Posted on 10/22/2011 8:37:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Want to be the envy of all your worthless liberal arts degree-having friends? Become a mechanic." The economy may have yet to recover from its implosion a few years ago, but you still have bills to pay, rent checks to write and a healthy drinking habit to support, which means you need money. "I'm not qualified for anything, I don't have my degree," you might say to yourself. That's loser talk. Whoever said that you need to write the letters B.A. after your name was full of BS.
The obvious answer to your problem is "entrepreneur," but we've decided to leave that off the list since we haven't seen too many postings for "entrepreneur" on Craigslist or CareerBuilder lately. In other words, you can’t apply to be an entrepreneur, you just have to do it.
Here are the nine best jobs that you can apply for and build a career around without earning a four-year degree. Plus, you might just get a parade in your honor with one of these. Try and guess which one.
1- Firefighter
Starting salary: $32,165 - $53,608
Being a firefighter is pretty much the embodiment of a hero. You're out there saving lives and property. You're the savior to everyone who didn't pay attention to the level of oil required to fry a turkey. You save California every three or four years from burning off the face of the earth. All the while, you're keeping in top physical shape.
With a high-school diploma, a little relevant experience and the ability to perform strength-draining exertions under intense pressure, you've got a future in firefighting.
2- Police officer
Starting salary: Varies by location
If being in close to firefighter condition when you start out is something you enjoy, but that penchant for sweet, fried pastries is a vice you just cannot control, starting out as a police officer might be more your speed.
Now, for most jurisdictions, you're probably going to need an associate's degree in criminal law or 12-18 months’ worth of experience in the law enforcement business to be a proper officer, but there may be entry-level positions available.
3- Mechanic
Starting salary: $30,584 - $40,564
Want to be the envy of all your worthless liberal arts degree-having friends? Become a mechanic. Being able to fix cars around these people is like having a license to print money. Plus, it's a damned respectable and professional career choice.
Starting as a mechanic usually involves being an apprentice. You know, how useful education used to be passed along before everyone decided you should have letters after your name?
4- Appliance repairman
Starting salary: $37,345 - $56,285 (Varies widely)
Everyone has appliances that break around the house. It seems like every two months the clothes dryer decides that "blowing hot air" is no longer a part of its job description. Used to be that you'd just throw that under-performing piece of garbage out, but not in this economic maelstrom.
Working in the world of appliance repair is a lot like working in automotive repair. There are no specific education prerequisites, as most of the skill is acquired on the job. An extremely skilled repairman who isn't strictly on salary might bring in close to $50,000.
5- Plumber / Electrician
Starting salary: $35,575 - $48,833
Again, we're talking about learning a trade, so no matter how badly you screwed up in school, it doesn't matter. Granted, you can't be a moron and learn complex, potentially dangerous skills (in the case of working with live electricity) but it’s virtually guaranteed that you'll be in high demand. Not surprisingly, guys aren’t exactly lining up to work with high voltage or in sewers, so you should be able to find a niche in either, both of which are respectable trades.
Union benefits and becoming licensed are a few of the perks you have to look forward to.
6- Salesman
Starting salary: Who knows?
The salesman is truly the American job. Earn what you're worth, not a cent more. You don't need a formal education to be a salesman -- you need a brass personality and thick skin. Infrequent pay checks, constant rejection and an almost immediate repulsion from anyone you let know you're in sales are just a few of the givens of the profession.
That being said, earning potential is usually unlimited and setting your own hours can be a perk. Success or failure, this one is all on you.
7- Web designer
Starting salary: $43,591 - $57,167
Half computer hacker, half unappreciated artist, the web design field is an interesting blend of left and right brain skills that doesn't really translate into a relevant degree. If you have these seemingly opposite skills, you're in demand. With commerce, networking and research all being done on the web in large scales, the design of a website is absolutely crucial to success.
8- Occupational therapy assistant
Starting salary: $30,000 - $38,000
If you genuinely enjoy helping people (and not just saying that you do), then this might be a job to consider. Learning this position can be done either on the job, via a correspondence program or at a junior college. Rehabilitation can be a rewarding experience in and of itself.
9- Truck driver
Starting salary: $42,000 - $52,000
The lure of the open road can be the biggest perk of all. Not only that, but truck drivers are responsible for just about everything that happens in the economy. Sure, you can buy it online, but how are they going to get it to you? The truck isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Most truck drivers have at least their high-school degree and many more beyond that go to truck driving school to learn to drive 18-wheel behemoths.
Here at AskMen.com, we're not saying that a college degree isn't worth getting. After all, a college degree nets around $20,000 a year more than you'd otherwise receive. If you can get it -- great. But if you don't have a college degree, there are plenty of respectable careers that don't require it, careers that are in demand and really make society tick along. Not too many English majors can say that.
Learn to be a welder, and you can write you own ticket in the Houston area....
Same thing in DFW and most of East Texas
My son is a mechanic, he says it is amazing how kids coming out of these schools don’t understand the way a car works at all.
Being a machinist in a tool shop is not easy work. Not for just anyone. You gotta have mechanical aptitude and patient personality. The work can be very demanding, meeting deadlines and cost. Much of the work is tedious. Expect to work a 50 hr week
You must have safe work habits.
