Success without a college degree

[Mike_Yates]

I know I've made this same post numerous times before, but is it possible to have a high-paying job and successful career without having to have the costly bachelors degree from a university?

In today's world, most employers insist that you have to have at least a BA from an accredited university with internships and/or work experience for nearly all of their positions.

Most of the jobs that do not require a degree are very low-paying and generally shitty.

The prerequisites employers are imposing on job applicants are so astronomical, that people with masters/doctorates from ivy-league colleges are being turned down for jobs. This is something that would NEVER have happened 15-20 years ago, where most employers welcomed college graduates for entry-level positions with loving arms. I don't know which is to blame, the bad economy or ridiculous corporatism.

In fact, most college graduates are either unemployed and living with their parents, or bagging groceries at their local supermarket. And this isn't mentioning the tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt they have 10 years to pay off.

It seems that absolutely no one is getting jobs nowadays, regardless of their qualifications and credentials.

 

[cubbies]

I know I've made this same post numerous times before, but is it possible to have a high-paying job and successful career without having to have the costly bachelors degree from a university?

In today's world, most employers insist that you have to have at least a BA from an accredited university with internships and/or work experience for nearly all of their positions.

Most of the jobs that do not require a degree are very low-paying and generally shitty.

The prerequisites employers are imposing on job applicants are so astronomical, that people with masters/doctorates from ivy-league colleges are being turned down for jobs. This is something that would NEVER have happened 15-20 years ago, where most employers welcomed college graduates for entry-level positions with loving arms. I don't know which is to blame, the bad economy or ridiculous corporatism.

In fact, most college graduates are either unemployed and living with their parents, or bagging groceries at their local supermarket. And this isn't mentioning the tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt they have 10 years to pay off.

It seems that absolutely no one is getting jobs nowadays, regardless of their qualifications and credentials.

define high paying
define successful
define career
define costly and university
second paragraph is bullshit at best
third paragraph...eh site your source

bullshit bullshit bullshit

 

[cum2ut]

Very few people are coming straight out of college & into a high paying job. Most people usually tend to work their way up the ladder. I've trained so many people here at work, who have gone on to become store managers. Almost all of them started as a cashier or even a cart pusher. The problem with most people is that they believe they should make $80,000 a year from the beginning & aren't willing to start at the bottom & get their foot on the ladder.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Very few people are coming straight out of college & into a high paying job. Most people usually tend to work their way up the ladder. I've trained so many people here at work, who have gone on to become store managers. Almost all of them started as a cashier or even a cart pusher. The problem with most people is that they believe they should make $80,000 a year from the beginning & aren't willing to start at the bottom & get their foot on the ladder.

Yes, but a college degree is the minimum requirement for ladder-climbing of ANY kind, whether it be from cart pushers to store managers, or office mail room workers to chairmen and CEO's.

An MBA from the top business schools in the entire world (Wharton, HBS) with impeccable grades and test scores as well as perfect performance and attendance throughout your entire K1-K12 career, are required to work your way up to the very top of large corporations. And even if you do have these mind-blowing credentials, the corporate job field is so ruthless and cut-throat competitive, that only a tiny handful of these "academically perfect superhumans" make it to executive and CEO positions.

It's also recommended that you have had gone to an elite boarding school throughout elementary and high school before you earn your undergraduate from the ivy-leagues and go on to the worlds top business schools to compete with thousands of others who are just like you to become "the best of the best".

Let's say you get a job working on wall-street at the Goldman Sachs corporate headquarters in New York city, it could take 25-30 years of working there to become the head of the company. With an extremely small chance, of course.

Most CEO's and top-executives of large corporations, aristocratic multimillionaires, billionaire investors and industrial tycoons, and just generally the wealthiest and most powerful and prominent members of society, are the most extreme examples of social darwinism and survival of the fittest.

So join the herds of commoners who just don't have what it takes.

The "occupy" protests we've seen recently and the general discontent of the lower and middle classes is just greed and jealousy that they are unable to live within those means.

You see, whether you're applying for a job at your local grocer, or applying for a prestigious investment banking position at Goldman Sachs making $200,000 a year just starting out, in today's society, "success" is measured largely in academic credentials. Someone with a bachelors degree is more likely to be hired than someone with only a high school diploma. While someone with a masters degree or doctorate would be considered over someone with just an undergraduate.

The kind of school you went to also plays a role in being hired and promoted. Ivy-league graduates are usually the first people employers look at.

