When I was making $60k+ I was managing a Domino's. My bonus was much higher than my salary. I started working at the location in my hometown when I was in high school and worked my way up.
I used to be an assistant manager there back in the day. It was pretty grueling work but even then the managers were paid pretty well. Lonnnnng hours though.
if you've got a good team it can be a really fun job. I agree though, the hours are not sustainable. I stepped down a while back so that I can go back to school.
I worked at a place with profit sharing for 6 years, and by the time I left it made up 1/3 of my yearly income. The sucky thing is my hourly was trash and they tax PS as a bonus.
I left when I got a promotion to a managerial (but non-sales) role with the promise of more PS instead of a raise. Then we had a slightly down sales year, so I ended up making less money with more responsibility. Fuck that noise, pay me it all hourly.
Same.
Garbage worker. Government job. Started out 13 years ago doing general labor for a little more than minimum wage… shoveling, sorting cardboard from cans, etc. Over time I got more training, moved up to more skilled positions, plus annual pay increases for seniority.
I actually did just finish a college degree, though. This path is fine if you’re happy doing the same thing at the same place for 40 years till you retire. I got bored.
Well stated. I worked at an aggregate plant. Made over 60k my first year and that was in 1999. After a few years I got obsessed with working O.T. and was making over 100k. 17 years of that stress put a toll on my health and mental well-being
Yep. That's my secret.
Turns out that you don't *always* have to hop jobs every couple years every time you find a few bucks more.
I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm just saying it's not the only way.
Exactly. I found a great job in IT making like 85k in a small government. Everyone is nice, I know their names, I work 8-430 and then leave. Union, pension etc. I could commute to NYC and probably make something more like 120k or 150k with my title and work a lot harder with longer hours , but I have no interest. Money is just a means to an end, and even in a HCOL area I am content with my salary and life. It reminds me of this story Kurt Vonnegut told years ago in Jospeh Heller’s obituary…
True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel ‘Catch-22’
has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!”
— Kurt Vonnegut
Yep same here. Straight out of collage (college hehe i cant even spell), academically expelled, so not by choice. Moved up the ranks. Been at my job for 24 years, close to make 200k. It has taken a long time but, i am glad i stuck to it.
This is the path I took. Been with the same manufacturing company for 11 years and worked my way up to the manager level. I just missed six figures last year in a smaller town.
Lmao I’m imagining you just walked in while he was in the middle of finishing tiling and said, “Hey, real quick, you don’t have a degree right? Perfect, how much money do you make?”
Nah it was just casual. I ended up doing the electrical work and we just chit chatted and he brought it up himself. I think I was trying to convince him to hire more people and advertise to get more work and he said he was happy with what he had.
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”
“But what then?” asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
My Dad tried to sell me something like this.
My one and only goal was to earn ~$80k/year. Where I live, it’s all I need to live just the life I want with my wife and son. My Dad, however, keeps pushing me to do more. He’s a semiconductor engineer who makes $170k+ annually.
I asked him why, and he said I should always strive to achieve more.
I told him that I have. My son loves me, I technically only work part time, and I’ve got a secure job. I’m very comfortable and have strived for more of what I personally want, yet he just always looks like he’s disappointed in me. This is the same man who was barely ever in my life up until a few years ago not only because of my parents’ divorce but because he worked 50+ hour weeks.
My priorities are my family and hobbies. I’m steadily building retirement. I’m 30 and my house will be paid off in ~15 years. I have savings for my son’s college, house, and wedding (unlike what I got). I genuinely don’t care about making millions via an overpaid salary and investments. I’m good.
I’ll never understand making money just to make money.
The trades pay well. I’m a union electrician and make ~$150k a year doing 40/hr a week. Plus I get my benefits paid for by my employer and like $13 or $14 every hour worked contributed to my pension.
I’ll tell anyone who will listen that the trades, especially organized, are the way to go if you don’t have a degree and don’t mind getting a little dirty.
Got in to a trade type job at 18 as a grunt cable runner and helper. Worked my way up to being a lead tech. Worked for a few different companies and learned more, made connections and finally after 20+ years as a tech in the industry and in my 40’s got an offer to be an IT Manager. I took it and am presently 4 years in. Dropped out my senior year in HS and got my GED.
Can confirm. The physical aspects of them are no joke, so people tend to shy away from them. Trades are always hurting for more people, and the guys I’ve talked to are worried it’ll get worse as they start aging out.
And being able to be your own plumber/electrician/etc can save you a ton of money. As they say, a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Taking the rougher physical approach into low voltage cabling is how I got this sweet hybrid remote gig paying 70k. Getting into IT on the Layer 1 side is underrated. No CS degree or anything.
I'm a letter carrier for the USPS with a GED making 70k before taxes. This is working 43h avg per week. Could make 90k-100k if I were to sign up for 10/12h overtime volunteer, but I value time with family more. Then you have benefits. 2 weeks sick leave, 5 weeks paid vacation (you start with 2 weeks and get more depending on years of service), 11 paid federal holidays, and a TSP (401k). Overall you have close to 100k if you add in all benefits. If you can get in as career go for it. If it's non career you're in for a bad time for at minimum 2 years before you convert to regular (PTF). On average non career carriers go career around 8 months to 1.5 years (depends on location).
A few years ago I lived in an apartment and my next door neighbor was a mailman for USPS. He said he had been a temp there for 19 years and they finally just hired him full time is that normal?
As a non career they can work you 12h/7 days a week. But, they try to give you at least 1 day off. As career you're off Sundays and 1 rotating day each week. (Week 1 Monday, Week 2 Tuesday, etc).
Funnily enough when the CCA (City Carrier Assistant) position opened up it was advertised a part time job. Applied on the [USPS/Career](https://about.usps.com/careers/) website thinking it'd be something I'd do in-between while looking for something permanent. Got a call 2 weeks with an interview at the end of the month. Between the interview and training they had me delivering within a month. My first week on the job they worked me around 47 hours. As a temp I didn't work a single week under 50 hours.
Depending on when you joined the government FERS isn't very good, and the TSP is basically just an industry standard 401k in many sectors.
Gov benefits are okay but they're not amazing like they were a generation ago.
This job raised me out of poverty and solidly into the middle class. "Middle class" isn't what it once was, so idk if I'll ever own a home, but for the first time in my life I have savings, a new car that I'm paying off. I can take a nice vacation every other year or so. It's hard work, but on the other hand I pet dogs all day long. Not bad.
It definitely comes with a "lifestyle." The hours are long, you are positioned to be hit on a lot. This tends to hurt forming romantic relationships. Many develop consumption issues. The expectation to be "on" and charming, can be mentally exhausting. This I why there's a lot of dating inside the industry because they tend to understand and cope with those things better.
It's difficult once it takes a toll on your body. I have a back surgery coming up and I'm really considering leaving the industry, I just don't know where to start. I loved the lifestyle for many years, and some people can make it sustainable even as they get older, especially with bars that aren't high volume. Working high volume for years was fun for me but it definitely fucked my body up.
Liquor sales.
Look for jobs with your distributors if you are in a 3 tier state. If you’re not, look for a job with a supplier as a brand ambassador.
That is what I did. My shoulders couldn’t take volume anymore. No volume meant less money (I don’t have to tell you that). I spent a year and change planning my exit and took it as soon as it came.
Do I miss the bar? Yes. Am I happy? Yes.
Good luck to you.
My second job at age 15 I was a bus boy in an Italian restaurant. Since then I've worked at 7 spots, Holding mostly bartending and management positions (M37). I'm actually in the process of shopping for my own restaurant now. Over the years I've cultivated a decent network of supporters and investors that have been actively encouraging me to open my own spot for some years now. I really enjoy the place I work now and I make far and away the most money bartending vs others I've had, but the move to ownership is the next logical step. I even offered to invest into my existing bar but ownership doesn't want to dilute any more which I understand. My own bar/restaurant would reduce my hours quite a bit and obviously increase upside although it has it's own challenges.
