Why take the scenic route to success? Jumpstart your future—without going to college!

Accelerate your career without a college degree by finding your motivation and tapping into non-traditional learning opportunities. Others have done it, and so can you. In REAL WORLD CAREERS, you’ll learn from the experiences of people like:

• The Entrepreneur. The daughter of hippies, Dana Korey didn’t enter a classroom until the second grade. After struggling through high school, she quit college early. Now she runs her own business—with annual sales of $750,000.

• The Sales Wiz. “I was 6940 and had an attitude,” says Chet Holmes. In the tenth grade, a fistfight got him thrown out of school. Now this high-school dropout is a successful performance consultant whose advice has doubled and tripled sales for dozens of companies.

• The Master Chef. At sixteen, Ken Addington entered a city internship program that sparked his interest in food. He skipped cooking school in favor of an apprenticeship—and now makes close to six figures a year as an executive chef at a trendy New York restaurant.

• The Manager. Kristin Crockett’s enthusiasm plummets in the classroom, but in the real world, she’s a dynamo. After leaving college early and starting a low-level job, she rose rapidly through her company ranks, eventually becoming the benefits manager—for 4,000 employees.

• The Millionaire. Tim Jordan’s parents stopped paying for school when it became clear he wasn’t focused. Ten years later, he had worked his way up in the mortgage business—and become a millionaire in the process.

The information in this book is as up to date as possible, however, it is sold with the understanding that such information is often subject to new and changing interpretations, government rulings, and legislation. The reader should seek qualified professional help regarding specific questions.

Copyright © 2007 by Betsy Cummings

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

WARNER BOOKS

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

Warner Business Books is an imprint of Warner Books, Inc.

First eBook Edition: January 2007

ISBN: 978-0-446-56144-0

“Without dismissing college as a means to learn and grow, this stimulating book shows proven alternatives for getting rich without a college education. Anyone looking for guidance and resources needs to get this book. It would make a great gift for the kids you care about—as well as for yourself.”

—Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor and Life’s Missing Instruction Manual

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dan Ambrosio and Rick Wolff, my editors at Warner Business Books, who gave me the opportunity to explore such a rich subject. As an author, the career paths of noncollege grads is no small topic to tackle when you consider the myriad job options for Americans who choose such a track. In that sense, my editors helped me formulate, define, and create a robust resource for those job seekers who don’t have a college degree but have so much else to offer today’s workplace.

Many thanks to experts Ron Krannich, Josh Flowerman, Bruce Palmer, Jim Zuberbuhler, Lou Glazer, Debra Humphreys, Dan Miller of Monster, and others who shed so much light on the job market and opportunities available for those without college degrees. The resources available online and through the U.S. Department of Labor were extraordinary in their data.

A huge thank-you to Marty Nemko, who provided tremendous insight and frank opinions about the value of a college education today.

Amy Barth was instrumental in shedding light on why high school students aren’t focused enough on their career options—and how they could take better advantage of the resources at their fingertips.

Richard Weinblatt, Bob Webb, and Beth Youhn provided honest information about the opportunities and challenges today’s blue-collar fields offer for both men and women. Personally, I never considered a path other than college when I entered a four-year university program twenty years ago. Today I certainly would. The reason? The stories provided by plenty of people interviewed for this book make clear that there are other options besides a bachelor’s degree. This book would never have been possible without their input and insights. I certainly hope their stories are as inspiring to readers as they are to me. Those I interviewed over the past year demonstrate that a bachelor’s degree is, indeed, not the only path to becoming rich.

Introduction

The College Alternative

This year, more than sixteen million people will be enrolled in American colleges. Some will go because they want to. Others will be compelled by their parents. Far more will enter one of the country’s four-thousand-plus institutions of higher education simply because they have no better plan. In fact, the number of students heading off to college increases each year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics; it rose by 15 percent between 1992 and 2002.

And what will they get for their four years of academic dedication? A few will launch promising careers. Many more will come out as clueless as they went in—uncertain of what inspires them or where their professional talents lie. They’ll trundle off to countless interviews for low-level entry positions that may or may not promise a gateway to higher earnings and more responsibility. Others will take their crisp new hundred-thousand-dollar diplomas and land the jobs so often filled by thousands of graduates each year, working in stores or restaurants, for example, while they figure out what it is they really want to do with their bachelor’s degrees.