You must have safe work habits.
BTW, there is an Automotive Engineering Technology Degree (Baccalaureate—4 years) for mechanics in a Midwestern University, and I’ve seen some car dealers who require that degree for any hiring consideration. One of those dealers (largest in a fair sized city) paid $7 an hour in 1991 for graduates with that degree.
You must have safe work habits.
bookmark
There is not much money in a history degree, but if you enjoy it, we certainly need history teachers. Newt is a history professor and he has done well.
CEO of Microsoft.
No high school? It's OK. You could have been the CEO of ABC Supply and died a billionaire; or the CEO of J.R. Simplot (and major shareholder in Micron Technologies), and died a billionaire; or you could have become a machinist who adopted a baby that grew up to be Steve Jobs.
What did civilization do before institutionalized, organized education came along to make everyone competent?
More importantly, how the hell do we free ourselves from its deadly tentacles?
I believe, for those that don’t have a degree, sales has the most potential of anything listed above.
Everything that is bought has been sold, usually at several levels before it gets to the end user.
With off and on attendance I took several extra years to get through high school but I found something that interested me, learned it and eventually moved up from the entry level delivery / warehouse position I started at into outside sales.
I’ve not gotten rich (yet) but have raised a family, kept them fed and a roof over their heads and, come December, the last of my kids will graduate from college (the other 2 already have and are gainfully employed).
Sales isn’t for everyone but for those that have the ability it can be a good way to make a living.
How do you make money off a Youtube video?
Just giving you a hard time. :)
90 percent of my classmates are socialists and I had to deal with that in my school. I’m glad to be done.
Small college on Long Island, Hofstra, was where the one I mention attended [ later he followed it up on weekends while working getting a masters in finance at NYU Sterns]. Just the engineering degree gets you in the door. A useful degree to have.
Always good to get a summer jobs working in one of these companies as well. However, know of an employee who was in the factory part of a telecom equip maker and he was brought into the sales force and became a top producer--had the personality for it and got noticed.
Knowing the game of golf really helps--lot of business done on the golf course; used to be dinners out etc but then golf took the lead-less alcohol.
No. 2 son, ME, drilling engineer for independent oil co., 5 yrs, close to 200k with bonus’s. Work is hot, cold, windy, dirty and sometimes dangerous. About one third office work and two thirds field work. If your son is a 40 hr. work week kinda guy then the oil fields are not for him.
No 3 son, HS diploma, smart kid, very, very computer savy and a whizbang in math. Directional drilling part of oil field. Even more hours than big brother, live on location in trailers. Three years experience, 150-175 K and soon to go over 200, maybe 250k as a DD up from MWD. Single, 25 so the 28 days on and 2-5 off do not bother him.
The petroleum industry offers tremendous opportunities for all levels of education but the work ethic has got to be there. No slackers. They will be weeded out quickly.
In addition to that:
"He studied and nearly mastered the Six-books of Euclid (geometry) since he was a member of Congress. He began a course of rigid mental discipline with the intent to improve his faculties, especially his powers of logic and language. Hence his fondness for Euclid, which he carried with him on the circuit till he could demonstrate with ease all the propositions in the six books; often studying far into the night, with a candle near his pillow, while his fellow-lawyers, half a dozen in a room, filled the air with interminable snoring." Abraham Lincoln from Short Autobiography of 1860.Grant always wanted to be a mathematics professor.
The last four presidents have been Ivy Leaguers and look at the state of our country.
Would I be wrong to guess that he or she is also the only liberal in the family?
How to make money off a YouTube video:
First, it needs to be YOUR video —every part of it. For that reason I advise against the inclusion of any “borrowed” music in any vid you make, it can send you down a bad pathway. Just thought I’d start there.
Start making your vids, and get some hits. If you make just one blockbuster, or a series of vids that each get more than....oh...5,000 hits or so, they’ll start to keep track of you.
Pretty soon after that they invite you to join the, “YouTube Partnership Program”.
The short story is that depending on your viewer profile, you’ll....prooooobably make about $2.50 per every 1,000 people who simply click on your video(s).
Lessay your typical viewer is a 10-year-old African —that number might be as low was .25 cents per 1,000 hits.
But lessay instead that American and Swiss 40 males love ya —then I’ve heard crazy stories of people making even $6 per 1,000 hits. BUT THAT IS SUPER RARE.
But lessay you get maybe $2 per 1,000 hits. Why stop there? You should also in your vids make mention of your T-shirts, your stickers, mouse-pads, etc. —you can do that. Could be a million things.
Why not start 5 channels, not just 1? You can. It’s free. And also consider featuring a company’s product(s) —wear their hat or shoes and watch them offer to pay you.
Remember that catchy video last year of the funny effeminate black guy from the Alabama housing project, warning of a rapist? Antoine Dodson?
That’s the highest hit count I’ve seen and it got 79 million hits —it *probably* got over $250,000 just for that one video.
Shane Dawson started with a $100 camera. JennaMarbles was the same —now they’re huge.
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