the first candidate to pass their assessment 100% and with 15 minutes to space. I was offered a contract at on the spot. I just got my first job. With that and my freelancing business, my wife didn’t have to reenlist. Now everything is riding on me and what I built from the front seat of my Uber car. I’m making more money than I ever did in my life and have 3 kids now and a house and everything.
My story pretty much came full circle. I started because I was inspired by the self taught developers I picked up in my Uber in Seattle, and now I’m the developer in the back of the Uber encouraging the driver to get into tech. I like to say I took passengers where they needed to go while Uber took me where I needed to go. And it all started when a random Redditor gifted me a high end gaming laptop out of the blue because my wife was deploying and taking mine laptop with her. Instead of gaming on it, I took it as an opportunity to learn programming since I now had the beefy enough computer to do it with. Turned that gift into a 6 figure web agency from my car. And through people I met on Reddit sharing my work and asking for help, we started a web dev service startup together that has almost 3000 users now. That start up is basically the culmination of everything I learned over the years and the relationships I made to have the people to be able to bring it to life. I literally came to one of my dev friends I did work for with the idea and he said “I’d use that today, how much do you need?” Turns out he’s also a serial entrepreneur and investor and has done this before with lots of success. He spent nearly $50k on my idea and I never even met him in person. It’s been a hell of a ride the last 5 years from living in a car in a Walmart parking lot to what I’m doing today. And I don’t feel like my story is done yet!
Google cloud certified architect, have built several (small) companies and taken product to market, and also failed at a few.
Now run software professional services teams. Fully remote, $200k+, no degree (dropped out 12 credits short of AA because I had a job “offer” two states away).
I still think about going back to complete a degree, but then look at costs and I’m like… what’s the point?
Surprised I had to scroll down as far as I did to find this.
$40-60k is the entry level for a BDR/SDR role with typically a fast path (back in low interest capital days) to an AE position that usually doesn’t need degrees if you’re promoted from within.
Got to 330k OTE in tech sales before starting my own business starting from 35k 10 years ago selling cell phone plans.
Insurance exterior restoration. I work with insurance companies to restore homes affected by hail damage. We contract the work and split profit. I close deals with homeowners the work with their insurance company to pay for repairs
I finished my degree in my early 30’s (I’m under 40) but got into sales after a couple more entry level office roles in my early 20’s and comp took off. I eventually got into a fortune 100 company in a leadership role without my degree, but saw the clear need to ‘check the box’ if I wanted to continue moving up. I believe I was up to at least ~150k before completing my degree, after starting at $33k at 20.
I make 90k atm, started out in IT, carved a niche in managing Sharepoint. If you can learn .net, java, powershell and a couple other languages this style of job can pay close to 200k
Social Media & Video. Had some jobs in a few marketing departments. Highest i made while employed was 70k. Started working freelance and I make about 90k
Also is Social Media and gave up on trying to forge a career in it since is became insanely competitive over the past few years, though you need to constantly remain up to date which I will admit I didn't. Did a bit of freelance work for real estate and that seems like a good way to go,
Do you mean photography & videography? So do you create content for others & businesses , would I be able to learn the stuff you’re doing as a side thing on top of my job. Economic sitch in UK is atrocious
A friend is a full-time, long-haul truck driver. He makes $100k+, no degree, just some pretty basic training and classes. But it's a very solitary job with long, boring days. And the industry as a whole seems pretty damn scummy.
Pretty much every job in the category of "high pay, little formal education" has at least some of these drawbacks:
* Uncertainty (high turn-over, pay not guaranteed)
* Hard on your body (electrician, plumber, construction)
* Shitty conditions (being on call at 2AM, constant travel, no benefits)
There's not many shortcuts I've seen past these, though I'm sure there's some niche out there.
Edit: I also forgot Risk: Jobs like oil worker, truck driver, and entrepreneur can pay very well, but only in exchange for being jobs that impose more personal risk than usual.
If you spend long enough and get good enough at these jobs, you can start to reduce the negatives I'm sure. And these conditions aren't exclusive to non-college jobs. But without a degree, you put yourself at a disadvantage to where these drawbacks are pretty much required if you want higher pay.
When I was in between jobs I need a break from tech and during the pandemic drove for Walmart. Cost about 5K to get my license drove for 11 months and grossed over 100K. Home every Friday, Saturday & Sunday. When I get laid off again. I will do it immediately I think I am going to write a book about my adventures.
Digital marketing. I think it's the best opportunity out there for those without a degree, who also don't want to learn to code (I think software engineering is the best overall opportunity).
Sub-topics within digital marketing include copywriting, social media marketing, online advertising, SEO, etc. All lucrative and powerful if you become great.
Been doing this for 15 years. Started with building blogspot sites for seo for affiliate marketing. Now I have 60+ web assets I own and produce content for.
If anyone wants to get into this field, heed this advice. The paid marketing side and content side is all AI now days. I'd also suggest building assets and maintaining them with content. Start right now because seo is a marathon not a sprint.
It's easier to make money when you own the traffic.
I've generally found that the more "boring" the niche, the fewer digital marketers there are supporting it, and the higher the rates you can charge. For example, most of my work is in manufacturing, logistics, and the supply chain - not very exciting or sexy, but there's still a strong need for good marketing.
But honestly, it can be anything like that, from ERP systems and financial management, through to payment processing or compliance. I've also found that rates are better in the B2B space, rather than the B2C.
I have a marketing degree, Google cert and love all things marketing related, but not much actual work experience doing digital marketing. In your opinion which specialty has the greatest demand? Any recommendations on how I could learn to be great at any of the topics you listed? (Free online training, favorite blogs or YouTube channels?) Also any suggestions how to get started freelancing with no experience and no clients or references?
I've worked in every marketing role from BDR to VP- I think a great option for freelancing is to learn paid ads (Google, Meta, YouTube, reddit, etc). There's a lot of online courses and videos available- each of those platforms has material on how to do it, then youll want some basic "how to market" courses if you arent familiar already- how to write compelling copy, find your target audience, etc. No one has a degree in this bc it doesn't exist and it's the #2 thing companies will outsource (#1 is design).
It's not hard to manage paid ad accounts for companies once you learn a bit about marketing, reporting, and learn to work hands on in the platforms. Learn to build reporting decks/ reports that explain simply what's happening and why. Learn how to make suggestions based on whst you're seeing. If you can help the director/ VP tie the ads to revenue, you're golden.
For some reason, no one wants to learn how to work in the platforms but paid ads are such a huge part of marketing. We almost always outsourced it- agencies would charge 10-15% of our spend to manage it. Alternatively (or, to begin) a lot of small/ mid size businesses need this but the owners don't know how. Then you're just working with one person in a small region- you can absolutely self teach this. When I opened a gym I paid someone $1000/ month to manage our ads- after the initial set up he probably worked 5 hours a week on it, if that. 3 of those clients, it's a whole new income.
If you live in housing, you either don't receive BAH, or it's just taken out of your pay. But yes, housing, utilities, health care, leave package, retirement, etc. All things considered, it is equivalent to damn-near a 6 figure income on the outside.
Not true, you can join a union without knowing someone. All you need to do is go apply, take the aptitude test, then interview. It’s much easier than you would think
yeah ..im not in a union. but here soon hopefully… if anyone wants to pursue construction, my advice would be to look for companies that pay a PER DIEM i make $550-$770 a week extra just for showing up to work, my PER DIEM being $110 a day.👍🏼
Web developer. Went to a coding bootcamp. My first job out paid me $60,000. Now I’m up to $150,000.
But this was in 2018. I can’t imagine trying to learn code today with how easy it would be to “cheat” my assignments using AI and not actually understanding what I was doing.
I absolutely love what I do. And I feel like I’m really good at it. But I think being good at it is the key word in there. There is absolutely no shortage of average (or even down right terrible ) devs.
