From Entry Level to Career
All of us have our stories, and just like everyone I have mine. I started working for my dad at 12 years old as an HR assistant, aka a grunt doing whatever task he wanted me to while he took care of business. I honestly did random light repair tasks, organizational tasks and watch a lot of movies that summer.
From there I started working fast food at 16. Full time. Year round. I got my GED at 16 and proceeded to keep pushing. I was made to work, and I followed what I was made for.
That said I also had aspirations of going to college, joining the military, and a whole slew of other things. College, tried that three times, with just as many majors. Pre-law/criminal justice, IT Security & Data assurance, and finally Psychology. I have to admit, I hated being in college. There was something about learning about all these electives, all of the additional classes outside of my major. I really hated the loan/grant process, and generally I was not even remotely a fan of the mentality that people knew more than I did based off of a piece of paper.
Now, you need to understand that in 2006, 2015 & 2016 that other options were either not well known, or simply did not exist. That said I made decent money and survived. I realized very quickly that I was extremely good at sales, and bounced through a few sales companies, and made roughly 20–25 an hour most month including commission.
Then finally after years of that I found Lambda School, which has been perfect for me. Now, I don't NEED to go to any school for what I am doing, but there are resources involved that make it worth doing. But that is my story, in less than 18 months I will be on the way to making 6 digits a year programming, but you can get something similar going. Let me give you my tips for making money and progressing without a college degree.
Step One:
If you are young, and still in high school, or just out of it. Consider college, it is expensive, but as much as we all hate to admit it if you want any sort of career in which you need a license or certificate to do the job you will sadly have to go the school route for it. But, as you go through school ensure that you love what you are set to do, and make sure you limit your “Fun” activities, and classes to a minimum.
Additionally, you can consider going into a trade and become an apprentice. This is decent money to start, and becoming a union tradesperson can be a very lucrative career.
One of my old bosses is an amazing example. By the time that he was a senior he had been working and going to school, and put together a decent nest egg and opened 2 different companies with a few partners, within 5 years he bought them out and was sole owner of both, and was making a ton of money. His poli-sci degree is useless to his work, but he has created his own job, and to this day he still is extremely successful.
Step One — Alternative:
Work hard. Get into a entry level fast food or other entry level job and bust your tail. Get in and get the job done, but EVERY single second outside of that learn about other careers. Figure out what appeals to you and make your move.
A few jobs that make this a great way to go:
Retail Sales
Insurance/Real Estate Sales (License usually required)
Paralegal
Construction
Software Engineering
Outside/B2B Sales
Merchandising
Step Two:
Once you have made your decision what direction you want to go in Be the BEST. Learn everything that you can. I remember when I was first getting into sales I not only learned the stuff I was being taught, but I also purchased books, watched YouTube training videos, and read thousands of articles. By the second month with the company I was #2 in a company with thousands of employees in a particular metric that most people all but ignored.
That is the goal, be the best. I have friends that I worked with in retail sales that run multiple markets, and make a ton of money as a district/regional sales manager (director). He was better than I am when it came to sales, arguable we about equal with our training and managerial skills.
Side note: With Sales jobs specifically, you need to make sure that you are with a good company. Always be looking at other companies, and understand their commission structures. Companies change their structures, and usually for the worse. You want to make sure that while you want long jobs on your resume to ensure that you are maximizing your monetary potential, while also being loyal as long as the company is loyal to you. Dropping your ability to make money, or capping your potential is NOT loyalty.
Step Three:
Maximize your income. I am going to come from my experience which is why we are talking about sales, but there are also other reasons that we will discuss later on.
Maximizing your potential is both easy, and extremely difficult. If you work for a retail sales company you have to do one simple thing: Figure out what works best for you and leverage that. However, in jobs like Real Estate, or Insurance you are the boss. Meaning YOU have to create your systems, and leverage those to make the most money.
As a fair admission, I worked retail sales. Predominantly I did wireless Sales. I worked for two companies, and then I migrated into a much more lucrative job of selling cars. I went back to wireless sales for a short time, but I was actually asked back to a Dealership as an Office/Experience manager. No commission, but my Sales Manager salary was met with far less travel time, so I was making a ton more cash for less.
That is what you want. You want to find a company that values you so highly that they call YOU to come work for them.
Step Four:
Decide if you are happy. Do you enjoy what you are doing? Are you making good money? Is it something that excites you? Do you go home complaining about it, or do you go home talking about how awesome it is?
Everyone is different. You have to decide for you what you love, and what you hate. My wife is a great example of this. She is more of a people person than I am so when she tried retail sales she excelled. She was top 1 or 2 in her store, and top 5–10 in her market basically every month. There are still reviews with her name on them on her former employers google reviews. When she switched companies, people followed her. THAT is a sign of success.
That said: She hated it. She hated how cut throat it was, she hated having to hit metrics, and she hated both of those employers after a while. She instead switched gears and went to work in the medical industry, and while it is far more emotionally draining, being a part of healing people is a very very large motivator. Again she is amazingly good at her job.
In Closing:
Be you. Figure out your skills, and weaknesses and leverage them. I am convinced that almost anyone can make $50–70k a year. It will be based upon your decisions, and your skills, and your work ethics. That said it is ok to make less because time progresses. Your goal is by the time that you are in your late 30s- early 40s to be making as close to $100k a year. That way you can retire effectively in your late 50s to early 60s.
Be tactical. Identify potentially lucrative positions, and make sure that you are willing to make the leap to make that job work. I talked a lot about sales, and I can tell you without question that it is arguably the most lucrative route to go. However, you make your income. Jobs that are fully commission means that YOU have to make your paycheck. If you have a horrid month, you will be broke that month, if you have an amazing month, with extra cash flow.
Think the same way as your employer. ROI. Return on Investment. Be so profitable that you are always in the black, or green. Do not be the cause of red ink on the balance sheet. Be aggressive, but also be careful that your mistakes do not cost your employer money.
I am certainly not the expert, but I have lived life a bit, and these are things that I have come to fully understand with time, and experience. I would still be in a sales position if I had not realized that I have a different path to walk, and that I really needed to minimize my stress, and go in a direction that is best for my family. Make your choices. Make sure that you make those choices for the right reasons. Plan, make goals, stick to them, and meet or exceed them.
You are your best ally or enemy.
