No degree, no worries - 50 years at AT&T for 68 year old engineer

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, interesting to say the least, here are some jobs or positions that may work for those who don't have a degree, but I would still suggest at least an associates or bachelors, depending on how you want to work your upward mobility in the future.

Link: No degree, no worries: 9 high-paying jobs that don't require a college degree (msn.com)

Here's an engineer who has worked for the same company for a whopping 50 years, he's been there since high school graduation, I don't think he has a degree to go with his experience, but it's not needed (ever, for him). Sometimes it's working your way upwards...

Link: 68-year-old engineer spent 50 years at one company and 'always' told his bosses to 'leave me alone': 'Let me learn the job' (msn.com)

[rachel83az]

The world was a vastly different place 50 years ago than it is today.

[vetvso]

Hmm, interesting to say the least, here are some jobs or positions that may work for those who don't have a degree, but I would still suggest at least an associates or bachelors, depending on how you want to work your upward mobility in the future.

Link: No degree, no worries: 9 high-paying jobs that don't require a college degree (msn.com)

Here's an engineer who has worked for the same company for a whopping 50 years, he's been there since high school graduation, I don't think he has a degree to go with his experience, but it's not needed (ever, for him). Sometimes it's working your way upwards...

Link: 68-year-old engineer spent 50 years at one company and 'always' told his bosses to 'leave me alone': 'Let me learn the job' (msn.com)

You can still build a career without a degree. However that does not mean you don't need skills, and being able to prove that is sometimes all you need. I left the military with skills in fixing equipment, and that took me around the world several times without a degree. I did study along the way and took classes for credit, most of them for no credit, or used tutoring if I needed to know something. I know people today who started as a janitor and worked their way up to the top person in their field with no degree.

Now times have changed, and I think it would be more difficult now but people still get hired without degrees every day, and I have personally hired a few in the last few years.

[MrPanda]

I remember reading "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefèvre in 1923, where the author talks about how he started working for the company as an errand boy and then went up.

It was very funny for me, as here you would need a bachelor to even pass the first screening for an assistant position. And it´s interesting to compare, as I read you mentioning how so many of the posters have got different careers without any degree (being stopped at some point because of the lack of a degree, that´s why they end here in most cases), but in Peru I wouldn´t even be able to start in most cases.

[davewill]

I remember reading "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator"  by Edwin Lefèvre in 1923, where the author talks about how he started working for the company as an errand boy and then went up.

It was very funny for me, as here you would need a bachelor to even pass the first screening for an assistant position. And it´s interesting to compare, as I read you mentioning how so many of the posters have got different careers without any degree (being stopped at some point because of the lack of a degree, that´s why they end here in most cases), but in Peru I wouldn´t even be able to start in most cases.

The key to getting started without a degree is usually very small companies, who either can't hire top talent, or simply trade more on relationships than qualifications (Great job, I'm going to recommend you to my cousin who needs the same thing...) It also helps if your field is conducive to project work. After you've finagled 5-10 years of experience, the lack of degree comes up less.

[Pats20]

It depends on the field whether or not a degree is needed. What I tell people is a degree gives you options. It’s nice to have options, Whether you exercise those options or not. Not saying you don’t or won’t have options without a degree. I’m just saying more than likely you will have more open doors. Education is freedom. That’s what I tell my kids. 

What I mean by degree is some kind of formal training. Apprenticeships ect.

[nykorn]

You can do some language teaching work, restricted to online, without any sort of degree, if anything for teaching English you need a "120 hour TEFL certificate" to get hired (which I actually finished in 7 hours online). If you can somehow wrangle up 3 or more years of experience and 3-5 work references, some workplaces and countries will waive the degree requirement, but it is almost impossible to get an actual official teaching job (not a "tutoring" job, which may not count) without any degree. Some countries don't count any sort of self-employment or part-time jobs as real work experience, you need to have documented full-time work. And, most teaching jobs pay peanuts and treat teachers terribly, I wish it weren't the case. I know a few teachers who make big bucks, one's been teaching for over 20 years in ghettos (which pay much more), another is a Hungarian who moved to teach English in a poor area of Vietnam but is also getting free board, rent and a small salary to be the live-in teacher for a Vietnamese family there on top of her normal teaching job, and a third is an Icelander who moved to China to teach English and learned fluent Chinese so ended up getting paid more than double after proving Chinese proficiency.

You can often get a job in translation without a degree, but the standards have risen to an insane degree since the 80s and 90s, now they basically want native level speakers for any position, and the job market is shrinking thanks to machine translation (the big bucks are in medical and legal translation, which at least where I live you need to be a certified nurse, doctor or lawyer to do).

As for completely educationless jobs in the self-employment field, I get paid more per hour to dogsit than I've ever gotten paid at any other job. However it requires that you live in an area with people who own dogs.