But that’s for those who even make it through. More than a quarter will drop out after year one. More than half won’t graduate after five years. Many will be like Tim Jordan, an ambitious, hardworking individual motivated by money and success, but not by the structured, lecture-based setup of a classroom, trapped in an educational setting that’s not appropriate for him. Jordan, who started at the University of Hartford (“not Harvard,” he jokes) in Connecticut, called it quits on higher education two years later after transferring to a community college near home, then later the University of Maryland. “I took a class here and there but never followed through,” Jordan says. “I was just having a good time.” He is now a millionaire (see chapter 1), but not because of a college degree.

Like many who left the classrooms of higher education, Jordan is driven more by practical experience. College for him was a demoralizing exercise that only slowed him down. Too many people like Jordan waste years wandering aimlessly through esteemed university corridors, never focusing on a specific career or course of study. “By the time I left, I should have graduated twice,” he says, “but I didn’t.”

Who should go to college? Probably only those whose legal, medical, and educational careers demand that they do. Or those who simply love to learn in an academic setting. “We genuflect before higher education as being this nonprofit opportunity to grow the mind and become a connoisseur of learning and all this high-minded stuff,” says Marty Nemko, a career consultant and co-author of Cool Careers for Dummies. “In reality that is simply not the case. When you pull the curtain away from the PR rhetoric colleges put out nonstop and look at what kids learn... the amount of critical-thinking skills is paltry [next] to the amount of money and time” spent on a four-year program.

Finding the Right Payoff

Nemko’s right. Part of the problem is society and the ridiculously high expectations it holds aloft for college grads. But why is college so highly valued when the statistics reveal that only a quarter of Americans even have college degrees? “In a country where we could provide college to every student, that’s an opportunity we shouldn’t squander,” argues Debra Humphreys, vice president for communications and public affairs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington.

If you look at salary surveys, Humphreys’s point bears out. In 2003, average college graduates earned 62 percent more than their peers with just a high school degree—a huge jump from 1972, when college graduates made 22 percent more than those with a high school diploma alone. Indeed, reports about everything from obesity to socioeconomic status continually weigh out in favor of those with bachelor’s degrees.

But dozens of college dropouts interviewed for this book as well as those who sidestepped college entirely will argue otherwise. And they have the careers to prove it. Very few regret their decision to walk away from four-year programs. And all will tell you that getting a jump start on their career was extremely motivating.

If you’re just finishing high school, have some work experience but no college degree, or simply never wanted to attend a university but are interested in making money, you may not be aware of just how lucrative a career can be for people who don’t have a four-year diploma.

Consider Greg Brooks, a self-described victim of attention deficit disorder (“I had ADD before it was cool,” he jokes). Brooks propelled his way through an ambitious journalism career after dropping out of college shortly after starting. Instead of burying his nose in his studies, Brooks pursued the communications field relentlessly, moving through a multitude of journalism jobs before finally landing in public relations. “I was an absolutely unrepentant job-hopper,” he says. Today he owns his own public relations and marketing company, called West Third Group, located in Plattsburg, Missouri, and pulls in a comfortable quarter million dollars or more in business a year.

Or look at Ed Richards, who may not have a college degree but has seen and experienced plenty—even on college campuses. One of his first reporting assignments for a local radio station was to cover a burning building on the campus at Kent State University in Ohio. Initially the event seemed likely to fizzle, and Richards and other reporters quickly assumed the worst was over. “Some reporters said, this could go on all day, let’s get lunch,” Richards recalls. Turns out that small burning building was actually part of the Kent State riots, a protest poorly managed by the National Guard, which fired into the crowd of protestors, injuring thirteen and killing four. Just as the reporters headed off to lunch, the event’s most horrific moments unfolded. “That was my first outside reporting job. I really didn’t understand what the hell was going on,” Richards says. “I just started running around and talking to people asking, ‘What did you see? What happened?’ I got a lot of great sound that day.” Richards received his reporting baptism by fire from that day and built a radio career that spanned more than two decades.

Still not convinced? Listen to Terri Nopp, who says, “I have not found the lack of a degree limiting in any way.” Her sentiments are shared by many in her position. Nopp came from a family of educators but realized after some time in college that higher education just wasn’t for her. It didn’t stop her from aspiring to and obtaining a highly lucrative career, however: Today she runs her own public relations firm billing more than half a million dollars a year to clients.

All these stories attest to one unequivocal career truth: A college degree is not necessary for success. Companies that remain enamored with the bachelor’s degree are still out there, unfortunately, refusing to consider the (sometimes superior) talents of those without a four-year degree. “I look at the way we do things and it annoys me because I think we cut ourselves off from so many good people who didn’t go to the right school or have the right internship,” says one financial executive, who has attained astounding success in banking without a college degree. And while her company refuses to interview interns or other job applicants who aren’t in the “correct” school, much less those without a bachelor’s degree, this successful non-college-grad realizes the valuable workers the firm may be missing out on due to its policy. “I think it does an injustice” to her company and others with similar requirements for employment, she says.