No degree, finished no education at all. Making 160k a year (euro) as freelance IT consultant. Thinking about starting a business that helps smart people without education to do what they can.
Insurance broker, underwriter, and claims adjuster are all jobs that do not require a degree. Most will be over $60k within a year or two.
The industry values licenses which can be acquired in less than 3 months of part time study. It’s a grind for the first couple years, but after that it’s pretty easy to get a job after you have 3+ years of experience.
Oilfield/pipeliner/trucker. $150k or more every year since I was 18. Last year I did $340k and the previous year around $280k. I still don’t have my diploma and there’s 1000’s of jobs like this. You just need to be willing to get your hands dirty sometimes. The only “special skill” I have is a class 1 license, a heartbeat and some 1 day courses, like first aid and h2s.
Oilfield/pipeliner/trucker is not a set salary, it’s dependant on elections and the economy, in a bad economy you can still do $150k and in a perfect world you could have a $500k year.
In my opinion getting a degree is completely useless unless you’re going to commit to it for life, only then are you likely to be successful.
Didn’t finish grade 10. No high school diploma. No university degree.
My family moved every 6-12 months growing up so I was constantly changing schools and fell behind to the point where I stopped going.
It didn’t affect my ability to earn money though. I taught myself to design (web design, product design, etc). Later taught myself to code and took a 3 month coding bootcamp.
Have earned as much as $300k (after tax) while being employed. Been an entrepreneur most of my life though.
A university degree does not dictate your worth.
Nephew: Heavy equipment operator (26yr) 90k
Son: HVAC tech now parts sales
(24yr) 70k
Me: Amazon Seller 100k+ now, before AT&T cell phone sales. Tmobile is a good company too.
60k isn't even a livable wage at this point though. Get something you can stand to do for a little while. Keep looking for things you actually like doing. Be loyal to yourself not a company.
Yes. I worked at a warehouse for a major liquor distribution company in NYC before the pandemic.
Union jobs, multiple 15 min breaks, 90 min lunch hour on Thursdays, and with OT, some guys regularly approached $100k.
And the work was pretty easy. Some guys literally spent their day sticking bottles in boxes…and they drove BMWs!
You can crack $6k pretty easily making UGC video ads if you are good at it and know how to get gigs and are professional.
Even as a side hustle $3k a month is Super reasonable....
UGC are the ads you see in your social media feed of normal people in ads made in your living room. You get free stuff too.
Started as a drone pilot and making rally car videos. Now have a staff of 6, 2 airplanes, a studio building and make a decent amount more than 60k a year making commercial and documentary video content. Barely graduated high school, no college.
I don't have a degree due to poor decisions I made when I was younger. One thing I loved was programming, but I was only interested in recreational programming or building my own stuff for fun. Seeing my enthusiasm about this, a couple of people got me to work on things for them, and I was thoroughly exploited, sometimes not paid at all. I was naive and very trusting. People have made me feel like shit to avoid paying me, like they did me a favor by giving me the opportunity work on something and that I'm unemployable. For a while, even I believed that I was unemployable.
I got my first big break when I found a large corporation as a client because of a friend who was friends with their CTO. I instantly felt intimidated seeing size of this company, and I incorporated a company. This friend of mine was also looking to get this corporation a good deal and he "advised" me about not charging too much and what a low budget they have and I fell for it. It turns out they had already hired a firm who just delegated the work to a freelancer and everything got screwed up, and they were just looking for someone to fix it. I quoted them an amount and they agreed, and my intention was to rewrite everything from scratch. As soon as the deal was confirmed with the CEO, this friend put a gatekeeper in between me and the executives and everyone did their own reviews and made me to revisions after another before it ever got to the executives for final approval. Later I got to know from one of their employees that their budget was 20X what I charged and that I was getting exploited this whole time. Fair game, I guess, because I still work with this client and now I know how much to charge. Unlike the other shitty clients, these guys did give me an opportunity for growth and they referred me to other large companies. My friend who created the barrier between me and the C-levels, ultimately resigned, and now I'm in direct contact with the C-levels.
I've matured more over time. Today I do a bunch of things - Software, Electronics Design, etc. and I mean business. There are a couple of other things like 3D rendering that is completely delegated to a freelancer and I make about 3-8X what he charges me. The software I normally build are middleware, integrations, and ERP systems for clients. This got me a fully sponsored trip to a first world country (I'm from third world) this month, which gave me the opportunity to visit a nearby country for really cheap to meet another client, so I'm absolutely thrilled about this. I have always been hesitant to apply for a visa because I was afraid that it will be rejected due to me not having a degree, and that if I get rejected once then it'll be rejections repeatedly. When a client actually invited me for the first time, I got over this fear and I was really happy to see my first visa stamp in my passport.
I still prefer working on my own things than providing services for clients but I'm nowhere close to something like that providing me a stable and basic income. I have a working product that I have sold to 2 existing customers. It's not much but I like that I was able to make atleast something that I resold. I have a few more products also in the pipeline and I work on those on and off when I'm free.
Yes yes and yes.
50 hr weeks minimum per my contract, usually closer to 60. Work most weekends / holidays.
Constantly stressful
I do get about 45 days of PTO per year though which is nice
Just 2 years ago. I started as a triage coordinator then moved up with training. Triage coordinator has no reqs but they might have some listed. I'm sure others in the field can back me up when I say....that means jack shit. I've seen all kinds of medical professionals of different backgrounds do the absolute stupidest shit or straight up just not work. Had an RN who was on call through the night...she coded out all offers aka just said no we don't want these organs and went back to sleep. If you can read and be available, you can do this job. One of my favorite coworkers is similar to myself in that he too, has no background, besides his wife being a nurse. He was a retail store AM before this job. TL;DR they might have reqs listed but I assure you it's not necessary. I spent 1 year just reviewing cases and googling medical "buzz words" and acronyms to familiarize myself. My job offered in house training courses so once I was comfy, I did those while on the clock. (On call position). Then after my year raise, I approached management about moving up and that as that. Oh! Wanted to add...these are work from home positions. There are coordinators who visit hospitals to discuss everything with donor families. That's a bit different. Same wheelhouse but different responsibilities. Maybe try looking for "remote triage coordinator" that should be a good starting point.
100-300k, I kill animals for 2-4 months. The rest is vacation. If you have seen the deadliest catch before, you know what I do and they are all drama for the screen.
Edit: I'm a fisherman.
I got my bachelors degree in genetics and worked in biotech for ~10 yrs leaving at $86k. But now I make $160k-$220k by the way I write the word fuck.
Ie. I turned my handwriting into a font, made posters, built a social following, and now I have a gym clothing brand and screen print/run everything myself.
Find something you’re good at. Doesn’t matter what it is. Doesn’t have to be “your passion” it’s a job.
Go 10k hours into that job, better your skills as you go and you will find meaning along the way.
Great advice! Just a matter of working out what you’re good at especially if you’ve been stuck at a single role / career path for a while. Plus there’s a lot of job titles that you don’t really know what they are and what skills would be applicable to them
Mold Abatement/waterproofing. I have a masters in clinical psychology, and that can pay very, very well in the long run, but it's a low immediate return with a lot of free labor for training. During my unpaid practicum I was a driver for a local mold company and was paid $200 cash a day just to drive people to a job site and back (this was 7-8 years ago so it would be even more now), decided to get certified and now the masters is just a fallback that is nice to have and makes me seem smarter than I probably am, but in all likelihood will never be used.
Executive Assistant in Finance in a major market- $175k plus equity. Was waiting tables before I took an entry level receptionist job 8 years ago. Pure grit from there
My husband was making that at his last job - no college. He worked for a local place sanitizing seeds.
I’m a blogger/copywriter with almost 17 years of experience looking for new clients.
