Did any of y'all go to school and get a degree but now work in a job you coulda done with ...

distinctlybeautiful
distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
edited December 3 in Chit-Chat
... a high school education or less? I'm literally doing the same thing I was doing back in high school, and I have a masters degree. Just looking for commiseration I suppose..
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Replies

  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    My last job was Walmart after being laid off my elementary teaching job. I'm on disability now but working at Walmart with 2 degrees is fun lol
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    I work for a family company and have a PhD. Most of my work could be done by someone with a bachelors, but sometimes I do masters/PhD level analysis of data.

    It's all good. I wouldn't have as much time to entertain you guys if I had more initiative. Also, my wife makes a nice salary as a company executive, so collectively we do much better than if we'd followed my career around and have her (masters) get what she could wherever my work took us.
  • km8907
    km8907 Posts: 3,861 Member
    I think most jobs you could do without a degree, just need on the job training, but I digress lol. I had to get a masters to get a bachelors level job. I'm hoping once I get enough experience I'll be able to move up.
  • witchy_wife
    witchy_wife Posts: 792 Member
    I finished high school at 16 (actually 15 when I took my exams just because of how late in school year my birthday is).....I went straight in to a full time job as an office junior. I never went to college or uni and now have a very good well paid job. Some people in the same position as me spent thousands on getting degrees and additional qualifications and have had big student loans to pay off, but I don't have that.

    I'm not trying to put anyone off from going to college or uni, obviously some jobs absolutely require qualifications. But some don't. Hard work, experience, determination and drive can get someone a long way.

    Hope you manage to move on to new things which are better suited to your qualifications. Don't give up, aim high and I am sure you'll catch some good luck eventually x
  • JessicaJS23
    JessicaJS23 Posts: 1,863 Member
    Yep : /
  • pianoplaya94
    pianoplaya94 Posts: 185 Member
    I pray this doesn't happen to me. I am currently an undergraduate going into my final year. I plan on getting a masters and am working on my CV for the programs right now. My Master's degree would be quite specialized and one that is needed in today's society with our over-emphasis on health and disease. So I really really hope I can do what I dream of!
    Very few get rewarded for their own merits. Otherwise, it's always who you know and your network circles. If you are from the middle class and have no connections, you're just not going to make it.

    I have seen stanford/harvard graduates here crunching spreadsheets for several hours and making 60 to 100K despite their credentials. The job market has changed for the worse. Ten years ago, salary as high as 100K+ was easy to attain. Now not so much. Our middle class has been completely shredded.

    But if you have the right connections, your job, salary and promotions will be plenty.

    Also, I don't find this particularly true from my experiences thus far. Although I am from an upper-class family, my parents work in fields completely different from the field I am studying. I am also extremely introverted and have social anxiety so bad that it borders on characteristics of Aspergers. Yet, so far, without their help, I manage to work for a research magazine for one of the top schools in the world (unpaid) and work as a student researcher at one of the top children's research hospitals in the world (also unpaid). Although I do not get money, they are incredibly competitive opportunities that will help with my future goals and that did not require any of my parents' "connections" to get into. It was all me and my ambition. That being said, I am fortunate that I can choose experience over payment since I don't need to worry about paying for school. So I guess you are partly right, but not in a way that has to do with "connections" but rather whether someone can afford to focus all of their attention on their goals. Most of my friends are like this and have experience behind them. Yet my one friend whose parents refuse to pay for education is stuck working crazy hours and having no time to do things that will help with her future goals.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    Yes, trade school would of been a better choice. All my friends that went to trade school did better for me, much faster. That being said, it's very hard to be a manager or better without a masters in alot of fields.
  • aloranger7708
    aloranger7708 Posts: 422 Member
    Yeah I'm working a job that doesn't really require any skills and 2 of my coworkers don't even have geds/hs diplomas.
    cee134 wrote: »
    Yes, trade school would of been a better choice. All my friends that went to trade school did better for me, much faster. That being said, it's very hard to be a manager or better without a masters in alot of fields.