Why College Doesn’t Pan Out

The reality is, plenty—in fact many—of today’s top workers, as well as those coming down the job market pipeline, just simply don’t see college as a good fit in their lives. Why does college not work for so many who enroll? Experts point to youth’s major stumbling block today: a lack of focus, particularly among high school graduates. In a thoroughly researched tome, Unfocused Kids, Suzy Mygatt Wakefield, PhD—a retired high school guidance counselor and career development facilitator who served as one of the book’s editors—talks about the undefined gap many of today’s young adults fall into, causing them to lack career focus. Wakefield writes: “When school becomes too difficult or they fall behind in credits, many of these teens tend to drop out of school—with the consequence of qualifying only for low-skilled, low-paying, dead end jobs. On the other hand, just going to college does not necessarily mean that teens will be successful either.” Wakefield’s right. High school graduates who aren’t focused on a specific career won’t necessarily find that focal point in college. More to the point, it can be an expensive place to meander through a trial-and-error curriculum, hoping you’ll hit upon a program that sparks your interest. And when you consider that much of the nation’s jobs can be had through certificate programs, apprenticeships, and on-the-job training, where employees are often paid to learn, slogging through a four-year degree simply doesn’t make sense.

“The real growth has been in junior colleges with certification programs,” says Ron Krannich, author and publisher of Impact Publications in Manassas Park, Virginia, which publishes dozens of business and career books. And apparently companies agree. According to the National Profile of Community Colleges: Trends and Statistics, a study put out by the American Association of Community Colleges, 95 percent of businesses that use education programs at community colleges, where the average student is twenty-nine, recommend such programs to others.

The point is not to hightail it out of high school at eighteen and launch randomly into a career. For those who bypass college, finding success is almost always the result of going through a focused, defined, productive educational and professional track. It’s just that college isn’t the only way to make that happen.

Who’s Skipping School?

“There are two kinds of people who should forgo college,” says Marty Nemko. “One is the real go-getter who is quite entrepreneurial.” The second? “The zillions of non-academic-oriented students who can get into college, because colleges will take anyone.”

For parents and teenagers too caught up in the prestige of having children with bachelor’s degrees, skipping college entirely can seem like a daunting choice, particularly when those who decide to forgo a college education defy family expectations. Two years into her college career at Howard University in Atlanta, Kat Carney, who had a full scholarship, decided to walk away. “I came from a family of educators, so I believe in education and the value of it,” says Carney, who received books every year for Christmas growing up. “It was so woven into the fabric of daily life” in her family, it’s no surprise that her parents were devastated when she quit school to pursue an acting career. But Carney never felt college was the best path for her. “My parents definitely wanted me to go to college,” she says; “if not for them I probably wouldn’t have thought about applying to college or going.” While at Howard, however, she kept thinking about how she wanted to be out experiencing the world, not sitting in a classroom learning about it.

Not that opting out of a university should be considered lightly. Certainly a college degree is necessary for some jobs and can open doors at plenty of companies. But an overwhelming amount of evidence exists in companies of all sizes and within nearly every industry that a college degree is frequently not necessary. Still, before saying good-bye forever to academia, it’s important to truly determine if college is right for you or not. Doing so should start with asking some of the following questions:

• Is your academic track record consistent? If it was spotty in high school, it will probably continue that way in college. Why pour thousands of dollars into an academic effort that’s going to be lukewarm at best?

• Have your grades gone up or down in recent years? If they’re on a downward slope, that’s a sign that you’re seriously uninspired by the classroom setting. It doesn’t mean that you lack the brain power to make great grades. But sitting in a college classroom with gentlemen’s C’s will probably only kill what professional motivation you have left.

• Are you a strong test taker? Do your SAT scores reflect that? Performance tests such as SATs are a great indicator of future performance in an academic setting. If your scores are low, but your high school GPA is high, that says one thing. But average grades combined with average scores probably mean you’re better off outside a university setting.

• Does the thought of leaving home leave you cold? Many students trudge off to college and are shocked by the intensity of their depression and homesickness. For many, this is the first time away from home, struggling with independence. Individuals strongly affected by home separation might want to explore job opportunities closer to home.

• Are you task-oriented and organized when studying, or are you easily distracted? If you’re likely to roam your dorm hallways scavenging for pizza rather than sitting down and spending hours on end focused on your books, you may not have the discipline at the moment to be a great student. Ignore that reality and you’ll likely sink thousands into costly tuition with a poor academic return for your investment.