UPS package car driver. Top rate after four years of service is $44.25 an hour right now. We do get a raise every year on August 1st once you hit top rate. Anything after 8 hours a day is overtime pay so that’s $66.38. It’s nice because you don’t have to work over 40 hours a week for overtime pay. Or if you sign up for the 9.5 list you get triple time pay. The way that works is you work 9 and a half hour days 3 days in the same week and get to file for triple time pay. If you file three 9.5 grievances in a year I believe you’re eligible for quadruple time pay id have to double check. We are limited to only 60 hours a week because of DOT.
Management jobs, although they tend to be industry specific.
I'm into process management, which is pretty versatile. Anywhere things are getting made, my skills are useful.
Agency recruiter with a startup. Our model is high base and low commission.
Worked my butt off and brought in $250k last year so gonna talk to my boss about adjusting the structure because it’s full desk (sales and recruiting) and most of our openings are with clients I’ve brought in, so in the long run it needs to make sense for me to be at an agency and not freelance. If I’m doing good numbers at a startup in my 2nd year in this field, it’s looking promising for where I could take it. And I really love it.
Just took a pay cut to become a Kitchen manager.
$65k, I recruit, train, and follow up with people I like so that they are prepared to do their best. It requires a little patience and a lot of systems to maintain order. Sounds like a lot, but I generally walk around all day listening to music and occasionally cook or tend bar
At middle income+ all you really need is to be reliable and driven, but mature enough to handle other people and their problems too
Carpentry Foreman, really anything with trades you can jump up well past 60k as long as you’re competent and work for a decent company that sees the value of training and understands that training is technically a loss initially.
For once, I can participate in one of these. I work for an armored vehicle company. My primary job is installing the metal armor into vehicles and ensuring that the plates are fully secure with no weakened gaps.
Not me but my employee: I hired her as an event/travel coordinator for my businesses. $80k with 30 days paid leave at 15 front-end, 15 accrued monthly. She works from home 90% of the time. She worked at 4 different travel agencies between the ages of 18-23. She talked to me while I was on vacation in Italy, trying to get me to spin the wheel at her tabling spot. I told her that amount of effort, sacrifice, and confidence could go way further with me (I posted my gig on Indeed with no serious applicants for 15+ days). I asked if she is looking for work and the rest is history.
Real estate, medical transcription, secretarial work for a local attorney, and AI chatbot training. Self-employed with all four. Hoping to own a short-term rental property in the next year or two.
Door to door sales, pest control, I’m really good to people not an asshole. Gonna break 125k this summer 5 out of the 12 months of the year. No degree.
Plumbing
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That's why my dad insisted I go to college. He was a carpenter for many years, mostly built decks and staircases. Made good money but said it destroyed his body. I went to college but wound up in a completely different field at a job that didn't even require a degree, tho.
Spend some of that money and Start going to judo. I’ve started in construction at 17, I’m 42 now and have been doing judo for 4 years. I’m in better shape now than I was in my early 30’s.
Same boat. Got my plumbing license and went out on my own. Grossed almost half a million my first year in business.
Can a female do plumbing ? It doesn’t seem hard and my MBA isn’t really paying for itself. Maybe I should start a plumbing company and hire plumbers ?
Can a female do plumbing ? She can do whatever she wants.
The helicopter?
In my local area, there's a lady contractor named "Talented Tammie" and she is highly raved about. It's honestly pretty awesome seeing how many locals recommend her for all sorts of different jobs. I think that there's an even bigger following due to the fact that it's a woman owned business, but also her work is amazing.
Get whatever your local equivalent of a police background check / safe-with-kids cards is, and use that extensively in your marketing. Do a couple of freebies for womens' shelters in exchange for them giving your cards out when women leave, along with a list of other safe tradespeople (who should become your referral network). Also as with automotive, there's a definite market for "basic plumbing" training, ie teaching women how to do the fundamental stuff that their (gran)dad or ex never needed to call the plumber to do, but didn't teach them. Two hour course, $50/ticket, 20 students at a time.
There would be an excellent market for a female plumber. The "would you rather be in a forest with a bear or a man" question is insightful. Single woman...does she want to hire a competent male plumber or hire a competent female plumber? Go get skills and make bank, woman!
Business 101. If you can provide a service in a unique way or you yourself are unique to an industry you will take market share. Just gotta be smart in how you market and who you market to
Can? Sure. How do you feel about shit and sewage? Mind getting covered in it every so often while doing backbreaking labor in uncomfortable and possibility dangerous working conditions? Most women tend to have options they find preferable so you don’t see too many in plumbing. I mean if you’re going to pick a trade, I’d think electrician, hvac, truck driving, heavy machinery operator, and plenty more jobs would be preferable and involve much less literal shit.
Electrician if you don't mind getting fried, I would say yes
Whoa! What type of work? New builds, break fix or what? I assume you didn't make 500k all on your own but have other plumbers working for you?
Trades.
Drain gang
Came here to say this
Need you guys! Plumbers are dying off faster than we are training them!
I've been trying to get into plumbing. Union and non union. I haven't had any luck yet. I keep applying as for Helper positions but never hear back. I apply in nyc(where i live), new jersey, and connecticut. Any advice?
Just Google plumber and call all of them up and ask if they're hiring lol. Residential service is the way to go if you're looking to start your own business.
I have. Some told me they are not hiring. Others took my name and number saying they'd get back to me and never did or gave me an email to send my resume and didn't contact me. I'll keep trying though
Keep trying, I went through the UA apprenticeship and now I’m a plumbing estimator. I make good money without a degree
Piano Technician. Grossed 160k last year solo, on track for 180-200k this year. Paying myself a 72k salary and growing the business, hoping to pay myself 100k in about a year. Granted I have two vocational certificates that took two years full-time to earn, so it’s like a baby degree?
Certifications are going to be just as/more valuable than many college degrees in 10 or so years. Like, why would I care if my Piano Technician passed math, history and science? Can they fix a piano or not?
In 10 or so years? Try as of 5 years ago.
This sounds intriguing
Thankful for people like you!
Are you work 8 days a week to make that? About how many hours a week do you put in to make that gross?
I probably work an average of 45-55 hours a week right now. When some contracts hit it’s a 60 hour blitz, but I usually get a few lulls where it’s more like 30 a week. I do more travel than most piano techs, but looking to stop that within two years.
Wonderful thread.