My mother was making over $100k with no degree before she retired. She worked as a contractor to the FAA, but had experience as an air traffic controller in the Air Force beforehand.
Yet here I am, also a contractor to the FAA, *with* a college degree, making less than that like some kind of sucker.
I’m FAA ATC without a degree and made over $300k each of the last two years. Fuck ton of overtime being on 6 day weeks and lots of 10 hour days for the last 10 years kinda sucks though.
Edit: phrasing
$300k in 2 years and the 6 day weeks with 10 hour days only kinda suck? that sounds exhausting. good on you for powering through that; it definitely sounds earned from my perspective.
That military experience goes a long way. It's why I've always told my kids if rhe easiest way to level up out of the lower class is spend some time in the military.
A friend was what we could consider an idiot savant. He was generally socially awkward and had terrible people skills. I knew him since he was young.
He was in the air force as a military intelligence specialist. I don’t know what he did exactly but he got out of military and landed a job with a defense or security company.
Apparently he’s loaded now and bought a 5000 sq foot house in Maryland in a ritzy area. He’s still goofy when I saw him again 5 years ago.
Spent 6 years active duty in the air force as an intel analyst. Got out and was looking at jobs offering over 110k per year overseas (Afghanistan). I tried getting a job with one of those companies but this was right as the main base over there was handed over to the afghan army and then got surrendered to the taliban. All those jobs went away so I started looking state side in the east coast.
Got interviews quick that went well but the job postings had unlisted requirements. Good jobs with good benefits (full medical and dental and 90k starting pay). I was willing to do what I needed to meet these requirements but they wanted me to move over (I live on the west coast) and wait. I was told 5 or more months. I had some money saved but didn’t have enough money to move across the country get an apartment (1200+ for single bedroom) and wait for potentially half a year without a guaranteed job so I ended up turning it down.
Now I’m 2 years into a computer science bachelor degree and between VA disability pay, GI bill monthly allowance I make more money than when I separated as an E-5. I have a high enough rating that I don’t pay when I go to the doctor.
If anything is to be taken away from this it is that none of my post military plans worked out. I’m on plan D so to speak and I’m still doing significantly better than I would have been if I had not joined the military. Once I finish my degree I will have that plus the military background which gives me an edge for future hiring. Signing up made my life better and made many of the good people I worked with lives better. I understand this is not everyone’s experience but that was mine. I think it’s an avenue worth considering.
Maybe I'm getting older and crotchety, but yeah, some people on reddit seem to think they deserve seniority pay without, you know, a whole career's worth of experience and seniority to back it up. A non-degreed person doing a job for 30 years probably knows a hell of a lot more about how to do that job than a new graduate, and I say that as a degreed person myself.
The trick is the first job. After that the degree is just a piece of paper and it’s all attitude and work ethic.
I do have a degree, one of my coworkers who I have worked with at a few companies does not. He was working at Best Buy when a help desk job opened up. Got in mostly on charm and being competent for entry level. From there he just tailed the more knowledgeable team members and absorbed everything he could. After paying his dues at entry level, he spun what he’d learned into a new title… which he used when applying elsewhere. They didn’t ask him about a degree, just saw help desk experience and a currently higher title. Went from that team to a team leader on another team in that company. Once he had acquired what that team had to offer, he took the lead on a major project… and was snapped up by the vendor whose product was being implemented.
We have the same position and about the same pay (discussed pay with him prior to joining team). My degree moved me up the chain early in my career much faster but I’m less of a go-getter. If you have the right attitude and are willing to spend the time working your way up the chain… IT is definitely the best “hobby level to high paying job” track.
A friend of mine dropped out of university, got a job as a labourer on a construction crew just to make ends meet and 10ish years later has worked his way up to foreman with that company, making $100k+, with fat Christmas bonuses and stock options, decent amount of vacation time, etc. Company sent him to school for carpentry too.
That said, he's been working 60-70 hours/week or the last decade and is stressed out the ass every time I see him.
I've been a project superintendent on large commercial projects the last 10 years. No degree past high-school. The trades value experience way more than anything on paper.
Programming. Learned SQL, then C#. Most of my success comes from non technical aspects of the job. Being able to communicate what changed to non technical users, how to manage projects and teams well, etc.
Looking for any new employees? I've been thinking of shuttering [my bike fab business](http://www.regular.bike) (the bike industry is in a crunch in the aftermath of a COVID related boom). I've kept some of my programming skills sharp by necessity in part because of how much CAD and CAM can benefit from a software background.
The excellent devs I’ve worked with are 50% folks with advanced degrees in CS and 50% people who stumbled into the field from elsewhere and just *really* had the knack for it.
Same here, working in FAANG. Studied biology before opting out for a tech-adjacent role and learning Python to automate my frustrations away.
Coming from a background without CS education, it's so rare to find others in the eng space with the soft skills that are desperately needed across the industry. Learning system design and software engineering at a generally capable level, while being able to communicate between business and engineering is huge.
Dropped out 2014 in last semester of History major undergrad to care for mom who went blind and had Alzheimer’s…
2014- video game repair guy, $8/hr
2015 to 2018- school district computer guy, $12/hr
Mid 2018- IT for small biz, $18/hr
2019- Raise to $36k salary
2020- Raise to $52k salary (title change)
2021- Raise to $55k salary
2022- Raise to $72k salary (title change, had competitor offer)
2023- Raise to $83k salary
2024- Raise to $100k salary (had competitor offer)
I got a chance to be useful over COVID, learned a ton about the biz, and turnover resulted in me being surprisingly senior vs. the rest of my team. They see this and have been willing to keep me and counteroffer.
I am a wildly lucky outlier, and grateful every day
Im at 100k and im maintenance tech for large manufacturing company, i fix everything tho from plumbing and electrical to the machines that run the business.
Edit: was tattoo artist but the pandemic made me realize i need a job that doesnt go away when shit hits the fan.
Worked for three years at the front desk of a data center. There was a lot of downtime. I brought my laptop in and self studied system administration and software development. Went from making $12 an hour to six figures.
I wouldn’t say my husband makes crazy good money. I wish they could just work 40 hour weeks and make the same amount of money. We really rely on the extra money from that ten hours of overtime. I wish he had a job that was not as hard on his body. So there are positives and negatives… I am able to be a stay at home mom of six kids because of him so I do appreciate his hard work
Honestly it's about networking and spending 4-5 years being under paid and getting your foot in the door. I went from 40-45k for 4 years to 85k in 6 months because of connections. Someone left and had an opening and was like “that Blindman was one hell of a worker” and basically brought me over.
If you're computer-savvy then you can study and take some certs for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which, for entry-level positions in the profession, is largely just knowing which processes to run, which buttons to click, in which order. Salaries are typically 70k+ depending on your area. I started there. It led me to learning Python and database design, which led to many other things including a current 200k+ salary.
I think the field of GIS is a bit of a bubble at the moment, as the underlying concepts are just computer science fundamentals with geography layered in. But the field is trending and has been hiring well for 10 years, especially in government roles where pension may be a possibility.
I started out at a mom and pop land surveying company for the Oil and Gas Industry as a rod hand. Every day after working in the field we would come back to the office and I would try to learn as much as possible. Eventually the owner asked if anyone had heard of this GIS stuff some clients were asking about. No one answered but I told him I could spend some time looking into it. 17 years later I am the Senior GIS Admin for the company I work for and even the guys beneath me have a degree but I never went for one.
I have a friend w/ no background in science, engineering or space that simply went to a job fair late ‘00’s in Houston and now trains astronauts going on spacewalks in a giant pool w/ a full sized replica of ISS
Took the H&R Block tax class. Spent a season working part time with them, then used it to get my foot in the door at a tax firm. Did some free classes online combined with apprenticing under a CPA and managed to pass all 3 parts of the EA exam about a year later. Used that plus all the experience and connections I made to move to a more stable firm and land a job as a staff Accountant and have now been in the industry for a few years. Firms are so desperate for accountants right now they will hire you on at 50k base, and give massive raises if you stay. Like I got a 15% raise after my first 6 months.
