So if you don't have a college degree

[archcommus]

My dad had a decent job without a college degree, but when he lost it, it was extremely tough to find another one. To me that's a good deal of motivation to get a degree, so if you're ever in trouble you're still wanted by other companies (assuming the market you're in is currently in demand, at least somewhat).

However, I'm not denying it's possible to have a good, permanent job without a college degree. But, as someone else already mentioned, only the succesful non-college-grads are posting in here. Most who don't go to college don't end up very successful. So to me it seems worth it to get a degree.

If I did get some kind of great opportunity, or if I had a good business idea, I'd probably stay in school but drop to part-time status. Not a good idea to quit completely, you never know what you'll want to have to fall back on.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: archcommus
Most who don't go to college don't end up very successful. So to me it seems worth it to get a degree.

Define what your idea of being successful is? I bet most, whether they have a degree or not, will not achieve it

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: archcommus
Most who don't go to college don't end up very successful. So to me it seems worth it to get a degree.

Define what your idea of being successful is? I bet most, whether they have a degree or not, will not achieve it

I'm sure for most it's simply being happy and having a decent income. You cannot deny the chances of achieving this are much greater with a college degree. Not saying it's not possible without one, but compare the number of non-college grads that are successful today to those that aren't; I'm sure the different is vast.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: archcommus
Most who don't go to college don't end up very successful. So to me it seems worth it to get a degree.

Define what your idea of being successful is? I bet most, whether they have a degree or not, will not achieve it

I'm sure for most it's simply being happy and having a decent income. You cannot deny the chances of achieving this are much greater with a college degree. Not saying it's not possible without one, but compare the number of non-college grads that are successful today to those that aren't; I'm sure the different is vast.

Do you really think that the vast majority of people who have a College Degree are actually happy in their vocation?

When I was a Carpenter I found more of my Co-Workers were satisfied with their jobs than I did when I was as a Property Manager, I know I was. Sitting behind a desk pushing paper was not very satisfying at all and you have to admist that most who get a College Degree usually end up doing somne form of that one way or another.

The one downfall in working in the Blue Collar Building trades is the physical wear and tear on your body. When you have to do physical work for a living you body tends to break down as you get older, well more so than with those who don't do anything physical for a living.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: jadinolf
Let's see. Lower class jobs like:

Carpenter, plumber, electrician, sheet metal worker, steel worker, welder and other low (tee hee) paying jobs.

The sad reality is that those jobs will likely earn more for the talented worker than your white-collar job.

Keep enjoying your perceived notions of class and you'll find yourself at the bottom.

My point was that these occupations pay a great deal. I forgot law enforcement and fire fighter which are also high paying in most areas.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: archcommus
[I'm sure for most it's simply being happy and having a decent income. You cannot deny the chances of achieving this are much greater with a college degree. Not saying it's not possible without one, but compare the number of non-college grads that are successful today to those that aren't; I'm sure the different is vast.

http://www.forbes.com/2003/07/28/cx_dd_0728mondaymatch.html

Here you go.

 

[Lifted]

Originally posted by: jadinolf

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: jadinolf
Let's see. Lower class jobs like:

Carpenter, plumber, electrician, sheet metal worker, steel worker, welder and other low (tee hee) paying jobs.

The sad reality is that those jobs will likely earn more for the talented worker than your white-collar job.

Keep enjoying your perceived notions of class and you'll find yourself at the bottom.

My point was that these occupations pay a great deal. I forgot law enforcement and fire fighter which are also high paying in most areas.

I think you need a four year degree nowadays to become a police officer in NYC. I don't know about the rest of the country, but it should be a requirement everywhere. Idiots with guns do not make me feel safe.

 

[Rogue]

Hahaha! I laugh at the morons who ran in here blinded by their college ambitions and think that you can't be successful without a degree. You morons will soon find out the hard way that a degree doesn't count for much more than a lot of debt and a slim margin of competitive gain in the hiring process. Even then, a degree is only good for when you want or have to work for someone else. Don't be so naiive to think that a degree will grant you benefits and a competitive edge beyond other people in the market or you'll find yourself highly disappointed and wishing you didn't waste your time and money getting one.

Having said that, I am fairly successful without a degree, though I'm working on finishing mine. I will make over $60k this year without it. I turned down the FBI late last year with no degree in hand. I am regularly mistaken by my peers to have a degree and am constantly called on for my knowledge in a wide variety of areas. You know why? I read anything and everything. So far college has been a joke for me because I read so much and so many books, trade publications, magazines, etc. that there are very few topics I'm not already educated in.

 

[Gravity]

Milton Bradley has a game out called "life".

Play the game, don't get a degree and see what happens. It's pretty accurate.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: archcommus
I'm sure for most it's simply being happy and having a decent income. You cannot deny the chances of achieving this are much greater with a college degree.

Sure...if what you want to do requires you to have a college degree, which is not always the case.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: jadinolf
Let's see. Lower class jobs like:

Carpenter, plumber, electrician, sheet metal worker, steel worker, welder and other low (tee hee) paying jobs.

The sad reality is that those jobs will likely earn more for the talented worker than your white-collar job.