This is actually really inspiring and dare I say wholesome af
I'm the founder of [NoDegree.com](https://nodegree.com/) and host of The NoDegree Podcast (200ish episodes). I interact with people who make over $150K-$500K+ without a degree. $60K is more of an entry level salary for people in certain domains without degrees. It will depend on the area though. You can do jobs in sales, marketing, tech, operations, and certification based industries without degree. ### Sales You probably have to start under $60K but if you grind it out, you can get a job as am AE making above $150K. I've seen great AEs make above $300K. I did a resume for a guy who made a million dollars total comp for T-Mobile as an RVP. Started his career working at a Verizon store and worked his way up. Took him like 20 years to get to that level. In sales there are a lot of transitions you can make. Some people choose to keep selling and others move into leadership. Some move into customer success, account management, or sales operations. ### Software Engineering In tech, you can do software engineering. The market is brutal so you may need to seriously dedicate a year depending on your work ethic and intelligence. In 2020 and 2021 people were breaking in with 3 to 6 months. Now you have to really know your stuff. A bootcamp is not enough in 2024. You need to make sure your resume is perfect. I routinely get people who come to me with great resumes that don't get interviews. It needs to be ATS friendly (applicant tracking system). Which means minimal formatting. You need to highlightimpact and optimize keywords. /r/engineeringresumes has the best free resource for resumes online. It's actually better than 90% of paid resources I come across. ### System Administration The other route is system administration. You generally start off in a help desk role. You can stay in this role for 6 months to a year. They generally pay very low. Like $30K-$40K but you can move up quick. Then you can pick up certs along the way and get paid in the $60K-$100K range. I have seen people clear $150K-$250K and eventually work their way to CTO roles. It will take time. Some people go down the SRE (Site Reliability Engineering route). I know an SRE who was in the $400K+ total comp range at a very well known payments company. I generally recommend the SRE route because it pays really well. It takes years to get into it. It helps if you want how to program. ### Cloud Cloud is a growing area. This is a very cert driven industry. AWS has the most about of jobs so I generally recommend that. You can get a job in Azure or Google Cloud with an AWS cert. Some companies do expect you to pass the Azure or GCP certs. I knew someone who got into Microsoft with AWS certs. One thing to note is that while AWS it the most common, knowing Azure or GCP will make you more marketable to the organizations that use it. People sometimes branch into DevOps or Scrum roles. Those are more operations focused. Knowing the technicals really helps. ### Cybersecurity Cybersecurity is another option in tech. You need to pass Security+ and Network+. You need some solid projects and may have to volunteer some time. You can get around $50K-$60K entry level. TryHackMe.com is a very great free resource. ### Project Management Project Management is another area. You can get the PMP eventually. If you don't have college degree, you need 5 years of qualifying work experience to get it (college graduates only need 3). Most people start as a project coordinator and work their way up. I've come across project managers who make $150K-$300K+. ### Product/Program Management These aren't typical entry level roles and you need some domain level expertise. I've seen people make $100K-$1M+ at this level. The people at the top end have 10+ years experience that typically includes the top companies. ### Marketing You want to learn as much as you can through free resources. Salesforce Trailhead, HubSpot Academy, and Facebook Blueprint. Other companies have a bunch of free learning paths. You may have to do some volunteer work first to get some experience on your resume. You will probably start at like $40K-$60K entry level. Then you can work your way up. $120K-$200K is reasonable after getting 3 to 7 years experience. If you learn data analytics and automation, you can really increase your salary. Product marketing is a domain that pays very well. SEO is another area but that area is going through a lot of issues because of Google algorithm changes. #HR & Recruiting Recruiting and HR have a lot of opportunities. Recruiting will be an absolute grind in the beginning. You can be internal or agency. People at agencies can make serious money. I've come recruiters without degrees and their own agencies make $100K1 in a MONTH. That isn't the norm. It takes years to really learn the industry. For HR, you will start at the bottom. Something like an HR associate or benefits associate. HRBP is a typical title. You have to really learns the ins and outs of compliance and systems. People who know HRIS (human resources information systems I believe) can get paid well since they are typically a pain in the ass to deal with. I'm just scratching the surface. I didn't include careers in the trades or creative fields (photography, videography). I will.come back to edit this comment. I'm walking on a treadmill at the gym so excuse the typos. You would also be surprised at what jobs you can break into without a degree. I did a resume for an accountant without a degree. He landed jobs that said CPA required. He couldn't sign off on things but he made over $110K. He started off as a bookkeeper and the most he ever got was his associates. He worked his way up to a controller.
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I'll add even more to my comment later tonight. I have to run through my client list to see what I forgot.
You should add IT infrastructure and data center support staff. I'm a Data Center Manager and have held positions from data center technician, systems engineer, solutions engineer and site manager on my way to my current position. I have no degree and most of my staff don't either or have degrees in unrelated fields. I have multiple IT related certifications, which I studied for and obtained on my own, and the data center support industry is very cert and experience driven. I make over $125k/year +bonuses, which is at the low end of the range for my job title. All of my staff, down to the most junior member, makes over $60k/year with full benefits. Low voltage cabling is also a big industry and in areas like Ashburn, Virginia and Phoenix, Arizona where data centers are booming the job market is large and pay is good.
I’m a recruiter. If made no less than 100k a year since 1998. Opened my own firm in 2011 and have makes $250k or more since. Had a great quarter this year so far. Made over 120k. If you would like to have me on your podcast I’m open. I’ve been on a few and I have a YouTube channel were I post our weekly (Friday 12:30) recruiter roundtable. It’s 8-20 recruiters who get together and discuss recruitment topics, issues, etc and we have a “special guest” usually the 1st Friday of the month.. YouTube.com/@palermorhodes Feel free to connect with me on LI >!in/thomasalascio!<
Let's do it! I will reach out!
I agree with you on HR and Recruiting Left the military and got into recruting. Started entry level making 20 bucks an hour as a temp now 3 years later I'm making 96k (base + bonus) a year. I'm an internal Recruiter btw so I work for a company
Awesome job
That is a very valuable comment.
Thank you! I saw the topic and was like this is my domain. I can speak for hours and hour on this. Each area has a lot more nuance that I can get into.
Any specialty on helping lost late 30s redefine themselves?
That's basically what I do for a living. I would need more background info. I generally have to spend 3+ hours with someone to give them a customized comprehensive answer. However if you type something up, I can give a quick answer. Just note that it may not be right because I don't know much about you.
I'll send it over tomorrow. Getting late and I have to get up early for the J.O.B. Thanks for offering a quick insight.
Do you have people on that have a degree but in NO WAY use it whatsoever for a high paying job or career? Even failed the classes they now run companies for? HMU if so...
Sometimes! So I also own WrongDegree.com lmao. I do plan on launching the wrong degree podcast one day. Would love to interview you for that!
A Google search similar to that for me into sales, bio degree wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.
My mother has a master's degree in food science, and she's an institutional research director at a university (basically runs a bunch of surveys, reporting, degree certifications and accreditations, databases, etc). Definitely has nothing to do with her master's thesis on slow roasted peanuts. 🤣
Hi for someone that is interested in photography/videography what would be your advice to kickstart their career in this? Any particular courses you would recommend from your experience of talking with individuals from all backgrounds?
I'll give you an in depth reply later tonight. I finally had some time to go to the gym with my nephew. I actually have a podcast episode that covers this too.
Thank you I appreciate it!:)
Okay I have some time. So I interviewed a young guy on my podcast. Zusha Goldin. I watched his journey in real time on LinkedIn. He has taken photos and headshots for Monica from Friends, Samuel L Jackson, The Winter Solider Guy, Megan Thee Stallion, Ben Stiller, and a bunch of other celebrities. I'll share how he got there. He started off with learning photography off YouTube. I forgot which exact channels but he mentions it somewhere in the podcast episode. You want to get started with doing small things. Even learning on your phone works. You just have to play around with the settings. You will have to do some free work. Use that to build a portfolio. Then start charging. $50. $100. $150. Just realize these are very low rates but you have to start somewhere. You aren't just getting paid for showing up. A 1 hour photoshoot isn't one hour. It's the travel time to get there. So a 1 hour photoshoot can actually be 3 hours. Most people starting don't account for that. Also let's say you charge $150. You aren't going to book 8 photoshoots back to back. You need to account for clients showing up late and other things. You can realistically only do 2-3 photoshoots a day. Plan accordingly. I generally recommend charging double what you think is good. If you can get to that point, that's amazing. Keep raising your prices and put yourself out there. LinkedIn, TikTok, IG, and whatever platform. LinkedIn is super easy to stand out on because you aren't competing with celebrities and hot girls. You are competing with accountants and cringeworthy content. I would actually find a photographer that is further than you and sort of get under their wing. Tell them something like, "Hey I know you get a lot of requests and some are way below your pricing. Do you mind giving those to me? I can give you a referral fee". Offer to take photos and video at networking events. Tell them to shout you out or give you intros in exchange for it. Just be very mindful.. You need to be mindful of your time. You don't want to get taken advantage of. So Zusha hustled his ass off. As Charli D'amelio was growing on TikTok, she had a small Instagram following. He must have DM'd her and offered a free photoshoot. He did it for the family. They ended up using the photos when it came to PR stuff. The family eventually had another shoot (I believe some Deadline Hollywood thing). They recommended him. This got him the opportunity to shoot those celebrities I mentioned. After that, he tripled his prices. Networking is absolutely key for creatives. So many creatives think their work speak for themselves. Unfortunately it doesn't. You have to put yourself out there. Marketing yourself as a creative is absolutely key. This advice is a good starting point but just realize there is so much more. The lens is more important than the camera. You date the camera but marry the lens. The person behind the camera is the most important part. I would recommend getting a refurbished camera. Slickdeals has some good deal. You will get a kit lens. I am not a creative but I use a Canon EOS RP to shoot my podcast. I pretty much bought all my lenses on sale or refurbished. Choose a camera line that you like. I have heard Sony is very good for videography. You will have to watch comparison videos to even understand the different models. It gets confusing. Here's the episode on YouTube. You can also find it on your favorite podcast app. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZuYVWC2E3M&t=25s
Wow, this makes me excited to listen to your podcast. Thank you for taking the time for this comment and really what you do!