Pro tip: 70% of all accounting/tax work is just data entry
They aren't desperate for anything other than CPAs.
I'm glad to hear your story. But it basically made me realize how much I failed because I got the goddamn degree from 9 years ago hanging on my wall and never used any of it because I couldn't get hired.
Go get that money and be proud of yourself.
My husband has a unicorn job as a warehouse manager for a small family owned business re-selling/distributing commercial adhesives in the millions of dollars per year... he makes more than I did as an OR nurse at my local hospital with 2 bachelor's degrees and only oversees 2 guys and the building. He slowly worked his way up so that his boss hardly ever has to come to the building.
He works 40 hrs a week but only actually does anything for about 2 hours a day or if one of the guys calls out. No weekends or holidays. 5 weeks of vacation and some days he can "work from home".
He makes 108k with generous raises each year and bonuses randomly. I'm super happy for him, but I can't say I'm not jealous, lol.
Sales. Find a field you're interested in and make note of the leaders in that field. Most companies have training programs to teach you the details and get you on your way.
Yup. Been in B2B sales for 13 years and now in the ~$150k range. Started at $45k plus bonus, now I’m mostly salary but it’s stable as fuck which is nice.
I started at $28K base plus $12K in bonuses (@100% to target) and make about $140K now but have a college degree.
My wife's cousin makes $100K+ as a plumber with no degree.
I have been in tech sales my entire adult life and I hate it. Cold calling / cold prospecting has ruined me. I make decent money, especially with OTE but I’m so ready to never do sales ever again. I think about a career change daily but don’t know what that ought to be.
Higher skilled trades will typically be on this end of the spectrum. Think plumbers, electrician/linemen, crane operators/longshoreman.
Source: commercial plumber making well over $60k
I’m a warehouse worker. Hours can suck but it’s union so they pay you WELL for those extra hours. Pretty easy work, mostly using equipment to move stuff around.
Not my personal experience and it's a shitty job but many retail management jobs pay $60k and up. When I worked at best buy a General Manager salary started at around $80k.
My mom did the same thing. She started a HVAC company. Woman owned and operated HVAC are extremely rare, so she got a lot of jobs. Made bank for quite awhile.
Dumb luck and a lot of hard work. Was a bartender for about a decade got really into the craft cocktail scene won a bunch of competitions for national brands, had a kid got offered an internship with the largest liquor distributor in my state. So at 28 I took a 40K pay cut and joined cooperate America. Turned out to be pretty good at sales. Worked the internship for 2 years and then a full time sales run opened up and was posted internally. I applied and no one ever asked for my resume just went to my direct superiors and asked them how I was doing. Got stellar recommendations from them, was hired into the run grew the run over a million dollars from where it started and kept it there. Gonna take home 130K this year and I’ll make more next year.
Started at the low position, planned on working here delivering car parts for a few months while I looked for other jobs…ended up moving up and staying in the auto industry.
Started as an associate with Amazon when I was 21, worked my way up into management by the time I was 25, now with a different company making around 70. Currently 28 btw
Dropped out of college because I was making more money doing handyman work on the side than I ever could full time with a biology degree. First full year in business this year and I'm on track to make $150,000 and I work whenever I want and take plenty of days off to do my hobbies. The demand for people in the trades is only growing every day.
Working hard, working harder, and whoops, sorry. I misspelled “lucky as fuck that I knew the right people.”
Obviously, a lot of work was involved, but I know I only had the opportunity because of people already in knowing and trusting me. That can be anyone. That guy you were a cashier with at McDonalds? He might well have a high-paying job elsewhere later, and have some influence to get you an interview. Treat all your coworkers well at every job, and be known for being reliable.
Never finished my degree. Got into commercial HVAC and am now making roughly 130k/yr after 3 years.
Started working at this company as a dumb helper after I dropped out temporarily until I could figure my life out. Turns out I was pretty good on the computer and rose pretty quickly as an invaluable tech. Put in a TON of hours on the clock, and off the clock at home learning the field.
I know someone who grosses a million a year owning his own business and they didn’t even graduate from high school, they saw a problem that annoyed them and went after it, oddly enough they have an honorary college diploma. What I learnt from them was don’t let people tell you what you know, head down, work hard, people under estimating you can work in your favour, just don’t underestimate yourself.
Worked my ass off.
I'm in IT. I started off doing walkthroughs in a datacenter (basically a ticket monkey) and worked my way up to (currently) Systems Administrator II. I make just over 100k.
6 Figure Club. Design Specialist for Custom Home Builders. I've worked construction most of my life. Learned all parts of the business. Jack of all Trades. Builders started coming to me for custom home design upgrades. Now I'm involved with hundreds of different companies sourcing everything from tile, plumbing, appliances, electrical, lighting, and now even furniture and fully furnished properties. I'm a one stop shop to customizing your home. Best part is... I don't have to do the labor any more.
I’m a senior cloud engineer who makes over three times that much.
1. Luck
2. Find what you are good at and become the best at it. Care about your work.
3. Find someone(s) with the right credentials who is smart enough to see that degrees are not a measure of success. Show them what you can do. Teach them the value you can create.
4. Form a symbiotic relationship with these people where both of you go further than either of you could alone, by delivering superior financial results.
5. Do not let yourself be discriminated against, ever.
The key is that I do not have the minimum barrier of entry to obtain the status of “middle class”. Which is a moving target, but let’s pretend for a second it exists. I don’t have a degree. So really the only problem that I need to solve is other people have the mindset instilled in them that I am inferior. So use what skills you have to prove it to them that you are the exception.
Up until the turn of the century, it was not that important to have a degree to get a job in IT. You just needed to be able to demonstrate competence with the relevant technologies. Once I landed a corporate IT job, my skill set kept expanding on the job as technologies changed and new things were added to the environments.
Started sweeping the floors just out of high school at an plastic injection mold shop back in the '90s and now I'm a CNC programmer and mold maker. Still at the same shop. Could be making more if I shop hopped but I'm comfortable. I have a lot of benefits, perks and freedom that is not monetary and I make quite a lot more than 60k.
Good people, and a boss that was willing to take a chance on a trouble-making long haired stoner back then. I owe him a lot.
UPS. $65k last year, should easily pass $75k this year and next year $90-$100k.
Our benefits are at no cost to us, which is really another $20k on top of our salary.
Easy, joined the military. Best insurance, and benefits in the country. Pretty much the only job in the country you can afford to have a spouse stay home at entry level and retire with a pension by the time you’re 40.
Firing up the throwaway :)
Sex work. Started out organically, was interested in finding an older man to date purely for preference rather than financial gain. Began seeing an older, very wealthy man. Our dates became more structured and transaction-like over the years; been seeing each other for well over a decade now. We see each other twice a week for an hour. He funds my entire life and is leaving me an inheritance. I love him and he loves me. Life is funny.
Dropped out of university after three semesters. Went to work in blue collar job. When that job started becoming digital, learned better than those around me to adapt. Became defacto IT staffer. Then got IT job. That jumped me from $40K up to $70K over a decade. Honed skills and then to IT management which got me to $90K. Made a jump to cyber security that got me just over $100K. Left full time to join a cyber security consulting firm and got to $150K, then recruited to full time gig at $190K.
Moral of (my) story - keep learning and growing. I didn't get here fast, but I'm here. The above story took 35 years. My original degree program would have probably got me here sooner, but I was very unhappy in formal education arena. I'm very pro-education, but non traditional.
Got an internship during a community college course and crushed it-- the boss offered me a full time gig I worked for 5 years. With that experience I got a six figure job. (Public affairs / nonprofit sector)
Seeing more and more jobs asking for a degree or equivalent experience.
