10 best jobs that don't require a college degree

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Monday, August 3. 2015

10 best jobs that don't require a college degree

Ten here, but there lots more. Just use your imagination.

Most can be learned in trade schools or ideally via apprenticeship: carpenter, cabinetmaker, gunsmith, programmer, video game inventor, professional lifeguard, medical marijuana dealer, hunting and fishing guide, writer, musician, gambler, office assistant, receptionist, illustrator, Uber driver, 16-wheeler truck driver, mechanic, train conductor, gardener, cook or chef, air traffic controller, retail manager or sales, landscape designer, entrepreneur of anything - the list is endless but you have to know how to do something useful.

It is not necessary to be exceptional like these people to build a fine life: 100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded Without A College Degree

Add your ideas, please, in the comments -

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 19:50 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Interesting list of entrepreneurs who were dropouts, but they missed a few obvious: e.g. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg.

A grade school classmate of Mrs. Mudbug dropped out and started driving a garbage truck. Then he started buying garbage trucks. Eventually he served the Fairfax, VA area and was finally bought out by Waste Industries for many millions of dollars.

It is a crime against the have nots to tell them that they can't make it in our country.

#1 mudbug on 2015-08-03 21:40 (Reply)

One of the chief inhibitors to social mobility in American today is *runaway credentialism*.

Peter Drucker:

"The most serious impact of the long years of schooling is, however, the “diploma curtain” between those with degrees and those without. It threatens to cut society in two for the first time in American history…By denying opportunity to those without higher education, we are denying access to contribution and performance to a large number of people of superior ability, intelligence, and capacity to achieve"

also

"One thing it (modern society) cannot afford in education is the “elite institution” which has a monopoly on social standing, on prestige, and on the command positions in society and economy. Oxford and Cambridge are important reasons for the English brain drain. A main reason for the technology gap is the Grande Ecole such as the Ecole Polytechnique or the Ecole Normale. These elite institutions may do a magnificent job of education, but only their graduates normally get into the command positions. Only their faculties “matter.” This restricts and impoverishes the whole society…The Harvard Law School might like to be a Grande Ecole and to claim for its graduates a preferential position. But American society has never been willing to accept this claim…"

(The above was written in 1969. America has now come a lot closer to accepting HLS as a Grande Ecole ensuring preferential treatment than it was when Drucker wrote)

http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/26133.html

#2 David Foster (Link) on 2015-08-03 22:33 (Reply)

Just last night, commenting on Trump's calling Harvard students "fraudsters and liars", I went back to find this observation about Ivy League students from Joseph Epstein in an Uncommon Knowledge interview.

I believe Epstein is right on point. The problem with graduates of Harvard and Yale is that for most their purpose was to go to Harvard or Yale, not for education, for status. So there is a natural filter for the ruthless climber rather than those seeking the best education. Happens for all institutions that become the "elite" certifier.

#2.1 JK Brown on 2015-08-04 09:09 (Reply)

When I was doing my PhD at Harvard and working as a graduate teaching assistant, that's exactly what we used to say: Harvard undergraduate aren't any smarter than undergraduates at other institutions – they're just better at getting A's.

I used to have undergraduates contesting B pluses and A minuses all the time…not that they ever got changed! They were very persistent and used to try to go over my head to the professor and say bad things about me and the other teaching assistants. It did not work.

#2.1.1 Jm01 on 2015-08-04 17:35 (Reply)

Driver. Don't stop at Uber. 'Regular' taxis, food delivery, transporting disabled to doctor's appts or rehab, escorting oversize loads... heck, with a little study one could graduate to 18 wheels.

Don't forget pipefitter -- the requirements are not quite as stringent as for plumbers, but the pay is almost the same. Welder is in between the two -- it depends on what welding machines/techniques one is qualified on.

Paralegals, waiters/waitresses, housecleaner (you might be surprised what that can earn!)

I pay the 10 year old next door $22/mo. to take my trash can to the street and return it to my back yard once a week. That works out to a wage of about $1/minute or $60/hour. He's a really cute, sweet kid. His enthusiastic greeting every time he sees me or my husband is worth it.

Apparently $30/hour is not enough to keep a landscape maintainer (mowing and weed-eating using our equipment), so I have no idea what a landscape designer would cost. When that kid next door gets just a little older and bigger...

I've found it quite difficult to hire people to do work for us in the past 10 years or so, since my husband and I have become sort of, somewhat disabled. And I don't quite understand why. The minimum wage I have set for anyone doing a personal service for us at our home is $20/hour. I willingly pay more for special services -- those requiring a certain expertise, for example.

I've offered more per hour, but that's irrelevant when the 'employee' doesn't bother to show up at all. Late, I'll tolerate.

What am I doing wrong?

#3 Donna B. on 2015-08-03 22:59 (Reply)

Apparently $30/hour is not enough to keep a landscape maintainer (mowing and weed-eating using our equipment), so I have no idea what a landscape designer would cost. When that kid next door gets just a little older and bigger...
------------------

brother in law is a landscape designer/installer although he specializes in ponds and aquascaping. Big bucks in this. One customer paid him for a trip to Japan to pick out custom koi and escort them back. Course he works for mostly high end customers in the Philly area.
No college education. Came from farming family.

#3.1 fjord on 2015-08-04 07:19 (Reply)

Manager or project manager in most private businesses is another.

I spent the 1st 10 years of this century working for PMs who did not go to college. One was from the warehouse.

They both were reliable, literate, were good at keeping track of what was done and what needed to be done, and they did stuff other people didn't want to do. It's the formula for promotion.

#4 forest on 2015-08-04 06:53 (Reply)

My daughter works for a high school dropout who owns a stable full of racehorses (trotters). He paid cash for his farm $400,000.
his father is a farrier that used to work the racehorse (flat track) circuit and doing stable arena horses in that area.

We don't even check high school diploma for hiring mechanics, much less tech school or college. Our mechanic that has worked for us for almost a decade spent $50,000 for a good diesel mechanic diploma, but we would have trained him for free because he
-shows up on time
- never takes sick days
- works all day long
- doesn't disappear into the bathroom for an hour to check social media-
-wants to EARN his pay.

We've gone through 4 employees in 2 yrs because of this ^

#5 fjord on 2015-08-04 07:15 (Reply)

What's a 16 Wheeler?

#6 I.......... on 2015-08-04 07:51 (Reply)

it's a trailer with four axles and 16 wheels. it's not a semi, so you don't count the tractor's wheels.

#6.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2015-08-04 12:00 (Reply)

There was a kid in my high school class who, if there was a vote, would have won "least likely to succeed."

Today he's a top real estate developer in my old stomping grounds. It shocked me to see him at the 25th reunion years ago. I didn't recognize the guy in the suit with his Rotary pin.

Oh, that's SG, remember him? Finished high school, was repairing cars, bought some land, found out that there was some development going on, bought some more land, became a top real estate owner, then moved into construction.

No degree. Just the smarts to see an opportunity and pursue it. God bless Capitalism.

#7 Bulldog on 2015-08-04 09:48 (Reply)

How about a fun one. I worked as a rafting guide for 15 years in Australia, Canada, Uganda, and Italy. Saw the world, got paid to do it, earnt decent coin, lots of girls, amazing locations that tourists paid a lot of money to go to, hobnobbed with diplomats, celebrities, and loads of interesting people who appreciated that I was great at my job.

No degree, of course. However, in Australia now they are attempting to make this a degree if you can believe it, (certificate of Outdoor Education), shoot me now.

#8 Adam on 2015-08-04 16:32 (Reply)

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Monday, August 3. 2015

10 best jobs that don't require a college degree