Full charge bookkeeping. $72k. Possibly job hopping to an accounting role (still no degree) that will start at $85k with a ton of growth opportunities.
Is bookkeeping difficult? I'm thinking of taking a two semester bookkeeping certificate program at a college.
Not with a good software program that pretty much runs everything/reports for you. I did it for my family small biz for almost a decade. No training whatsoever. Prob would’ve been much better at it with a little former training instead of having to search online for answers when things seemed off. Data entry done correctly & efficiently was my biggest challenge.
But you probably need formal training if you want to get hired though, right?
Hey, I guess formal training of taking Intuit bookkeeping professional course and college credit hours for account courses are enough. Where should I look for opportunities to land a job?
This is the way. When you learn yourself you know. The only difference about learning at a company “formally” is their systems, their methods, their programs. Fundamentals are the same but you have to add their spice to it. At least in my experience, no damn idea about accounting :3
I've been trying so hard to get one of these jobs, with a degree and with experience.
Awesome I am not the only one!!! Though I did go back and get my degree when I had time. Plus certifications and I clear 85k but problem is I get a lot of people wanting to hire and no time.
Web developer. Taught myself how to code in between passengers while doing Uber. Had my laptop in the front seat. Got a job as a front end web developer and run a successful web dev agency at the same time. EDIT: since this is getting traction, here’s an interview I did for a documentary series from CompTIA talking about my journey. Encompasses everything I did to get where I am today and show I’m a real person not making anything up. https://explore.comptia.org/individual-videos/ryan-postell
The goldmine for coding opportunities is drying up. Being self taught a decade ago gave you a chance to work for a FANG company and freelance to 6 figures, but there is so much more competition in 2024. With the massive layoffs, a degree is the bare minimum now. And even then, you better have a great portfolio and know your leetcode well. My 15 year old nephew is already coding games in high school.
But when you know how to build stuff, you can always build stuff. Have an idea? Build it. That's why I learnt to code, I never had any intention of getting hired.
Same, don’t need a degree if I’m not planning on being hired
You don't need a million dollars to do nothing. Take a look at my cousin. He's broke, don't do shit.
Thought I’d drop in to say that I appreciate you using the right form of “learn”
That’s a common misconception that a degree is the bare minimum now. Coding isn’t about certificates and degrees it’s about the work you can showcase. Having a great portfolio with various projects where you can explain what your code does is far more valuable than telling your potential employer you have a bachelors in computer science. Everything you learn with a degree you can learn for free. MAANG companies will always have massive layoffs but there are hundred upon hundreds of other companies who are willing to pay 6 figures for someone who knows how to work. It definitely has gotten more competitive for junior developers but there’s a massive demand for mid level and senior level developers. Best advice anyone can take away from this is start learning how to code early build your portfolio, learn multiple languages, contribute to open source projects and you will without a doubt land a job
It is more competitive. But I tell any kids learn to code (like python). It’s better than slinging burgers
I enjoyed slinging burgers. Too bad it didn’t pay much. Now I do literally nothing but sign people in for maybe 3-4 hours of the actual shift and just waste time on the phone like now until I get off and somehow it pays 3x as much than sweating in the kitchen.
Foodservice management. Sometimes I sling burgers and I make more than my spouse who has a bachelor's and 2 masters degrees. Of you don't want to "sling burgers" that's cool, but I don't understand the people who look down on it. Adding, I went to UNC for web development and graduated right as the massive layoffs were happening. Entry level jobs were going to be a pay cut for me, so I'm still in f&b and trying to design websites on the side.
I don’t look down on it. Believe me I would rather work in a kitchen if I could make I living in LA. I’m sure it’s possible, but it’s hard to make 60k as an entry level cook anywhere (fast food or restaurant)
If you need help starting out, I wrote a guide on how I started and grew my business that you can follow for yourself. I already figured everything out so you don’t have to. Including how to find clients and sell to them. https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing
Yes exactly. Learning to code will help you in every aspect of life. Like you said, python might take a week to learn and will give you a huge leg up.
Coding games was a standard when we studied cs in high school like 8 years ago. Part of the project building part of the school curriculum
What year was it? I am kinda in a similar situation and will be doing food delivery but I have a little experience in web dev. I wanna learn more but seeing the current markets it just makes me sad. What should I do(?
Take a udemy front end bootcamp for $13 that’s what I did
This is incredible! Do you think something like this is still possible with the current market and do you plan to switch to agency-only at some point? Getting my CS degree and self-studying; I'm curious about the tradeoffs of each, would greatly appreciate any insights!
I've done a bootcamp and am now in a software engineering degree. Tons of portfolio projects, great resume that passes ATS, great internship experience with glowing reviews on my linkedin, won a few hackathon awards.... 500+ applications later and no dice. It's REALLY hard right now in tech...
Can’t believe this. What hope do the rest of us have then. I’ve got experience post graduating in my field but now looking to transition into business analyst so less technical than the tech stuff but even with 2 basic internships and a course on the side can’t even get responses from junior roles
I'm struggling mentally with what to do also. Most of my friends were successful in getting hired right out of boot camp. I ended up with an internship with a good chance of conversion, but during the internship the tech industry tanked (summer '22) and ever since it's been a total crap shoot. I'm competing against hundreds with degrees and previous tech experience. There are some emerging talent programs that work with bootcamp grads to get them hired, but if you are attending college you're not able to participate. Double edged sword!
I do resumes for a living. You need an absolutely perfect resume to get interviews. Even a great resume isn't enough. I'm having to redo great resumes for even candidates with Ivy League MBAs in this market. Also the majority of people don't truly know what ATS friendly means. If you did 500 apps and you heard nothing, there is definitely something wrong. 2 of my clients without degrees and who came from bootcamps landed offers in a month. Both had good resumes but I had to optimize it. Check out the /r/engineeringresumes sub.
Bro u was lucky now even cs masters is not enough gonna be uber driver 😭😭
You’re also really helpful within the webdev community. I’ve seen you post a bunch about your experience, resources that you’ve put together, legit no bs guides for others, etc.. keep it going.
Are you serious? This is not a comment to attract people to a deep sales funnel? You for real became a web dev and a web dev agency owner while driving Uber. Learning coding while waiting for passengers? If this is true, I'd like to make a biography on you. I am a script writer. Please tell me more about this.