Keep enjoying your perceived notions of class and you'll find yourself at the bottom.

Very, very true. Those jobs make plenty of money. More than most white collar ones.

 

[Steve]

I didn't finish my degree (yet) and I have a full-time, salaried office job. Sure, it's helpdesk, but I'm happy.

 

[Crucial]

I run my own successful business without one.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
Well some people can excel without a college degree - people like Bill Gates and so forth.

Yeah, all you have to do is spend a few years at Harvard.

 

[Uppsala9496]

I have 2 degrees and make about the same as my younger brother who doesn't have one. He works as a manger in the IT department at the University of Chicago.
Of course, each situation is different...

EDIT: My wife also doesn't have a degree and she works in the same industry I do. Makes a good dollar and is only 2 levels below me at our company.

 

[Poulsonator]

Originally posted by: ViciouS
Be good with a mop, or be ruthless about getting money, and hope to god you dont get sick or something and have to start all over. OR GO TO SCHOOL and garantee some sort of future.

Oh yea? What kind of guarantee is that? I don't remember being recruited for college, and them guaranteeing me some sort of future after school.

There are no guarantees in life. Well, except that we are all going to die. Other then that, zero. None. Life is what you make of it. With a degree, without a degree, who gives a sh1t. If people worried more about doing things that made them happy vs. doing things that paid well to buy the needless crap they think they need, the world would be a much different place.

 

[imported_Tick]

I think it's interesting how there is no one posting about careers in academia in here. I'm suprised that no one has talked about the jobs where having a graduate degree is an absolute requirement. Granted, if academia isn't your thing, fine. But if you DO want to work in the hard sciences, etc. then, of course, getting a degree, preferably a graduate degree, is a must. I think that a lot of the posters in this thread only see the degree holders that hold desk jobs in large companies, and assume that that's the only option. However, there are still a good many people who have degrees and do not work for a large company or a small buisness, or own their own buisness, or work for the goverment. Many people, it seems, don't even think about being an academic as a career choice, despite the fact that their is still demand for people with graduate degrees in the academic setting, if your smart enough. Sure, you won't earn a lot of money, unless you get lucky, but their are other mesures of sucess. Further, the academic fields do grant a comparitive level of 'job security' (snicker snicker), because there are not a great many people who can think at the level necissary for the work.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Tick
I think it's interesting how there is no one posting about careers in academia in here. I'm suprised that no one has talked about the jobs where having a graduate degree is an absolute requirement. Granted, if academia isn't your thing, fine. But if you DO want to work in the hard sciences, etc. then, of course, getting a degree, preferably a graduate degree, is a must.

I think most people don't bother staying in the sciences because there's no money in it. My sister's husband got a doctorate in nuclear physics, with the intention of being a scientist. But it's a well-known fact that there's no money in science. After graduating, he and nearly everyone in his class decided to "go for the money". They were faced with the possibility of working for NASA or a school doing research and making $45k a year, or working for banks and insurance companies as mathematicians making 2-3 times that.

Usually the practical considerations of life take precedence over the idealistic ones. I only work to live, I don't live to work.

 

[bradruth]

Originally posted by: jadinolf
I forgot law enforcement and fire fighter which are also high paying in most areas.

:laugh: Yeah, right. Besides, college is a requirement for LE. We're not all fresh-of-the-boat Irishmen these days.

 

[bradruth]

Whoops.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
get a college degree...

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
I'm a motivational speaker and I live in a VAN down by the river!

LMFAO.

 

[habib89]

i think you can do fine without a college degree, it'll just be a little bit harder.. i know somone that operates heavy machinery on construction sites.. he gets 3 months or more of winter off, and i think he's probably making just a bit less than me.. and i've got a degree and am an engineer.. he works a lot of overtime hours but gets a lot of time off..

my uncle is a mechanic.. got his certs, but never finished college.. he probably makes between 40-50k but he works his ass off.. i make 50k and sit on my ass all day and do this..

 

[nakedfrog]

No degree. Web developer for the past 5 years. I did end up with some Community College of the Air Force credits in electronics from my training (satellite/wideband comm), though.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: archcommus
Most who don't go to college don't end up very successful. So to me it seems worth it to get a degree.

Define what your idea of being successful is? I bet most, whether they have a degree or not, will not achieve it

I'm sure for most it's simply being happy and having a decent income. You cannot deny the chances of achieving this are much greater with a college degree. Not saying it's not possible without one, but compare the number of non-college grads that are successful today to those that aren't; I'm sure the different is vast.

Do you really think that the vast majority of people who have a College Degree are actually happy in their vocation?

Did I say that? No. I said the chances are higher if you get one (and, of course, if you actually study something and work in a field you're interested in). As I said, it's certainly possible to be successful and happy without a degree, but we're only hearing the success stories here. I'm sure the vast majority of people with no education beyond high school do not have fulfilling or high-paying jobs.

With that said, my girlfriend's father simply went to trade school for two years to become an electrician, and started his own company. Makes well over $60k/year. But he also works his ass off in a very physical type of job, something I'd never want to do. It's all aobut what you see yourself doing as a career.