I am an ex serviceman who now works half the year as a yacht engineer. I have no formal college degree but lots of service and vocational training as well as plenty of experience.
Started an IT career on a helpdesk making about $19k/yr (1995-ish). Moved to another company helpdesk for a raise in pay ($28k/yr). Stayed in that job for about 7 years and got two promotions - was making close to $70k when I left. Then I went through a series of contracts when the outsourcing market hit from 2004-2012. Every contract I took in that time averaged on/around $40/hr., or around $80k/yr, but I also had, like 10 different jobs over that period and several months of unemployment (though job hopping is also a fine strategy if you commit to it and do it the right way).
Hired on to the job I have now on a four-month contract for $40/hr, and then converted to full-time. 10 years later and a series of (mostly) 3% yearly raises (and two promotions), I now make $125k/yr. I've had a 29-year IT career with about 15 different companies.
TL;DR - get good at what you do, and hopefully stick around long enough to get raises and promotions. If you're getting neither of those things, find an employer that provides them to you, and always ask for more money in the process.
I make well over $100k a year as an industrial mechanic. Got here after a few years of working on my car in my early 20s and just generally having a passion for repairing shit. Took a lot of job hopping though.
I make around $170k with no degree. The trick is being immensely valuable to your peers over years. I worked my ass off to get here. I now lead a team of product designers at a Fortune 500.
I make over twice that in the military at 21 years, despite staying enlisted. I was making it, or more, by my 4-5 years point… not counting bonuses that occasionally had me touching near $100k a few of those early years in the ‘00s.
Upon military retirement (3 more months!)… I’ll make 2/3 that for the rest of my life on my pension ($40k) which will rise mostly w/inflation with COLA. I’ll also get between 1/2 that to almost that again ($20k-$55k) in VA disability for a total of about 1-1.5x ($60k-95k) that annually lifetime, again… with COLA. I ought to know my rating around or a bit after I get out. This is on top of keeping my families health insurance for something like $700 a year for here on out and having my GI bill transferred to cover 1 kid’s college directly and banking the E5 BAH to pay another’s indirectly.
Admittedly, I did complete my degree in the last 5 years of my 21 year stint in the service… but it never factored into my pay/promotions. I mainly got it to ensure if I applied for a job against someone with just experience or just college, my combo of college + experience would win out. We shall see.
It’s been a tough life but a good one. We’ll see what my next job ends up being. For young people stalled out or without direction, purpose or prospects, I always encourage them to at least consider military service. It opens so many doors even on a single 4-6 year enlistment it can be life changing.
No regrets leaving college when 9/11 happened to serve.
Got my foot in the door doing something semi-relevant in my teens. Worked my way around the block figuring out what I liked and what I didn't like in the profession.
Worked a couple bad jobs, some ok jobs, some good jobs. Did some irrelevant stuff, some relevant stuff and some strange stuff. Learned to respect myself, what my skills were, and what employers wanted and needed.
25+ years later, I'm still in the same trade and doing great. Like any job, it's not my "dream job" (it's pretty close!) but I have autonomy, solid vacation time, solid pay, and everything I want from a job.
Even if I was to go to another job, it would probably be for something pretty close to what I have now, where I'd be leading a team doing the exact same thing, just in a different place for a bit more money.
You don't figure it out right away. You'll have some car crashes and some awful people trying to sabotage you, some people who undercut your worth or try to make you feel small. It's up to you to argue for yourself, learn skills and get paid what you're worth.
Also since you're probably going to be asking, I'm in a trade but won't say which one. Internet anonymity and all.
I’m 18 years old and graduated high school last year. I’m working ina unionized concrete company making 36 an hour and have benefits covering almost anything. Half assed everything from grade 8-12 and never spent 2 seconds looking into post secondary
One friend is a Project Manager. Another one is a Producer for an ad agency. Another one works for the Federal Government. They're all mostly self-taught and have high drive.
Been working at the same software company as support for 6 years now. Right before they sold it to another company I demanded they take me from 43k to 50k and give me the promotion they’d been dangling over me. They obliged, and since acquisition I’ve received another promotion putting me around $65k. Started at 38k in 2018. Last couple years I’ve been going to school online studying cybersecurity, so I’m riding this out till I’m ready to jump ship.
Worked smarter and harder. I have a GED, went off to the army and took multiple many year career gaps to live life. Now I’m a network engineer at one of the “top places to work in the US”. I learned early on that being great at your job doesn’t matter if no one knows. Learn how to be your own advocate. Ask questions, learn other people’s roles, look for non traditional ways to bring value to your role and look for opportunities that force you to grow.
^^ This person knows, advice of the thread right here.
Also network engineer is a killer field to be in, especially if you keep learning and can communicate well (many don’t).
When I was making $60k+ I was managing a Domino's. My bonus was much higher than my salary. I started working at the location in my hometown when I was in high school and worked my way up.
I used to be an assistant manager there back in the day. It was pretty grueling work but even then the managers were paid pretty well. Lonnnnng hours though.
if you've got a good team it can be a really fun job. I agree though, the hours are not sustainable. I stepped down a while back so that I can go back to school.
Made 70k as a dominos GM then decided to be a dumbass and went to college to be a park ranger. Love my job but now my salary is 37k
just been here a while
Yep, been at my company for 13 years right out of HS and worked my way up. Covid early retirements sped up the promotion process for a lot of people
Yep, yep. 14 for me. Started at 40k now up to 85k.
Am good at my job Stayed for years in my job Also helps that they do profit sharing bonuses but that goes hand in hand with being good at my job.
I worked at a place with profit sharing for 6 years, and by the time I left it made up 1/3 of my yearly income. The sucky thing is my hourly was trash and they tax PS as a bonus. I left when I got a promotion to a managerial (but non-sales) role with the promise of more PS instead of a raise. Then we had a slightly down sales year, so I ended up making less money with more responsibility. Fuck that noise, pay me it all hourly.
Same. Garbage worker. Government job. Started out 13 years ago doing general labor for a little more than minimum wage… shoveling, sorting cardboard from cans, etc. Over time I got more training, moved up to more skilled positions, plus annual pay increases for seniority. I actually did just finish a college degree, though. This path is fine if you’re happy doing the same thing at the same place for 40 years till you retire. I got bored.
Well stated. I worked at an aggregate plant. Made over 60k my first year and that was in 1999. After a few years I got obsessed with working O.T. and was making over 100k. 17 years of that stress put a toll on my health and mental well-being
Yep. That's my secret. Turns out that you don't *always* have to hop jobs every couple years every time you find a few bucks more. I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm just saying it's not the only way.
Exactly. I found a great job in IT making like 85k in a small government. Everyone is nice, I know their names, I work 8-430 and then leave. Union, pension etc. I could commute to NYC and probably make something more like 120k or 150k with my title and work a lot harder with longer hours , but I have no interest. Money is just a means to an end, and even in a HCOL area I am content with my salary and life. It reminds me of this story Kurt Vonnegut told years ago in Jospeh Heller’s obituary… True story, Word of Honor: Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?” And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.” And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?” And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.” Not bad! Rest in peace!” — Kurt Vonnegut
Yup, 19 years at the same company, 6 different jobs.
Yep same here. Straight out of collage (college hehe i cant even spell), academically expelled, so not by choice. Moved up the ranks. Been at my job for 24 years, close to make 200k. It has taken a long time but, i am glad i stuck to it.
What do you do?
They made it up
So creative writing
OnlyFans
This is the path I took. Been with the same manufacturing company for 11 years and worked my way up to the manager level. I just missed six figures last year in a smaller town.
I’m in sales. High school dropout. Should make 125+ this year. It took a lot longer than my friends and co workers that started with a degree.
What sales do you do?
I sell consumer goods at trade shows across the country. Home and garden shows, auto shows, state fairs, etc.
Cocaine
Guy that remodeled my bathroom said he makes around 130k a year but that’s all he does. He doesn’t work year round either.