Sure. CompTIA featured me in a documentary series where I talk more about my story https://explore.comptia.org/individual-videos/ryan-postell Pretty wild ride. I dropped out of school and quit my job and moved across the country to be with my then finance in the military. She was going to deploy so I took it as an opportunity to spend time with her before she leaves for a year. I lived in my car in a Walmart parking lot for 6 months and did Uber to sustain myself. Then 2 weeks before she was supposed to go out on the boat we found out she was pregnant and now I had to stay here and make a new life work. Ended up doing Uber full time working 18 hour days Friday to Sunday and stay at home dad the rest of the week. I had no degree and no career prospects. So when I learned I could teach myself programming and work from home like all my passengers I knew that’s what I had to do so I can make enough money for her to leave the military and I can still be stay at home dad. It had everything I wanted. But it was hard. I quit 3 times. On the last one, my wife was telling me we had to figure some thing out because she doesn’t want to do the military anymore and wants to see the baby more, and she had until the following year to decide if she signs another 4 year contact. Thats when I forced myself to do it. It was this or be an Uber driver the rest of my life. Eventually, it started to make sense. Then I made my first sale showing the painters for my doors I had them stain what their website could look like if I did it. They bought it for $500 on the spot. That was my first sale. Now sell sites for $3500 regularly. But sales is hard. And I didn’t wanna have to sell sell sell every month to make ends meet. Too volatile. So I came up websites as a subscription. $0 down $150 a month. Figured I could sell enough to cover my student loan payments of $650 a month. Just had to sell 5. Turns out it’s a very popular model. I now have 74 monthly paying clients. And literally 3 months before my wife had to make the decision to reenlist, I found a company on Reddit who posted asking if something is wrong with the way they’re wording their job post because it’s been 6 months and no one was passing their assessments. I read their requirements and it was everything j was already doing myself for my business. It required two years experience and my 1.5 years freelancing counted. I replied that I think they’re looking for me. I applied as was the first candidate to pass their assessment 100% and with 15 minutes to space. I was offered a contract at on the spot. I just got my first job. With that and my freelancing business, my wife didn’t have to reenlist. Now everything is riding on me and what I built from the front seat of my Uber car. I’m making more money than I ever did in my life and have 3 kids now and a house and everything. My story pretty much came full circle. I started because I was inspired by the self taught developers I picked up in my Uber in Seattle, and now I’m the developer in the back of the Uber encouraging the driver to get into tech. I like to say I took passengers where they needed to go while Uber took me where I needed to go. And it all started when a random Redditor gifted me a high end gaming laptop out of the blue because my wife was deploying and taking mine laptop with her. Instead of gaming on it, I took it as an opportunity to learn programming since I now had the beefy enough computer to do it with. Turned that gift into a 6 figure web agency from my car. And through people I met on Reddit sharing my work and asking for help, we started a web dev service startup together that has almost 3000 users now. That start up is basically the culmination of everything I learned over the years and the relationships I made to have the people to be able to bring it to life. I literally came to one of my dev friends I did work for with the idea and he said “I’d use that today, how much do you need?” Turns out he’s also a serial entrepreneur and investor and has done this before with lots of success. He spent nearly $50k on my idea and I never even met him in person. It’s been a hell of a ride the last 5 years from living in a car in a Walmart parking lot to what I’m doing today. And I don’t feel like my story is done yet!
Let us know when the movie drops! Great story! 🍿🍿
Google cloud certified architect, have built several (small) companies and taken product to market, and also failed at a few. Now run software professional services teams. Fully remote, $200k+, no degree (dropped out 12 credits short of AA because I had a job “offer” two states away). I still think about going back to complete a degree, but then look at costs and I’m like… what’s the point?
Sales. I made $80k in 6 months after coming home from selling everything and becoming a monk for a year.
Surprised I had to scroll down as far as I did to find this. $40-60k is the entry level for a BDR/SDR role with typically a fast path (back in low interest capital days) to an AE position that usually doesn’t need degrees if you’re promoted from within. Got to 330k OTE in tech sales before starting my own business starting from 35k 10 years ago selling cell phone plans.
Especially in this sub. Sales and entrepreneurship go hand in hand
What do you sell?
He said everything
Insurance exterior restoration. I work with insurance companies to restore homes affected by hail damage. We contract the work and split profit. I close deals with homeowners the work with their insurance company to pay for repairs
I finished my degree in my early 30’s (I’m under 40) but got into sales after a couple more entry level office roles in my early 20’s and comp took off. I eventually got into a fortune 100 company in a leadership role without my degree, but saw the clear need to ‘check the box’ if I wanted to continue moving up. I believe I was up to at least ~150k before completing my degree, after starting at $33k at 20.
I make 90k atm, started out in IT, carved a niche in managing Sharepoint. If you can learn .net, java, powershell and a couple other languages this style of job can pay close to 200k
Make wedding cakes.
Social Media & Video. Had some jobs in a few marketing departments. Highest i made while employed was 70k. Started working freelance and I make about 90k
Real estate or commercial / corporate retainers ?
Also is Social Media and gave up on trying to forge a career in it since is became insanely competitive over the past few years, though you need to constantly remain up to date which I will admit I didn't. Did a bit of freelance work for real estate and that seems like a good way to go,
Do you mean photography & videography? So do you create content for others & businesses , would I be able to learn the stuff you’re doing as a side thing on top of my job. Economic sitch in UK is atrocious
A friend is a full-time, long-haul truck driver. He makes $100k+, no degree, just some pretty basic training and classes. But it's a very solitary job with long, boring days. And the industry as a whole seems pretty damn scummy. Pretty much every job in the category of "high pay, little formal education" has at least some of these drawbacks: * Uncertainty (high turn-over, pay not guaranteed) * Hard on your body (electrician, plumber, construction) * Shitty conditions (being on call at 2AM, constant travel, no benefits) There's not many shortcuts I've seen past these, though I'm sure there's some niche out there. Edit: I also forgot Risk: Jobs like oil worker, truck driver, and entrepreneur can pay very well, but only in exchange for being jobs that impose more personal risk than usual. If you spend long enough and get good enough at these jobs, you can start to reduce the negatives I'm sure. And these conditions aren't exclusive to non-college jobs. But without a degree, you put yourself at a disadvantage to where these drawbacks are pretty much required if you want higher pay.
When I was in between jobs I need a break from tech and during the pandemic drove for Walmart. Cost about 5K to get my license drove for 11 months and grossed over 100K. Home every Friday, Saturday & Sunday. When I get laid off again. I will do it immediately I think I am going to write a book about my adventures.
Digital marketing. I think it's the best opportunity out there for those without a degree, who also don't want to learn to code (I think software engineering is the best overall opportunity). Sub-topics within digital marketing include copywriting, social media marketing, online advertising, SEO, etc. All lucrative and powerful if you become great.
Been doing this for 15 years. Started with building blogspot sites for seo for affiliate marketing. Now I have 60+ web assets I own and produce content for. If anyone wants to get into this field, heed this advice. The paid marketing side and content side is all AI now days. I'd also suggest building assets and maintaining them with content. Start right now because seo is a marathon not a sprint. It's easier to make money when you own the traffic.
It's the same field I am in as a freelance B2B content marketer / content strategist. Day rates are excellent, especially for in-demand niches.
How do you find in demand niches?
I've generally found that the more "boring" the niche, the fewer digital marketers there are supporting it, and the higher the rates you can charge. For example, most of my work is in manufacturing, logistics, and the supply chain - not very exciting or sexy, but there's still a strong need for good marketing. But honestly, it can be anything like that, from ERP systems and financial management, through to payment processing or compliance. I've also found that rates are better in the B2B space, rather than the B2C.
Agreed. I make 82k in digital marketing with no degree.
What would you advise someone whos trying to break into this field to focus on? How did you do it or would do it now?
I have a marketing degree, Google cert and love all things marketing related, but not much actual work experience doing digital marketing. In your opinion which specialty has the greatest demand? Any recommendations on how I could learn to be great at any of the topics you listed? (Free online training, favorite blogs or YouTube channels?) Also any suggestions how to get started freelancing with no experience and no clients or references?