    This is true for me, too. If I could go back, I would've gotten a trade.

  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 427 Member
    I worked for several years at min wage crap shoots with my degree, now I work in fundraising which kinda uses a Communications degree. My brother, however, writes grants and has a degree in Philosophy!
    However, I know several people who work with people with their master's degrees and they *kitten* that the people with the masters make sooooo much more then them. And it's like, yeah, they should. They have a master's, you have an associates.
  • jhmomofmany
    jhmomofmany Posts: 571 Member
    Not me, my husband. He went to school and worked 15 years in a job he hated. Now he's a truck driver and still paying off the damn loans. :angry:
  • Caporegiem
    Caporegiem Posts: 4,297 Member
    If the company I'm at would've hired me without a degree then yes. I knew chit when I walked in here, just learned everything from experience.
  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
    yep, got my juris doctorate, passed 3 state bar exams, work in a non-profit art museum. i used to think i was saving my soul. but this has its own pitfalls with half the compensation.
  • JustaJoe00
    JustaJoe00 Posts: 777 Member
    I have a degree in Architecture and had steady jobs until 2008....i was laid off and it hurt big time. I don't take anything for granted any more. Luckily a few years later i was back to it and still am. Nothing is guaranteed, for sure.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Fortunately, I'm not in that boat. I studied accounting and I'm working in that field and doing well for myself...you can't be an accountant without an accounting degree.

    I do know people in that boat though...and in most cases, they have the degree but it's kind of broad like "business management"...it's not really specific to anything and doesn't really specialize them to do anything. Others I know have degrees in interesting fields of study, but there's just not much of a market job wise for whatever it is that they studied.

    I know a handful of people who are working in fields unrelated and for which they do not need the level of education that they have, but it is by choice in that once they graduated and went to work, they didn't particularly like what they were doing...a former colleague of mine is a good example...he has a masters in accounting and he left the field to go work for a not-for profit doing marketing and fundraising primarily because he didn't like having to work the hours he had to work at the firm and the stress was eating him up.

    There are some people who think my talents are being wasted where I am as my level of expertise exceeds my job duties but I like it...I too grew weary of the accounting firm and working seemingly endless hours and traveling 25 weeks out of the year and wanted something that would allow me to spend more time with my family. I have a much lower ceiling income wise where I am now but I'm pretty much an 8-5er and work in a pretty flexible environment that allows me time to spend with my family and see my kids grow up and that's what's most important to me.
  • Pam_Shebamm
    Pam_Shebamm Posts: 167 Member
    My job is listed as only requiring a high school degree, however I was hired for the position based on the fact that I was the only applicant with a college degree, so.....yeah.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    My job is listed as only requiring a high school degree, however I was hired for the position based on the fact that I was the only applicant with a college degree, so.....yeah.

    Yeah, this happens a lot too and has happened with a few people I've hired on at work...which is why it's still actually important to get the degree...even if the position only requires a HS diploma, someone with a degree who applies would likely win out...it's frustrating I'm sure, but you still have greater options and are more hire-able with the degree.
  • edwardetr
    edwardetr Posts: 140 Member
    I always saw the point of a bachelor's degree was to develop the mind, not training you for a specific job. Higher degrees, of course, are more specialized. I have a degree in Chemistry and now am a programmer. I would not call them related but I think my education taught me how to think in an organized way and that does help in my current job.
  • Riffraft1960
    Riffraft1960 Posts: 1,984 Member
    I am not working in a field for either of my Masters' degrees and only semi-working in a field for my undergrad.
  • Riffraft1960
    Riffraft1960 Posts: 1,984 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Fortunately, I'm not in that boat. I studied accounting and I'm working in that field and doing well for myself...you can't be an accountant without an accounting degree.

    .