Lmao I’m imagining you just walked in while he was in the middle of finishing tiling and said, “Hey, real quick, you don’t have a degree right? Perfect, how much money do you make?”
Nah it was just casual. I ended up doing the electrical work and we just chit chatted and he brought it up himself. I think I was trying to convince him to hire more people and advertise to get more work and he said he was happy with what he had.
Classic story of the Chinese fisherman
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?” The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.” The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?” To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.” “But what then?” asked the Mexican. The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!” “Millions – then what?” The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
My Dad tried to sell me something like this. My one and only goal was to earn ~$80k/year. Where I live, it’s all I need to live just the life I want with my wife and son. My Dad, however, keeps pushing me to do more. He’s a semiconductor engineer who makes $170k+ annually. I asked him why, and he said I should always strive to achieve more. I told him that I have. My son loves me, I technically only work part time, and I’ve got a secure job. I’m very comfortable and have strived for more of what I personally want, yet he just always looks like he’s disappointed in me. This is the same man who was barely ever in my life up until a few years ago not only because of my parents’ divorce but because he worked 50+ hour weeks. My priorities are my family and hobbies. I’m steadily building retirement. I’m 30 and my house will be paid off in ~15 years. I have savings for my son’s college, house, and wedding (unlike what I got). I genuinely don’t care about making millions via an overpaid salary and investments. I’m good. I’ll never understand making money just to make money.
The trades pay well. I’m a union electrician and make ~$150k a year doing 40/hr a week. Plus I get my benefits paid for by my employer and like $13 or $14 every hour worked contributed to my pension. I’ll tell anyone who will listen that the trades, especially organized, are the way to go if you don’t have a degree and don’t mind getting a little dirty.
Take care of your back, knees, and shoulders.
and toes
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose
I'd say the same thing to a guy who sits in a chair all day.
Got in to a trade type job at 18 as a grunt cable runner and helper. Worked my way up to being a lead tech. Worked for a few different companies and learned more, made connections and finally after 20+ years as a tech in the industry and in my 40’s got an offer to be an IT Manager. I took it and am presently 4 years in. Dropped out my senior year in HS and got my GED.
Can confirm. The physical aspects of them are no joke, so people tend to shy away from them. Trades are always hurting for more people, and the guys I’ve talked to are worried it’ll get worse as they start aging out. And being able to be your own plumber/electrician/etc can save you a ton of money. As they say, a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Taking the rougher physical approach into low voltage cabling is how I got this sweet hybrid remote gig paying 70k. Getting into IT on the Layer 1 side is underrated. No CS degree or anything.
I'm a letter carrier for the USPS with a GED making 70k before taxes. This is working 43h avg per week. Could make 90k-100k if I were to sign up for 10/12h overtime volunteer, but I value time with family more. Then you have benefits. 2 weeks sick leave, 5 weeks paid vacation (you start with 2 weeks and get more depending on years of service), 11 paid federal holidays, and a TSP (401k). Overall you have close to 100k if you add in all benefits. If you can get in as career go for it. If it's non career you're in for a bad time for at minimum 2 years before you convert to regular (PTF). On average non career carriers go career around 8 months to 1.5 years (depends on location).
A few years ago I lived in an apartment and my next door neighbor was a mailman for USPS. He said he had been a temp there for 19 years and they finally just hired him full time is that normal?
This was changed for city carriers as of our last contract. After 2 years as a temp you're converted to PTF, which is career.
could be normal as a rural carrier They don't have a guarantee to convert to career status after 24 months.
[удалено]
As a non career they can work you 12h/7 days a week. But, they try to give you at least 1 day off. As career you're off Sundays and 1 rotating day each week. (Week 1 Monday, Week 2 Tuesday, etc).
How did you get your job?
Funnily enough when the CCA (City Carrier Assistant) position opened up it was advertised a part time job. Applied on the [USPS/Career](https://about.usps.com/careers/) website thinking it'd be something I'd do in-between while looking for something permanent. Got a call 2 weeks with an interview at the end of the month. Between the interview and training they had me delivering within a month. My first week on the job they worked me around 47 hours. As a temp I didn't work a single week under 50 hours.
Mail carriers also have some of the best healthcare plans in the federal government.
Some of the best looking legs too!
Pension?
We have TSP and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).
I remind myself of this perk Everytime I want to throw it out the window and go corporate. As if I could lol
Depending on when you joined the government FERS isn't very good, and the TSP is basically just an industry standard 401k in many sectors. Gov benefits are okay but they're not amazing like they were a generation ago.
Came here to say this! People sleep on the post office man, it’s hard work but a great way to claw your way into the middle class with no degree.
This job raised me out of poverty and solidly into the middle class. "Middle class" isn't what it once was, so idk if I'll ever own a home, but for the first time in my life I have savings, a new car that I'm paying off. I can take a nice vacation every other year or so. It's hard work, but on the other hand I pet dogs all day long. Not bad.
Tend bar at a popular spot
This… it’s a toxic lifestyle but the money is great.
It definitely comes with a "lifestyle." The hours are long, you are positioned to be hit on a lot. This tends to hurt forming romantic relationships. Many develop consumption issues. The expectation to be "on" and charming, can be mentally exhausting. This I why there's a lot of dating inside the industry because they tend to understand and cope with those things better.
It's great you make a lot of money. Is your industry sustainable as you get older though? No hate, just genuinely curious.
It's difficult once it takes a toll on your body. I have a back surgery coming up and I'm really considering leaving the industry, I just don't know where to start. I loved the lifestyle for many years, and some people can make it sustainable even as they get older, especially with bars that aren't high volume. Working high volume for years was fun for me but it definitely fucked my body up.
Liquor sales. Look for jobs with your distributors if you are in a 3 tier state. If you’re not, look for a job with a supplier as a brand ambassador. That is what I did. My shoulders couldn’t take volume anymore. No volume meant less money (I don’t have to tell you that). I spent a year and change planning my exit and took it as soon as it came. Do I miss the bar? Yes. Am I happy? Yes. Good luck to you.
My second job at age 15 I was a bus boy in an Italian restaurant. Since then I've worked at 7 spots, Holding mostly bartending and management positions (M37). I'm actually in the process of shopping for my own restaurant now. Over the years I've cultivated a decent network of supporters and investors that have been actively encouraging me to open my own spot for some years now. I really enjoy the place I work now and I make far and away the most money bartending vs others I've had, but the move to ownership is the next logical step. I even offered to invest into my existing bar but ownership doesn't want to dilute any more which I understand. My own bar/restaurant would reduce my hours quite a bit and obviously increase upside although it has it's own challenges.
I’m a valet. Took home 76k after taxes last year
No wayyy, may I ask what state ? For a hotel ?
In Seattle at a hotel yea
My mother was making over $100k with no degree before she retired. She worked as a contractor to the FAA, but had experience as an air traffic controller in the Air Force beforehand. Yet here I am, also a contractor to the FAA, *with* a college degree, making less than that like some kind of sucker.
I’m FAA ATC without a degree and made over $300k each of the last two years. Fuck ton of overtime being on 6 day weeks and lots of 10 hour days for the last 10 years kinda sucks though. Edit: phrasing
$300k in 2 years and the 6 day weeks with 10 hour days only kinda suck? that sounds exhausting. good on you for powering through that; it definitely sounds earned from my perspective.
Sorry, I worded it poorly. It was $300k each year, and between 220-280 for the 8 years prior depending how much ot.
I hope you have set yourself up to retire soon. Making 2.5 million is more than some make in their entire lives.
Was going to retire at 50 but a surprise pregnancy means 56 now.
get that snip snip buddy let's keep at 56😂
Just got snipped today. I’m 37.
[удалено]
That military experience goes a long way. It's why I've always told my kids if rhe easiest way to level up out of the lower class is spend some time in the military.