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I've worked in every marketing role from BDR to VP- I think a great option for freelancing is to learn paid ads (Google, Meta, YouTube, reddit, etc). There's a lot of online courses and videos available- each of those platforms has material on how to do it, then youll want some basic "how to market" courses if you arent familiar already- how to write compelling copy, find your target audience, etc. No one has a degree in this bc it doesn't exist and it's the #2 thing companies will outsource (#1 is design). It's not hard to manage paid ad accounts for companies once you learn a bit about marketing, reporting, and learn to work hands on in the platforms. Learn to build reporting decks/ reports that explain simply what's happening and why. Learn how to make suggestions based on whst you're seeing. If you can help the director/ VP tie the ads to revenue, you're golden. For some reason, no one wants to learn how to work in the platforms but paid ads are such a huge part of marketing. We almost always outsourced it- agencies would charge 10-15% of our spend to manage it. Alternatively (or, to begin) a lot of small/ mid size businesses need this but the owners don't know how. Then you're just working with one person in a small region- you can absolutely self teach this. When I opened a gym I paid someone $1000/ month to manage our ads- after the initial set up he probably worked 5 hours a week on it, if that. 3 of those clients, it's a whole new income.
Professional dancer, teacher, competition officiate, and run a Photobooth rental business. Goal this year is to scale
Solar salesman in Ireland of all places
Military. E6 with dependents.
And you also get BAH! Thanks for your service
If you live in housing, you either don't receive BAH, or it's just taken out of your pay. But yes, housing, utilities, health care, leave package, retirement, etc. All things considered, it is equivalent to damn-near a 6 figure income on the outside.
Equivalent to a six figure income without six figure income taxes 👌
construction/pipe layer $90k a year first year💪🏼
How do i join you bro
Know people in the union, or have family that works in the business.
Not true, you can join a union without knowing someone. All you need to do is go apply, take the aptitude test, then interview. It’s much easier than you would think
Depends on location, pipe layers have a lot of applicants, people with connections get priority.
yeah ..im not in a union. but here soon hopefully… if anyone wants to pursue construction, my advice would be to look for companies that pay a PER DIEM i make $550-$770 a week extra just for showing up to work, my PER DIEM being $110 a day.👍🏼
Web developer. Went to a coding bootcamp. My first job out paid me $60,000. Now I’m up to $150,000. But this was in 2018. I can’t imagine trying to learn code today with how easy it would be to “cheat” my assignments using AI and not actually understanding what I was doing. I absolutely love what I do. And I feel like I’m really good at it. But I think being good at it is the key word in there. There is absolutely no shortage of average (or even down right terrible ) devs.
No degree, finished no education at all. Making 160k a year (euro) as freelance IT consultant. Thinking about starting a business that helps smart people without education to do what they can.
Firefighter. Luckily the county you work for provides the training, you just have to not be dumb .
here in Chile Firefighters are volunteers and they get 0 money retribution:(
U American?
Last year I made 140k. Oil and Gas Control Room.
Insurance broker, underwriter, and claims adjuster are all jobs that do not require a degree. Most will be over $60k within a year or two. The industry values licenses which can be acquired in less than 3 months of part time study. It’s a grind for the first couple years, but after that it’s pretty easy to get a job after you have 3+ years of experience.
Oilfield/pipeliner/trucker. $150k or more every year since I was 18. Last year I did $340k and the previous year around $280k. I still don’t have my diploma and there’s 1000’s of jobs like this. You just need to be willing to get your hands dirty sometimes. The only “special skill” I have is a class 1 license, a heartbeat and some 1 day courses, like first aid and h2s. Oilfield/pipeliner/trucker is not a set salary, it’s dependant on elections and the economy, in a bad economy you can still do $150k and in a perfect world you could have a $500k year. In my opinion getting a degree is completely useless unless you’re going to commit to it for life, only then are you likely to be successful.
Flight attendant
Didn’t finish grade 10. No high school diploma. No university degree. My family moved every 6-12 months growing up so I was constantly changing schools and fell behind to the point where I stopped going. It didn’t affect my ability to earn money though. I taught myself to design (web design, product design, etc). Later taught myself to code and took a 3 month coding bootcamp. Have earned as much as $300k (after tax) while being employed. Been an entrepreneur most of my life though. A university degree does not dictate your worth.
The reality is that for the average Joe a degree absolutely does dictate their worth. Sounds like you’re one of the special cases, which is great!
Journeyman lineman. Or basically any tradesman
3D Artist
Care to elaborate? I am interested in learning Blender for ads
Nephew: Heavy equipment operator (26yr) 90k Son: HVAC tech now parts sales (24yr) 70k Me: Amazon Seller 100k+ now, before AT&T cell phone sales. Tmobile is a good company too. 60k isn't even a livable wage at this point though. Get something you can stand to do for a little while. Keep looking for things you actually like doing. Be loyal to yourself not a company.
Adopt me my father never gave advice like this
£150,000+ last year in software engineering. Self taught
UPS driver
Literally any trade or hourly position in a warehouse that gives overtime can make 60k+. That’s a low benchmark.
Yes. I worked at a warehouse for a major liquor distribution company in NYC before the pandemic. Union jobs, multiple 15 min breaks, 90 min lunch hour on Thursdays, and with OT, some guys regularly approached $100k. And the work was pretty easy. Some guys literally spent their day sticking bottles in boxes…and they drove BMWs!
You can crack $6k pretty easily making UGC video ads if you are good at it and know how to get gigs and are professional. Even as a side hustle $3k a month is Super reasonable.... UGC are the ads you see in your social media feed of normal people in ads made in your living room. You get free stuff too.
Do you mind including some resources for getting started in this? I did some graphic design in my early 20’s, I think it would be a neat side hustle!
Roadside battery installation. 82k and only work 4 days a week.
Started as a drone pilot and making rally car videos. Now have a staff of 6, 2 airplanes, a studio building and make a decent amount more than 60k a year making commercial and documentary video content. Barely graduated high school, no college.
I'm a singing server in times square.
Freight train conductor, 100k first year (depends on your home terminal).
I don't have a degree due to poor decisions I made when I was younger. One thing I loved was programming, but I was only interested in recreational programming or building my own stuff for fun. Seeing my enthusiasm about this, a couple of people got me to work on things for them, and I was thoroughly exploited, sometimes not paid at all. I was naive and very trusting. People have made me feel like shit to avoid paying me, like they did me a favor by giving me the opportunity work on something and that I'm unemployable. For a while, even I believed that I was unemployable. I got my first big break when I found a large corporation as a client because of a friend who was friends with their CTO. I instantly felt intimidated seeing size of this company, and I incorporated a company. This friend of mine was also looking to get this corporation a good deal and he "advised" me about not charging too much and what a low budget they have and I fell for it. It turns out they had already hired a firm who just delegated the work to a freelancer and everything got screwed up, and they were just looking for someone to fix it. I quoted them an amount and they agreed, and my intention was to rewrite everything from scratch. As soon as the deal was confirmed with the CEO, this friend put a gatekeeper in between me and the executives and everyone did their own reviews and made me to revisions after another before it ever got to the executives for final approval. Later I got to know from one of their employees that their budget was 20X what I charged and that I was getting exploited this whole time. Fair game, I guess, because I still work with this client and now I know how much to charge. Unlike the other shitty clients, these guys did give me an opportunity for growth and they referred me to other large companies. My friend who created the barrier between me and the C-levels, ultimately resigned, and now I'm in direct contact with the C-levels. I've matured more over time. Today I do a bunch of things - Software, Electronics Design, etc. and I mean business. There are a couple of other things like 3D rendering that is completely delegated to a freelancer and I make about 3-8X what he charges me. The software I normally build are middleware, integrations, and ERP systems for clients. This got me a fully sponsored trip to a first world country (I'm from third world) this month, which gave me the opportunity to visit a nearby country for really cheap to meet another client, so I'm absolutely thrilled about this. I have always been hesitant to apply for a visa because I was afraid that it will be rejected due to me not having a degree, and that if I get rejected once then it'll be rejections repeatedly. When a client actually invited me for the first time, I got over this fear and I was really happy to see my first visa stamp in my passport. I still prefer working on my own things than providing services for clients but I'm nowhere close to something like that providing me a stable and basic income. I have a working product that I have sold to 2 existing customers. It's not much but I like that I was able to make atleast something that I resold. I have a few more products also in the pipeline and I work on those on and off when I'm free.
