Do you earn $60k+ annually without a college degree? Share your secrets!
#NoDegreeNoProblem #HighSalary #CareerSuccessWithoutDegree
Curiosity piqued
Are you one of the few who have unlocked the secret to making a comfortable living without a bachelor’s or diploma?
Join the discussion
Tell us about your profession, how you got started, and any tips you have for others looking to achieve similar success.
#CareerAdvice #NoEducationNeeded #SuccessStories
- What profession are you in?
- How did you manage to reach a $60k+ salary?
- What advice do you have for others looking to follow in your footsteps?
Let’s inspire and support each other in this journey of breaking the traditional mold and achieving financial success without a formal college education.
Military. E6 with dependents.
Literally any trade or hourly position in a warehouse that gives overtime can make 60k+. That’s a low benchmark.
construction/pipe layer $90k a year first year💪🏼
Retail manager. Making $72k currently after 3 years and bonus is usually around 10% of that
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
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?
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
Plumbing
Marketing/IT in casino industry
Professional dancer, teacher, competition officiate, and run a Photobooth rental business. Goal this year is to scale
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.
Sales. I made $80k in 6 months after coming home from selling everything and becoming a monk for a year.
Firefighter. Luckily the county you work for provides the training, you just have to not be dumb .
Last year I made 140k. Oil and Gas Control Room.
Concrete finisher, 90k last year but I only work 7 months lol. 40/hr + benefits
Transplant Coordinator. 90k. No formal schooling and no medical experience prior. Just networked my way into the position with a willingness to learn.
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.
IT
£150,000+ last year in software engineering. Self taught
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.
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.
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.
Journeyman lineman. Or basically any tradesman
Wonderful thread.
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.
3D Artist
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.
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
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
It helpdesk
I’m the founder of 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 without degrees.
You can do jobs in sales, marketing, tech, operations, and certification based industries without degree.
For 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.
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.
Cybersecurity is an option. 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.
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 and program management are other areas. These aren’t entry level experience 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.
For marketing, you want to learn as much as you can through free resources. Salesforce, HubSpot, Facebook, and 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.
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 (photographt, videoography). I will.come back to edit this comment. I’m walking on a treadmill at the gym so excuse the typos.
Carpentry. 80k a year and only work 30-35 hours a week.
IT Consulting, specificly the Atlassian tools.
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.
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.
Flight attendant
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.
Make wedding cakes.
I make $57k (working 8/12 months only) as a dining shift leader at an Ivy League University
60k is a pretty low bar. You should aim higher than that