Here are some good analogies.

How many millions of people play football in America, and how many of them have what it takes to play for the NFL?

Contrary to what we all are told in pre-school and kindergarten, not everyone gets to grow up to be the president, an astronaut, or a famous movie star.

You are special, believe in yourself and you will succeed, but beat-out the competition!

Life isn't fair, it's quite obvious right from the start that only very few can succeed, this is the way of the world, accept it. Children are brainwashed with the ridiculous moonshot mentality about becoming powerful politicians and astronauts right from their very first day at school.

Life is a brutal and incredibly unfair competition, and as with any competition, there are very few winners and an innumerable amount losers.

May the best competitor win!

http://hikinghq.net/images/defeat.jpg

 

[cum2ut]

I've worked for two store managers that one started as a cart pusher, the other was on maintanence. Neither of them had any schooling above a high school diploma. I nannied for a family, where the father started as part of the landscaping crew, & is now the president of sales for a development company, with, yep NO degree. All he had to do was get his real estate license, which took two months in a class. So your argument is basically just your own opinion. There is no law that states you must have a degree to get a decent job. My sister didn't go to law school, but she works for a lawyer, making more than I do. So either shut up about it, or grow a pair, leave Mommy & Daddy's basement & go to school. I don't care how "low" your IQ is....if you go to a decent school, they'll help you succeed.

 

[Liar]

I had a great job without a degree.

Then I got a degree, quit my job and started a business... which I don't need a degree for either. But the education that came with it didn't hurt.

 

[Mike_Yates]

The works and literature of 19th-century sociologist Herbert Spencer are further testament to my previous post.

Also, go read about Thomas Robert Malthus...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus

It is believed that Adolf Hitler personally read and researched the philosophies of the famous eugenicists of the 18th and 19th centuries, and they eventually became the basis for Nazi eugenics.

 

[jomar]

Dude.

Also, re the above post...try to stay in character.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Dude.

Also, re the above post...try to stay in character.

Your link is broken.

 

[phrodeau]

Self-employed people don't require an education.

 

[Liar]

Self-employed people don't require an education.

No, but we require a brain.

 

[about_average]

It usually has a lot to do with the economy. The fewer available jobs to go around the higher the requirements (like a degree) employers can place on a particular position.

 

[dirtwrench]

I think everyone has their own opinion on "success" and "low paying" or "shitty" job.

I know people who have never had a job, but feel successful because they raised happy/healthy/successful kids. On the other side, I know people who make great money, have unfucking real retirement and other benefits who don't feel successful.

In my area, anything over $35k per year is a "high paying" job. I have NO college degree and gave up a sales job making (average) $50k to take a job that pays $30k. Before I quit sales, my sis-in-law with a MA from Northwestern threw a total meltdown shit fit to learn I was making a hell of a lot more than her.

So you just have to put things in perspective and allow for geographical variances. Or if that doesn't make sense, try it this way- Mike, you are fucking wrong again if you hold to absolutes.

 

[Jackotheshadows]

I know I've made this same post numerous times before, but is it possible to have a high-paying job and successful career without having to have the costly bachelors degree from a university?

In today's world, most employers insist that you have to have at least a BA from an accredited university with internships and/or work experience for nearly all of their positions.

Most of the jobs that do not require a degree are very low-paying and generally shitty.

The prerequisites employers are imposing on job applicants are so astronomical, that people with masters/doctorates from ivy-league colleges are being turned down for jobs. This is something that would NEVER have happened 15-20 years ago, where most employers welcomed college graduates for entry-level positions with loving arms. I don't know which is to blame, the bad economy or ridiculous corporatism.

In fact, most college graduates are either unemployed and living with their parents, or bagging groceries at their local supermarket. And this isn't mentioning the tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt they have 10 years to pay off.

It seems that absolutely no one is getting jobs nowadays, regardless of their qualifications and credentials.

Never finished college, not even a good half-way. Went into the military, was trained into a healthcare field, caught some breaks, and now I'm a senior consultant for a firm in NYC, poised to get into six figures.

It depends on the career field, some luck, more hard work, and good contacts. Success isn't always tied to a nice vellum diploma....

 

[Mike_Yates]

One of my relatives has a mathematics degree and makes $500,000 per year working in finance for some investment firm.

 

[cum2ut]

One of my relatives has a mathematics degree and makes $500,000 per year working in finance for some investment firm.