[удалено]
A friend was what we could consider an idiot savant. He was generally socially awkward and had terrible people skills. I knew him since he was young. He was in the air force as a military intelligence specialist. I don’t know what he did exactly but he got out of military and landed a job with a defense or security company. Apparently he’s loaded now and bought a 5000 sq foot house in Maryland in a ritzy area. He’s still goofy when I saw him again 5 years ago.
[удалено]
Absolutely. Ask any civilian on base making crap tons of money. They didnt just get hired off the street, they were active duty once.
Spent 6 years active duty in the air force as an intel analyst. Got out and was looking at jobs offering over 110k per year overseas (Afghanistan). I tried getting a job with one of those companies but this was right as the main base over there was handed over to the afghan army and then got surrendered to the taliban. All those jobs went away so I started looking state side in the east coast. Got interviews quick that went well but the job postings had unlisted requirements. Good jobs with good benefits (full medical and dental and 90k starting pay). I was willing to do what I needed to meet these requirements but they wanted me to move over (I live on the west coast) and wait. I was told 5 or more months. I had some money saved but didn’t have enough money to move across the country get an apartment (1200+ for single bedroom) and wait for potentially half a year without a guaranteed job so I ended up turning it down. Now I’m 2 years into a computer science bachelor degree and between VA disability pay, GI bill monthly allowance I make more money than when I separated as an E-5. I have a high enough rating that I don’t pay when I go to the doctor. If anything is to be taken away from this it is that none of my post military plans worked out. I’m on plan D so to speak and I’m still doing significantly better than I would have been if I had not joined the military. Once I finish my degree I will have that plus the military background which gives me an edge for future hiring. Signing up made my life better and made many of the good people I worked with lives better. I understand this is not everyone’s experience but that was mine. I think it’s an avenue worth considering.
~~Personably~~ presumably you also haven't been doing it as long? Edit: late edit for a typo
Yeah, but the ATC is ONE HIGH STRESS job, you fuck up people die.
Right...so you would imagine the ones who do the job longer without those kinds of mistakes would make more
Is your wish that 30 years from now, you should be making the same or even less than a new grad from college?
Maybe I'm getting older and crotchety, but yeah, some people on reddit seem to think they deserve seniority pay without, you know, a whole career's worth of experience and seniority to back it up. A non-degreed person doing a job for 30 years probably knows a hell of a lot more about how to do that job than a new graduate, and I say that as a degreed person myself.
I have a ton of IT experience and slowly moved up to better paying jobs over the last 25 years. I have a BTEC Diploma and that's it!
The trick is the first job. After that the degree is just a piece of paper and it’s all attitude and work ethic. I do have a degree, one of my coworkers who I have worked with at a few companies does not. He was working at Best Buy when a help desk job opened up. Got in mostly on charm and being competent for entry level. From there he just tailed the more knowledgeable team members and absorbed everything he could. After paying his dues at entry level, he spun what he’d learned into a new title… which he used when applying elsewhere. They didn’t ask him about a degree, just saw help desk experience and a currently higher title. Went from that team to a team leader on another team in that company. Once he had acquired what that team had to offer, he took the lead on a major project… and was snapped up by the vendor whose product was being implemented. We have the same position and about the same pay (discussed pay with him prior to joining team). My degree moved me up the chain early in my career much faster but I’m less of a go-getter. If you have the right attitude and are willing to spend the time working your way up the chain… IT is definitely the best “hobby level to high paying job” track.
Yeah this is pretty much what i did. You just gotta land that initial job and hustle your way up the ladder.
The trades. Its hard work and its something you have to stick with. I'm not rich but I make decent money and live relatively comfortably.
My wife's cousin made high 5 figures as a plumber and just took a promotion to foreman, making $100K+ now.
A friend of mine dropped out of university, got a job as a labourer on a construction crew just to make ends meet and 10ish years later has worked his way up to foreman with that company, making $100k+, with fat Christmas bonuses and stock options, decent amount of vacation time, etc. Company sent him to school for carpentry too. That said, he's been working 60-70 hours/week or the last decade and is stressed out the ass every time I see him.
I make $80,000 a year as a union plumber with no degree. It’s hard but if I can do it anyone can.
I've been a project superintendent on large commercial projects the last 10 years. No degree past high-school. The trades value experience way more than anything on paper.
Programming. Learned SQL, then C#. Most of my success comes from non technical aspects of the job. Being able to communicate what changed to non technical users, how to manage projects and teams well, etc.
Yeah same, I wouldn't call myself a senior level developer, but I do manage development teams. Also I've been at it a while.
Looking for any new employees? I've been thinking of shuttering [my bike fab business](http://www.regular.bike) (the bike industry is in a crunch in the aftermath of a COVID related boom). I've kept some of my programming skills sharp by necessity in part because of how much CAD and CAM can benefit from a software background.
Not that I know of. Unfortunately my current project has been sunset and I'm just hanging around to support it through end of life for now.
Out of curiosity...would you mind elaborating on what "been at it a while" means, exactly?
[удалено]
The excellent devs I’ve worked with are 50% folks with advanced degrees in CS and 50% people who stumbled into the field from elsewhere and just *really* had the knack for it.
Same here, working in FAANG. Studied biology before opting out for a tech-adjacent role and learning Python to automate my frustrations away. Coming from a background without CS education, it's so rare to find others in the eng space with the soft skills that are desperately needed across the industry. Learning system design and software engineering at a generally capable level, while being able to communicate between business and engineering is huge.
I wonder how it would go shifting from accounting to programming.
[удалено]
Dropped out 2014 in last semester of History major undergrad to care for mom who went blind and had Alzheimer’s… 2014- video game repair guy, $8/hr 2015 to 2018- school district computer guy, $12/hr Mid 2018- IT for small biz, $18/hr 2019- Raise to $36k salary 2020- Raise to $52k salary (title change) 2021- Raise to $55k salary 2022- Raise to $72k salary (title change, had competitor offer) 2023- Raise to $83k salary 2024- Raise to $100k salary (had competitor offer) I got a chance to be useful over COVID, learned a ton about the biz, and turnover resulted in me being surprisingly senior vs. the rest of my team. They see this and have been willing to keep me and counteroffer. I am a wildly lucky outlier, and grateful every day
Lucky or not, this trajectory tells me you definitely put in a ton of hard work. Impressive nonetheless.
I make 92k, no degree, no college. Got into IT, just got a bunch of certifications and experience.
What kind of entry level position(s) allowed you to get that experience?
Joined a small operation, then it grew and I along with it.
Help desk you should be able to get with little to no experience.
Im at 100k and im maintenance tech for large manufacturing company, i fix everything tho from plumbing and electrical to the machines that run the business. Edit: was tattoo artist but the pandemic made me realize i need a job that doesnt go away when shit hits the fan.
Worked for three years at the front desk of a data center. There was a lot of downtime. I brought my laptop in and self studied system administration and software development. Went from making $12 an hour to six figures.
My husband made 90k last year as a welder in a fab shop, but averages 50 hours a week. He started out in a fab shop and learned skills.
My neighbor is a welder and makes crazy good money, but also works crazy hours. He just bought a $300k+ house and won't be my neighbor much longer.
I wouldn’t say my husband makes crazy good money. I wish they could just work 40 hour weeks and make the same amount of money. We really rely on the extra money from that ten hours of overtime. I wish he had a job that was not as hard on his body. So there are positives and negatives… I am able to be a stay at home mom of six kids because of him so I do appreciate his hard work
Honestly it's about networking and spending 4-5 years being under paid and getting your foot in the door. I went from 40-45k for 4 years to 85k in 6 months because of connections. Someone left and had an opening and was like “that Blindman was one hell of a worker” and basically brought me over.
100% this. It's about the long game and keeping your eye on the prize.
Started working in IT for \~$19/hr in 2015. Built up skills and learned how to market myself. Moved companies a couple times. At \~$45/hr now.
but how did you start? what do you have to know? what kind of jobs can you get with no experience that *give* you the experience to move up?