    I have been working as an accountant for 26 years without an accounting degree. I have a business admin/Econ degree. I did finally go and take a bunch of accounting courses 3 years ago, so I could get my CPA.
  • pomegranatecloud
    pomegranatecloud Posts: 812 Member
    No, my degree is required for my job.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    I'm kinda the reverse. I have a high school diploma and in this industry carry the title 'Layout Engineer'. I have peers in this industry doing the same thing I do who have Associates degrees, Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees, and Doctorates. The most recent entrants into the field are the most highly credentialed. I regard that as a waste of an education.
  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
    I actually got the job I wanted right out of grad school, but I quickly realized I wasn't ready for it and ended up leaving. Now I'm on a tiny military base outside the states where the opportunities are few and far between, and I'm in food service yet again, at least for the time being..
  • CincyNeid
    CincyNeid Posts: 1,249 Member
    I'll be honest I do not have a college degree. Honestly don't want the debt. I started with the company I'm with now 2 weeks after I graduated High School. And honestly, I'm making as much as my wife with a Para-Legal degree. . .

    I fully understand that the world needs as many ditch diggers as it does lawyers. It needs as many auto mechanics as it does bankers. And it needs as many construction workers as it does teachers.

    And with Obamacare enrolling people into the "29er Group" you're going to start seeing more and more people with College Degrees working part time jobs that have little to nothing to do with their degree.
  • lisciousg24
    lisciousg24 Posts: 189 Member
    Both examples at my place.
    I have an AAS degree in pharmacy, just moved to California and the state could take up to six weeks to evaluate my application to become registered in this state. So I took a job at my husbands place of employment. A job that requires no education whatsoever but pays pretty good.
    On the other hand, my husband is currently the Production manager at this company and he is still working on his AAS degree in business. He's a very hard worker whom started from the bottom at a different company and moved his way up right away. Valuable enough to have the company's that now hire him pay for our entire relocation.
    I understand it's frustrating! But the way I see it, it's only temporary. At least for me it is, cuz I'm at my current job to make extra money while I can find a job in what I like to do.
  • aloranger7708
    aloranger7708 Posts: 422 Member
    edited August 2016
    My job is listed as only requiring a high school degree, however I was hired for the position based on the fact that I was the only applicant with a college degree, so.....yeah.

    I have applied for a ton of "high school degree required" jobs and get excited when I get an interview because "I have a college degree!" Then I get to the interview and learn everyone else interviewing has a college degree, too. Lol. Kind of false advertising, no?

    However, I don't think you need a college degree to be successful. My husband never went to college and makes 3x more than I do lol... he worked hard to move up. And never had student loans.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    I have a degree in English and History.

    meh.

    I owned a resume writing service for years, and quit this year due to major major burnout. So yeah, then, my English degree, at least was used.

    Now ... I just take care of Sir and the house and my kids.

    I'm much happier, and less stressed.

    Sir is in the trades (trained metal worker and woodworker- the wood is just a hobby though). He loves what he does, and makes a very nice living for us. I will always encourage a trade school over a 4 year degree, except, obviously, for those fields which truly NEED those educations (you know, I like my doctor to have more education than i do LOLOLOL)
  • MicahPsencik
    MicahPsencik Posts: 129 Member
    Yes, lol...cry...lol...:(
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,069 Member
    I think most jobs out there could be done without a college degree. I'm all for bringing back the apprentice program. I mean, even with jobs that you actually do learn something in college that you will use in your career, it's usually very little. You learn on the job. Give me an intelligent, motivated person without a degree anyday over a lazy, entitled degree holder.

    With that being said, my first job was one that I actually needed a degree for. My undergrad is in Biology and Chemistry. I worked for a Cosmetics manufacturer and my first job after I graduated was as a Quality Control Chemist and then later as a Skin Care Researcher. When we moved cities, I had to change industries and ended up still in Product Development, but now in Software. I really don't need my undergrad degree at all. My MBA is pretty useless too.
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