So....one of my relatives has two masters degrees & a doctorate & works in a gardening shop, making less than I do. I interviewed someone a few months ago, who had a masters in psychology, for a cashier job, because she couldn't find one in her field. Just because you've got a degree, doesn't guarantee big money.

 

[Frizzle_Fry]

I know I've made this same post numerous times before,

http://stickerish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/YouDontSayBlackWithTextSS.png

Self-employed people don't require an education.

Yea we do, we just don't get the important shit formally. Somewhere along the way you saw, herd or read about how to make money, it sunk in and you did it.

IDK about ALL but if I lost everything today I would have it back by the end of the year. Because it doesn't matter what I'm doing....I will find a market and sell to it.

One of my relatives has a mathematics degree and makes $500,000 per year working in finance for some investment firm.

Sounds like a drug dealer....

 

[JuanVato]

this...

I had a great job without a degree.

Then I got a degree, quit my job and started a business... which I don't need a degree for either. But the education that came with it didn't hurt.

I have worked for two guys who did not have college degrees and were multimillionaires.
Both would rather drink in a bar than go to a museum or a broadway play, but one was a motivated business book reader.

When I sugguested to a whiney hipster recently to take a six figure oilfield job to cover his college debt he obtained getting his master's degree in sociology he was offended. I told him he only had to do it for two years and he could be out of debt with some money in the bank.

Nope. He was more interested in working at Starbucks until he could find a college level teaching job for 1/3 of what he could earn at the job I suggested. He thinks the higher paying job is below him.

 

[Frizzle_Fry]

He was more interested in working at Starbucks until he could find a college level teaching job for 1/3 of what he could earn at the job I suggested. He thinks the higher paying job is below him.

A hipster? no way......if his resume is getting rejected maybe he should think about putting a bird on it. Fixes everything.

 

[Mike_Yates]

I scored 89 on an IQ test in high school and was told that I have borderline intellectual functioning/below average intelligence.

Continuing my education past high school (especially at a university) could be extremely difficult if not impossible.

My capacity and potential in terms of work and education are extremely limited.

Here is some information about my disorder.

http://www.communitycounselingservices.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=10351&cn=208

 

[piccicatopolka]

I never got my full degree but did get the required credits to work as a teacher in private schools. After working in two schools and in a health club setting I shifted gears to build and Direct my own daycare center which I did for eight years. Somewhat burned out I shifted gears again and went into customer service/office management and now have a great job with no commute and benefits. So years of experience are my education.

The son I had which was the reason I did get my BA is the joy of my life and he's gotten three AAs in a specific field and has a really great job doing exactly what he desires. He's about to get married and is house hunting in our area which most homes are over $250,000. Not sure if he's going to get his full Engineering design degree since he's become a known specialist in his specific robotics field.

But yes... there are jobs where if you don't have a BA they toss your resume away.

 

[TallMan69]

I've worked for two store managers that one started as a cart pusher, the other was on maintanence. Neither of them had any schooling above a high school diploma. I nannied for a family, where the father started as part of the landscaping crew, & is now the president of sales for a development company, with, yep NO degree. All he had to do was get his real estate license, which took two months in a class. So your argument is basically just your own opinion. There is no law that states you must have a degree to get a decent job. My sister didn't go to law school, but she works for a lawyer, making more than I do. So either shut up about it, or grow a pair, leave Mommy & Daddy's basement & go to school. I don't care how "low" your IQ is....if you go to a decent school, they'll help you succeed.

I think this phenomena doesn't happen too often because it takes a tough, hard knocks type of person willing to put sweat equity and good planning into his/her life. It is very encouraging to hear about folks that made it big, starting from the bottom and working the way up without a degree. I still think getting a degree is a good thing but it takes wisdom and good planning to know what's going to be a good degree choice or it will end up being the most expensive 8 1/2" x 11" framed documents you ever bought.

 

[atmas]

The founder of Microsoft doesn't have a degree. I think he's getting by.

 

[Paendragon]

Not for you.

 

[Mike_Yates]

I think this phenomena doesn't happen too often because it takes a tough, hard knocks type of person willing to put sweat equity and good planning into his/her life. It is very encouraging to hear about folks that made it big, starting from the bottom and working the way up without a degree. I still think getting a degree is a good thing but it takes wisdom and good planning to know what's going to be a good degree choice or it will end up being the most expensive 8 1/2" x 11" framed documents you ever bought.

I have below-average intelligence so I have very strict limitations in terms of my academic and occupational potential.

Read here about borderline intellectual functioning.