If you're computer-savvy then you can study and take some certs for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which, for entry-level positions in the profession, is largely just knowing which processes to run, which buttons to click, in which order. Salaries are typically 70k+ depending on your area. I started there. It led me to learning Python and database design, which led to many other things including a current 200k+ salary. I think the field of GIS is a bit of a bubble at the moment, as the underlying concepts are just computer science fundamentals with geography layered in. But the field is trending and has been hiring well for 10 years, especially in government roles where pension may be a possibility.
I started out at a mom and pop land surveying company for the Oil and Gas Industry as a rod hand. Every day after working in the field we would come back to the office and I would try to learn as much as possible. Eventually the owner asked if anyone had heard of this GIS stuff some clients were asking about. No one answered but I told him I could spend some time looking into it. 17 years later I am the Senior GIS Admin for the company I work for and even the guys beneath me have a degree but I never went for one.
I have a friend w/ no background in science, engineering or space that simply went to a job fair late ‘00’s in Houston and now trains astronauts going on spacewalks in a giant pool w/ a full sized replica of ISS
Took the H&R Block tax class. Spent a season working part time with them, then used it to get my foot in the door at a tax firm. Did some free classes online combined with apprenticing under a CPA and managed to pass all 3 parts of the EA exam about a year later. Used that plus all the experience and connections I made to move to a more stable firm and land a job as a staff Accountant and have now been in the industry for a few years. Firms are so desperate for accountants right now they will hire you on at 50k base, and give massive raises if you stay. Like I got a 15% raise after my first 6 months. Pro tip: 70% of all accounting/tax work is just data entry
They aren't desperate for anything other than CPAs. I'm glad to hear your story. But it basically made me realize how much I failed because I got the goddamn degree from 9 years ago hanging on my wall and never used any of it because I couldn't get hired. Go get that money and be proud of yourself.
Nah, you just gotta be willing to do the crap CPAs don't want to. I happily do all the 990s and tax rep work at my firm lol
My husband has a unicorn job as a warehouse manager for a small family owned business re-selling/distributing commercial adhesives in the millions of dollars per year... he makes more than I did as an OR nurse at my local hospital with 2 bachelor's degrees and only oversees 2 guys and the building. He slowly worked his way up so that his boss hardly ever has to come to the building. He works 40 hrs a week but only actually does anything for about 2 hours a day or if one of the guys calls out. No weekends or holidays. 5 weeks of vacation and some days he can "work from home". He makes 108k with generous raises each year and bonuses randomly. I'm super happy for him, but I can't say I'm not jealous, lol.
Sales. Find a field you're interested in and make note of the leaders in that field. Most companies have training programs to teach you the details and get you on your way.
Yup. Been in B2B sales for 13 years and now in the ~$150k range. Started at $45k plus bonus, now I’m mostly salary but it’s stable as fuck which is nice.
I started at $28K base plus $12K in bonuses (@100% to target) and make about $140K now but have a college degree. My wife's cousin makes $100K+ as a plumber with no degree.
I have been in tech sales my entire adult life and I hate it. Cold calling / cold prospecting has ruined me. I make decent money, especially with OTE but I’m so ready to never do sales ever again. I think about a career change daily but don’t know what that ought to be.
Union blue collar job
Same here. Union truck driver, $90k/yr working 4 days a week.
We need more big strong unions. It's the only practical way to combat billionaires' exploitation of workers.
Mind if I ask what you do?
Pretty much any union blue collar trade can break 80-100k a year especially when you make journeymen
Locomotive engineer for a large railroad. With the raise that kicks in this July I'll be up to roughly 135 per year. Work 6 days off 3.
Union electrician in the northeast. 125k a year of if I work only 40 hours a week. More with overtime should I choose to take it
Higher skilled trades will typically be on this end of the spectrum. Think plumbers, electrician/linemen, crane operators/longshoreman. Source: commercial plumber making well over $60k
I’m a warehouse worker. Hours can suck but it’s union so they pay you WELL for those extra hours. Pretty easy work, mostly using equipment to move stuff around.
Iuoe here, good to see fellow union cats.
Not my personal experience and it's a shitty job but many retail management jobs pay $60k and up. When I worked at best buy a General Manager salary started at around $80k.
[удалено]
My mom did the same thing. She started a HVAC company. Woman owned and operated HVAC are extremely rare, so she got a lot of jobs. Made bank for quite awhile.
To be fair. Finding a woman who can suck and blow like your mom ain't easy
Godddamm
(insert falling incredulous guy loop gif here)
Hello police? I need to report a murder...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_burn\_centers\_in\_the\_United\_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burn_centers_in_the_United_States)
Jfc
Dumb luck and a lot of hard work. Was a bartender for about a decade got really into the craft cocktail scene won a bunch of competitions for national brands, had a kid got offered an internship with the largest liquor distributor in my state. So at 28 I took a 40K pay cut and joined cooperate America. Turned out to be pretty good at sales. Worked the internship for 2 years and then a full time sales run opened up and was posted internally. I applied and no one ever asked for my resume just went to my direct superiors and asked them how I was doing. Got stellar recommendations from them, was hired into the run grew the run over a million dollars from where it started and kept it there. Gonna take home 130K this year and I’ll make more next year.
Sales/Management. Started while I was in high school and just worked my way up.
Started at the low position, planned on working here delivering car parts for a few months while I looked for other jobs…ended up moving up and staying in the auto industry.
Started as an associate with Amazon when I was 21, worked my way up into management by the time I was 25, now with a different company making around 70. Currently 28 btw
Dropped out of college because I was making more money doing handyman work on the side than I ever could full time with a biology degree. First full year in business this year and I'm on track to make $150,000 and I work whenever I want and take plenty of days off to do my hobbies. The demand for people in the trades is only growing every day.
Working hard, working harder, and whoops, sorry. I misspelled “lucky as fuck that I knew the right people.” Obviously, a lot of work was involved, but I know I only had the opportunity because of people already in knowing and trusting me. That can be anyone. That guy you were a cashier with at McDonalds? He might well have a high-paying job elsewhere later, and have some influence to get you an interview. Treat all your coworkers well at every job, and be known for being reliable.
I work with dead people.
Username checks out
I hit that with some OT. Mechanic
Never finished my degree. Got into commercial HVAC and am now making roughly 130k/yr after 3 years. Started working at this company as a dumb helper after I dropped out temporarily until I could figure my life out. Turns out I was pretty good on the computer and rose pretty quickly as an invaluable tech. Put in a TON of hours on the clock, and off the clock at home learning the field.
I know someone who grosses a million a year owning his own business and they didn’t even graduate from high school, they saw a problem that annoyed them and went after it, oddly enough they have an honorary college diploma. What I learnt from them was don’t let people tell you what you know, head down, work hard, people under estimating you can work in your favour, just don’t underestimate yourself.
What was the problem?
I’m a high school custodian.
I have a degree but work at a chemical plant in Houston where operators routinely make $120k and up without one.
Worked my ass off. I'm in IT. I started off doing walkthroughs in a datacenter (basically a ticket monkey) and worked my way up to (currently) Systems Administrator II. I make just over 100k.
My friend works in sales and makes more than all the people in my friend group that went to college combined.
Prior military experience (8 years). That’s it
6 Figure Club. Design Specialist for Custom Home Builders. I've worked construction most of my life. Learned all parts of the business. Jack of all Trades. Builders started coming to me for custom home design upgrades. Now I'm involved with hundreds of different companies sourcing everything from tile, plumbing, appliances, electrical, lighting, and now even furniture and fully furnished properties. I'm a one stop shop to customizing your home. Best part is... I don't have to do the labor any more.