• Do you find the classroom setting stifling? Ultimately, if you simply hate sitting and listening to teachers talk, or absorbing mass quantities of information, now’s the time to admit it to yourself and get out. You’re doing yourself and the school a disservice by being there.

• Are you passionate about any particular subject of study? If nothing turns you on, drop that college application immediately. Spending a year away from school trying to figure out what it is that could turn you on for an entire career is a far better use of your time.

• Do you have a clear image of what your career or next job will look like? If not, you probably won’t pick up that vision by listening to your college art history professor. You’d be smarter to sink a few hundred dollars into the services of a career counselor or skills assessment testing center to figure out where your hidden talents lie.

These are obvious questions with black-and-white answers. But too often, young adults fail to ask them and blindly trust that their future will magically lead them down a straight and narrow path from within the college system. But without a clear picture of what lies ahead, far too many students become distracted by the lifestyle and nonacademic elements that accompany the college experience. “When students drop out of college, it’s not because of what they’re doing in class, but because they aren’t handling the other pieces of college,” says Jim Zuberbuhler, executive director of Dynamy, a thirty-seven-year-old organization that offers internships to students who want to take a gap year between high school and college, or want to spend time interning in a few professions to determine what might interest them most.

A Changing Work World

Even for those who aren’t entirely certain of what they want to do, an expanding job market may work in their favor in the coming years, with or without a college degree to help open doors. In twenty years, seventy-six million baby boomers will retire. Many will return to the workforce in some capacity. But their departure will spark a major shift in corporate America’s need to fill vacancies. When that happens, college degrees may seem less important to employers than specific skill sets and certifications. Already, “I think employers, smart employers, look at skills and things that need to be done on the job and less so at formal education,” Ron Krannich says. “Employers are trying to hire your future rather than your past. They want to look at your performance: Are you trainable? Can you learn?”

Population shifts may be working in the favor of certain groups. For example, the number of females in the labor pool is expected to grow by 10.9 percent from 2001 to 2014, while the number of men in the labor market is expected to increase by only 9.1 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. For women, that may mean not only a greater takeover of jobs typically occupied more by men but a decrease in the earnings gap, which has generally shown that women make 75 percent of their male counterparts.

So who should skip school and who should pursue a four-year degree? Some of those answers are obvious, particularly if your career choice—as a lawyer or doctor, for example—requires extensive education. But plenty of occupations, including many in the medical and technology fields, require only technical training or an associate’s degree.

For others not sure of what industry or type of career they’d like to follow, college may not provide the answers. Moving aimlessly through college classrooms is often not a productive means to figuring out your professional goals. In fact, experts often agree that, especially if you’re a recent high school graduate, a year or two on your own after high school can help clear your mind professionally, sharpen your career focus, and increase your work ethic.

For others, the military, a vocational school, or even an apprenticeship may be a much smarter and more direct path to a career than a four-year degree. For those hoping to start a business in particular, taking a few classes in accounting or marketing at a local college is likely a far more productive (not to mention cheaper) route than plunking tens of thousands of dollars into a university’s coffers.

And with a greater diversity of industries and companies needing talent, more and more may lessen position requirements when it comes to level of education completed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, certain industries are expected to see vast growth until at least the year 2014, and thus need a greater number of employees in the next decade. These industries will represent great opportunity for all job seekers, and particularly so for those without a four-year degree.

HIGH GROWTH INDUSTRIES

Industry | Expected Growth
Health care and social assistance | 30.3 percent
Professional and business services | 27.8 percent
Information and Web industries | 11.6 percent
Leisure and hospitality | 17.7 percent
Trade, transportation, and utilities | 10.3 percent
Financial industries | 10.5 percent
Government | 10 percent

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Figuring Out a Path

While some people interviewed for this book attended some school, others skipped college entirely; still others decided a trade school was the best way to forge a career. One person spent only a few years of her life in school, since her parents neglected to introduce her to any type of formal education until the age of ten. With that background, “I never viewed not going to college as a deficit,” she says.

Although some people may think a college degree opens more doors initially, those who have skipped the four-year degree and found success in their careers disagree. “I started thinking about the return on my investment and how many years I would have to work to get a return” for the money invested in tuition, says Terri Nopp, who spun her wheels for three years at colleges in Arizona before finally realizing it wasn’t helping her make headway down a professional path. Within “the field I was most interested in—which is architecture—the return would have taken twenty years!” Instead, she decided to pursue marketing and communications on her own. And not having a four-year degree hasn’t prevented her from gaining top jobs or making six figures: “It’s all about how smart you are, how quickly you adapt, and how you take advantage of any opportunities thrown your way.”