Michael

By no means even close.

19 Insanely Successful Dropouts

COEs Without Degrees

scrubbedexpat091

A degree is almost essential in the US and Canada now if you want a good job, and don't want to do trades.

I am in the same boat, most I can get wage wise with no degree, is around 12-13/hr in Canada, and lack of degree holds me back in my industry as well, as few hotels these days will consider anyone without a degree.

I worked in aviation and still know a few people who now work in airport ops who worked at the airline with me, and all of them have degrees, they found it very difficult to move into airport positions without the degree, but once they had the degree all found jobs pretty quickly, also with airport jobs, they may post them to the public because they have to, but many times they hire someone who works at the airport and has built a network with airport management and such, never hurts to try and get on with a ground handler or airline, and then start to get to know airport managers and ops people.

If I was better at academics I'd go and get a degree, but I can't pass college level courses, and I know I'll fail, so not willing to spend anymore money trying. Plus college tuition is way out my ability to pay here, and I make too much to get much student loan wise. (I am in Canada)

I agree with some that it is possible to land a good job with no degree, but its also possible to win the lotto, and its very possible to go a lifetime without a degree and never find anything good, where others luck out.

I've been looking for that good job for 17 years, but I keep looking, but its not likely to happen at this point. But dont lose hope.

Pulaski

If I recall correctly, about ⅓ of Americans get degrees, so upwards of 200million people are without a degree, so any list of people who succeeded without one is going to be pitifully small in comparison.

Can you succeed without a degee? Sure you can, but the deck is going to be stacked against you.

scrubbedexpat091

Very true.



I am only 35, and no degree and I am finding it more difficult to even get interviews, the kinds of jobs I can get, companies seem to prefer college age students over adults who just need a job.

When I applied to all the grocery stores, not one call, but didn't surprise me really, nobody working in the store outside of management looks to be over 25.

Pulaski

I believe you are underestimating yourself. You write well, clearly and with good sentence structure and punctuation. I wish that many of the people I hire, who are by definition holders of a bachelors degree, could write even half as well you do. None of them write as I had previously expected someone with degree level education to write.

RoadWarriorFromLP

I'm inclined to largely agree with Pulaski on this one, although with some caveats. The US is highly degree-conscious, and not having one will simply screen you out of many white-collar jobs; you just won't be considered.

The fact that a few people can get away without having one does not disprove the point that most of those who have white-collar aspirations would benefit from having one. Exceptions to the rule don't disprove the rule.

That being said, a degree is not a panacea, either; having a degree alone won't solve your problems.

Add to this that the OP needs to do something now, while getting the degree will take awhile. In this case, putting life on hold for education is presumably not an option.

If you're intent on staying in this field, then I would suggest trying to network and grovel as necessary to land some sort of job, then earn the degree at the same time. Use the job to build a network and finesse your way up the ladder.

Mind you that getting a degree will be hard on your family -- don't underestimate how much extra time will be required to do this. You will need the support of your significant other; she needs to understand that there will be times when this is going to keep you too occupied to deal properly with domestic matters.

Otherwise, you should consider acquiring a skill for which the degree is not necessary. That may require a radical career change, or perhaps starting your own business.

Hotscot

I've been in technical sales the past 7 years.
Not every position required a degree funnily enough but did require a persistent personality of course.

The advantage of sales roles that cover a large geography, the position is often home based.

MsElui

i would also note - that just because the closing date was 8 days ago - it doesn't AUTOMATICALLY mean you have been discounted. I work for a large bank and the hr recruiters are complete *****w1ts. Even for an internal job transfer into a sister team where i wasnt really even formally interviewed- i was just chosen - took over a month to get through HR. They tie the whole process up its slow and has lots of chokepoints.

markonline1

God, what a depressing thread I started

Pulaski

I hope not. .... On the contrary, this is potentially one of the most useful threads I have seen in a long time.

Ash UK/US

9 days is nothing! The job I am in (worked there 10 years) I applied for in the may I interviewed and was hired in the July.

scrubbedexpat091

When I got on with the airline I was with, the hiring process started with a group interview in August 1998, then I moved up to an interview with HR in September, onto the local hiring managers in October and offered a job, then finally started in December 1998, the wait from October to December was waiting for background checks, and postal service background checks to be done, back then it was a time consuming and very manual process, seems faster these days.

It was not the type of job you went for if you need something right away, and with the high turnover we had, we basically always had people in the stream.

Starting pay was a mere 6.04/hr.

Pulaski

I had the same length delay (September - January) for an internal role for reasons of management lethargy, though it was a brand new department; that was nine years ago. A role I applied for recently, again internal, took three weeks to get called for an interview, and another six weeks to be told I hadn't got the job, by which time I already NEW that as I knew that the hiring manager had been in town and given a second interview to someone else.

scrubbedexpat091

Its the math that kills me, I can't seem to pass any upper level math, I really struggle significantly in math beyond basics.

I am going to be taking some high school level math in the coming months online, since I need high school math, science, and English to get into most college programs here, so I'll see how well I can do this time around.

My learning style is very much by doing, and not so much by listening to lectures, memorizing things, and then taking a test.

I also struggle with finding something I think I would enjoy, I honestly haven't a clue what I would want to do career wise. I suppose it might be one reason, why I job hop trying new jobs so much.

I did enjoy the airline, and if it had been a viable long term option would have stayed, but with outsourcing, and such, airlines are not viable careers anymore unless a pilot or in management of some sort.

scrubbedexpat091

I was fortunate the one and only time I did a transfer within a company, the airline again, but we were union, and hiring was solely based on seniority when transferring within your job code, so it was quick and easy.

My job code included 4 or 5 different positions at varying levels, if trying for outside your job code, it was a little harder, the company had to show the union for that job code, there was nobody interested in the position first.

But leaving your job code meant losing seniority, so I was never interested in moving to another job code.