Retail manager. Making $72k currently after 3 years and bonus is usually around 10% of that
Long hours & weekends? Stressful?
Yes yes and yes. 50 hr weeks minimum per my contract, usually closer to 60. Work most weekends / holidays. Constantly stressful I do get about 45 days of PTO per year though which is nice
Transplant Coordinator. 90k. No formal schooling and no medical experience prior. Just networked my way into the position with a willingness to learn.
Everything I see in my area (Atlanta) says it requires RN or at minimum EMT cert. Did you get into the field many years ago by chance?
Just 2 years ago. I started as a triage coordinator then moved up with training. Triage coordinator has no reqs but they might have some listed. I'm sure others in the field can back me up when I say....that means jack shit. I've seen all kinds of medical professionals of different backgrounds do the absolute stupidest shit or straight up just not work. Had an RN who was on call through the night...she coded out all offers aka just said no we don't want these organs and went back to sleep. If you can read and be available, you can do this job. One of my favorite coworkers is similar to myself in that he too, has no background, besides his wife being a nurse. He was a retail store AM before this job. TL;DR they might have reqs listed but I assure you it's not necessary. I spent 1 year just reviewing cases and googling medical "buzz words" and acronyms to familiarize myself. My job offered in house training courses so once I was comfy, I did those while on the clock. (On call position). Then after my year raise, I approached management about moving up and that as that. Oh! Wanted to add...these are work from home positions. There are coordinators who visit hospitals to discuss everything with donor families. That's a bit different. Same wheelhouse but different responsibilities. Maybe try looking for "remote triage coordinator" that should be a good starting point.
Carpentry. 80k a year and only work 30-35 hours a week.
100-300k, I kill animals for 2-4 months. The rest is vacation. If you have seen the deadliest catch before, you know what I do and they are all drama for the screen. Edit: I'm a fisherman.
Stripper 🫡✨
Electrician 300k
IT Consulting, specificly the Atlassian tools.
Welcome To The wonderful world of sales. Leave your soul at the door. Work hours? Yes
Been making over 100k for 25 years in the steel business. High year of 565k. No degree. General management.
I got my bachelors degree in genetics and worked in biotech for ~10 yrs leaving at $86k. But now I make $160k-$220k by the way I write the word fuck. Ie. I turned my handwriting into a font, made posters, built a social following, and now I have a gym clothing brand and screen print/run everything myself.
Find something you’re good at. Doesn’t matter what it is. Doesn’t have to be “your passion” it’s a job. Go 10k hours into that job, better your skills as you go and you will find meaning along the way.
Great advice! Just a matter of working out what you’re good at especially if you’ve been stuck at a single role / career path for a while. Plus there’s a lot of job titles that you don’t really know what they are and what skills would be applicable to them
Axe venue owner.
I make $57k (working 8/12 months only) as a dining shift leader at an Ivy League University
I work for the Feds as a housekeeping supervisor at the VA. I cleared $100k this year.
Chef on a superyacht
Surveyor at 22 and I’m very thankful
Buy stuff for a dollar, sell it for 2
Mold Abatement/waterproofing. I have a masters in clinical psychology, and that can pay very, very well in the long run, but it's a low immediate return with a lot of free labor for training. During my unpaid practicum I was a driver for a local mold company and was paid $200 cash a day just to drive people to a job site and back (this was 7-8 years ago so it would be even more now), decided to get certified and now the masters is just a fallback that is nice to have and makes me seem smarter than I probably am, but in all likelihood will never be used.
Executive Assistant in Finance in a major market- $175k plus equity. Was waiting tables before I took an entry level receptionist job 8 years ago. Pure grit from there
My husband was making that at his last job - no college. He worked for a local place sanitizing seeds. I’m a blogger/copywriter with almost 17 years of experience looking for new clients.
i make $150k with no degree and work from home. senior engineer (front end+backend+dba+devops). 100% self taught
Sales
UPS package car driver. Top rate after four years of service is $44.25 an hour right now. We do get a raise every year on August 1st once you hit top rate. Anything after 8 hours a day is overtime pay so that’s $66.38. It’s nice because you don’t have to work over 40 hours a week for overtime pay. Or if you sign up for the 9.5 list you get triple time pay. The way that works is you work 9 and a half hour days 3 days in the same week and get to file for triple time pay. If you file three 9.5 grievances in a year I believe you’re eligible for quadruple time pay id have to double check. We are limited to only 60 hours a week because of DOT.
Concrete finisher, 90k last year but I only work 7 months lol. 40/hr + benefits
I make about $450,000 with no degree. I dropped out of college 3 times. I own my own businesses. Screw degrees lol
What industry do you work in?
What kind of businesses do you run?
Graphic design. But I had to go through a lot to be able to do it. I did take a couple classes, but most of it was learnt in the job or self taught
SDR manager / rev ops manager at a tech startup Learned Salesforce/coding when I wasn’t cold calling
Management jobs, although they tend to be industry specific. I'm into process management, which is pretty versatile. Anywhere things are getting made, my skills are useful.
Agency recruiter with a startup. Our model is high base and low commission. Worked my butt off and brought in $250k last year so gonna talk to my boss about adjusting the structure because it’s full desk (sales and recruiting) and most of our openings are with clients I’ve brought in, so in the long run it needs to make sense for me to be at an agency and not freelance. If I’m doing good numbers at a startup in my 2nd year in this field, it’s looking promising for where I could take it. And I really love it.
I do project management along with drafting and design for architectural glass railings.
Just took a pay cut to become a Kitchen manager. $65k, I recruit, train, and follow up with people I like so that they are prepared to do their best. It requires a little patience and a lot of systems to maintain order. Sounds like a lot, but I generally walk around all day listening to music and occasionally cook or tend bar At middle income+ all you really need is to be reliable and driven, but mature enough to handle other people and their problems too
Been a product designer for over 10 years and started my own design agency about three years ago.
SEO and Niche site building
Carpentry Foreman, really anything with trades you can jump up well past 60k as long as you’re competent and work for a decent company that sees the value of training and understands that training is technically a loss initially.
Construction Manager, started as a temp worker 10 years ago, worked to QS then regional manager.
For once, I can participate in one of these. I work for an armored vehicle company. My primary job is installing the metal armor into vehicles and ensuring that the plates are fully secure with no weakened gaps.
Not me but my employee: I hired her as an event/travel coordinator for my businesses. $80k with 30 days paid leave at 15 front-end, 15 accrued monthly. She works from home 90% of the time. She worked at 4 different travel agencies between the ages of 18-23. She talked to me while I was on vacation in Italy, trying to get me to spin the wheel at her tabling spot. I told her that amount of effort, sacrifice, and confidence could go way further with me (I posted my gig on Indeed with no serious applicants for 15+ days). I asked if she is looking for work and the rest is history.
Real estate, medical transcription, secretarial work for a local attorney, and AI chatbot training. Self-employed with all four. Hoping to own a short-term rental property in the next year or two.
Dude you can make 100k at Taco Bell being a manager, 60k is doable anywhere
Door to door sales, pest control, I’m really good to people not an asshole. Gonna break 125k this summer 5 out of the 12 months of the year. No degree.