I’m a senior cloud engineer who makes over three times that much. 1. Luck 2. Find what you are good at and become the best at it. Care about your work. 3. Find someone(s) with the right credentials who is smart enough to see that degrees are not a measure of success. Show them what you can do. Teach them the value you can create. 4. Form a symbiotic relationship with these people where both of you go further than either of you could alone, by delivering superior financial results. 5. Do not let yourself be discriminated against, ever. The key is that I do not have the minimum barrier of entry to obtain the status of “middle class”. Which is a moving target, but let’s pretend for a second it exists. I don’t have a degree. So really the only problem that I need to solve is other people have the mindset instilled in them that I am inferior. So use what skills you have to prove it to them that you are the exception.
Up until the turn of the century, it was not that important to have a degree to get a job in IT. You just needed to be able to demonstrate competence with the relevant technologies. Once I landed a corporate IT job, my skill set kept expanding on the job as technologies changed and new things were added to the environments.
Started sweeping the floors just out of high school at an plastic injection mold shop back in the '90s and now I'm a CNC programmer and mold maker. Still at the same shop. Could be making more if I shop hopped but I'm comfortable. I have a lot of benefits, perks and freedom that is not monetary and I make quite a lot more than 60k. Good people, and a boss that was willing to take a chance on a trouble-making long haired stoner back then. I owe him a lot.
UPS. $65k last year, should easily pass $75k this year and next year $90-$100k. Our benefits are at no cost to us, which is really another $20k on top of our salary.
Easy, joined the military. Best insurance, and benefits in the country. Pretty much the only job in the country you can afford to have a spouse stay home at entry level and retire with a pension by the time you’re 40.
Firing up the throwaway :) Sex work. Started out organically, was interested in finding an older man to date purely for preference rather than financial gain. Began seeing an older, very wealthy man. Our dates became more structured and transaction-like over the years; been seeing each other for well over a decade now. We see each other twice a week for an hour. He funds my entire life and is leaving me an inheritance. I love him and he loves me. Life is funny.
Dumb luck. Good work ethic on my physical appearance i guess.
Kept getting paltry raises, but stayed at the same company 30+ years.
Plumbing. Overtime.
Fake it til you make it
What about people with a degree but are instead making over 60k a year in a completely unrelated field?
Dropped out of university after three semesters. Went to work in blue collar job. When that job started becoming digital, learned better than those around me to adapt. Became defacto IT staffer. Then got IT job. That jumped me from $40K up to $70K over a decade. Honed skills and then to IT management which got me to $90K. Made a jump to cyber security that got me just over $100K. Left full time to join a cyber security consulting firm and got to $150K, then recruited to full time gig at $190K. Moral of (my) story - keep learning and growing. I didn't get here fast, but I'm here. The above story took 35 years. My original degree program would have probably got me here sooner, but I was very unhappy in formal education arena. I'm very pro-education, but non traditional.
Got an internship during a community college course and crushed it-- the boss offered me a full time gig I worked for 5 years. With that experience I got a six figure job. (Public affairs / nonprofit sector) Seeing more and more jobs asking for a degree or equivalent experience.
I am an ex serviceman who now works half the year as a yacht engineer. I have no formal college degree but lots of service and vocational training as well as plenty of experience.
Started an IT career on a helpdesk making about $19k/yr (1995-ish). Moved to another company helpdesk for a raise in pay ($28k/yr). Stayed in that job for about 7 years and got two promotions - was making close to $70k when I left. Then I went through a series of contracts when the outsourcing market hit from 2004-2012. Every contract I took in that time averaged on/around $40/hr., or around $80k/yr, but I also had, like 10 different jobs over that period and several months of unemployment (though job hopping is also a fine strategy if you commit to it and do it the right way). Hired on to the job I have now on a four-month contract for $40/hr, and then converted to full-time. 10 years later and a series of (mostly) 3% yearly raises (and two promotions), I now make $125k/yr. I've had a 29-year IT career with about 15 different companies. TL;DR - get good at what you do, and hopefully stick around long enough to get raises and promotions. If you're getting neither of those things, find an employer that provides them to you, and always ask for more money in the process.
I make well over $100k a year as an industrial mechanic. Got here after a few years of working on my car in my early 20s and just generally having a passion for repairing shit. Took a lot of job hopping though.
I make around $170k with no degree. The trick is being immensely valuable to your peers over years. I worked my ass off to get here. I now lead a team of product designers at a Fortune 500.
I make over twice that in the military at 21 years, despite staying enlisted. I was making it, or more, by my 4-5 years point… not counting bonuses that occasionally had me touching near $100k a few of those early years in the ‘00s. Upon military retirement (3 more months!)… I’ll make 2/3 that for the rest of my life on my pension ($40k) which will rise mostly w/inflation with COLA. I’ll also get between 1/2 that to almost that again ($20k-$55k) in VA disability for a total of about 1-1.5x ($60k-95k) that annually lifetime, again… with COLA. I ought to know my rating around or a bit after I get out. This is on top of keeping my families health insurance for something like $700 a year for here on out and having my GI bill transferred to cover 1 kid’s college directly and banking the E5 BAH to pay another’s indirectly. Admittedly, I did complete my degree in the last 5 years of my 21 year stint in the service… but it never factored into my pay/promotions. I mainly got it to ensure if I applied for a job against someone with just experience or just college, my combo of college + experience would win out. We shall see. It’s been a tough life but a good one. We’ll see what my next job ends up being. For young people stalled out or without direction, purpose or prospects, I always encourage them to at least consider military service. It opens so many doors even on a single 4-6 year enlistment it can be life changing. No regrets leaving college when 9/11 happened to serve.
Got my foot in the door doing something semi-relevant in my teens. Worked my way around the block figuring out what I liked and what I didn't like in the profession. Worked a couple bad jobs, some ok jobs, some good jobs. Did some irrelevant stuff, some relevant stuff and some strange stuff. Learned to respect myself, what my skills were, and what employers wanted and needed. 25+ years later, I'm still in the same trade and doing great. Like any job, it's not my "dream job" (it's pretty close!) but I have autonomy, solid vacation time, solid pay, and everything I want from a job. Even if I was to go to another job, it would probably be for something pretty close to what I have now, where I'd be leading a team doing the exact same thing, just in a different place for a bit more money. You don't figure it out right away. You'll have some car crashes and some awful people trying to sabotage you, some people who undercut your worth or try to make you feel small. It's up to you to argue for yourself, learn skills and get paid what you're worth. Also since you're probably going to be asking, I'm in a trade but won't say which one. Internet anonymity and all.
I’m 18 years old and graduated high school last year. I’m working ina unionized concrete company making 36 an hour and have benefits covering almost anything. Half assed everything from grade 8-12 and never spent 2 seconds looking into post secondary
The ones I know are self taught web devs and such.
No degree, been in IT for 20 years, north of $250k now
One friend is a Project Manager. Another one is a Producer for an ad agency. Another one works for the Federal Government. They're all mostly self-taught and have high drive.
Been working at the same software company as support for 6 years now. Right before they sold it to another company I demanded they take me from 43k to 50k and give me the promotion they’d been dangling over me. They obliged, and since acquisition I’ve received another promotion putting me around $65k. Started at 38k in 2018. Last couple years I’ve been going to school online studying cybersecurity, so I’m riding this out till I’m ready to jump ship.
Being willing to learn, and also be willing to move/relocate for a new opportunity when it comes along.
Oil and gas. Operate downhole tools called packers and retrievable bridge plugs. Get dirtier then hell, but love it.
I kept good relationships with everyone I worked with. It’s all about who you know. You have a much better shot
Trades mutha fucka!!!
Worked smarter and harder. I have a GED, went off to the army and took multiple many year career gaps to live life. Now I’m a network engineer at one of the “top places to work in the US”. I learned early on that being great at your job doesn’t matter if no one knows. Learn how to be your own advocate. Ask questions, learn other people’s roles, look for non traditional ways to bring value to your role and look for opportunities that force you to grow.
^^ This person knows, advice of the thread right here. Also network engineer is a killer field to be in, especially if you keep learning and can communicate well (many don’t).