The questions for you, the new graduate, depend on what you just graduated from. If you’re a new college graduate, the question is “why did you do that?” If you’re a new high school graduate, the question is “have you thought about NOT going to college?” Relax, I’m not going to blow a bunch of smoke up your hindquarters about the various m(b)illionaires that never got a degree. I want to address what college is, what college isn’t, and what some alternatives might be.

College is a good investment for a lot of people, but certainly not for everyone, and maybe not even for most folks. College is just one of many life choices that need to be compared and contrasted, and is certainly not necessary for a fulfilling career that can support a person or family.

College provides not one damn bit of education or knowledge that isn’t available somewhere else, usually at less expense and without the extraneous bullshit packaging. Not one damn bit. Even the most technical of jobs don’t contain any esoteric knowledge that couldn’t be gleaned through an apprenticeship of appropriate length, it’s just that our “society” structures some jobs as “requiring” a degree, to the point that some of us forget that even doctors go through OJT. Further, all too often graduates in many fields leave without a basic understanding of the subject they majored in, or without a keen enough grasp of the principles behind the subject to successfully tackle a job situation. ¡Una qué vergüenza! If it happens enough to become a cliché, it must happen a lot.

Educated != Degreed

So why do I still think that “college is a good investment for a lot of people?” I say that because a college degree is used by employers as a screening device. The two primary items screened for are (1) boredom tolerance and (2) intelligence.

Businessmen generally want to know that their inexperienced starter-workers won’t quit their entry-level jobs, and have been trained to do boring, repetitive work without questioning too much.

A college graduate has shown that he has been willing to suffer enormous boredom, broken only by weekend parties, for five or six years. (Very few students get through in four years, as their savings-depleted parents will tell you in private.)

Once in the position, initiative and skill can drive a person upward, but quite frankly, the degree didn’t get them the promotions, the performance did, and the performance wasn’t engendered by the degree.

As college degrees become more widely-held, the value of those degrees, or more appropriately, admissions, for intelligence-screening is diluted. The high-school grade inflation inflicted on Georgia schools at the hands of the state lottery was soon repeated nationwide. Can a pet rock get a 3.0? Only if it doesn’t smoke dope. Anyways, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life does a decent job of exploring why the direct screening for intelligence is a non-starter in today’s U.S.A., but the quick version is given by Gary North:

So, elite businesses that want to attract the best and the brightest hire from the elite universities and a handful of professional schools. The schools administer the tests at their expense. This is how the old boy network works today.

Non-elite businesses that want to hire reasonably competent people hire graduates from non-elite universities.

Why do they specify “college graduates only”? Because if they didn’t, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission would take them to court for racial discrimination. The EEOC’s argument: “If this job does not require a college degree, then any favoritism shown to college graduates is a disguised form of racial discrimination and illegal.” So, businesses that would otherwise promote from inside the company dare not do this. They therefore discriminate against non-graduates.

In summary, if you’re interested in access to the employment market, and you lack imagination, or at least, the knowledge of alternatives, go get yourself screened. Or, if you already have been screened, congratulations!

I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper, and I was free!

If that doesn’t inspire you, then you should think about the jobs that don’t require a degree. These are just a few of the ones I’ve come across recently:

Beginning-level machinists make comparable money to the average college grad, at about $29K annually. If you can read blueprints and know the difference between a caliper and a micrometer, and have one year’s experience, you can get $17/hour ($35K annually without overtime). Many machine shops will conduct training programs to find entry-level workers, and by the time you would have graduated from college, you can be earning boucoup bucks. It takes several years to work up from running the machinery to being in charge of setting up and maintaining the machinery, but a maintenance supervisor can make in the $50-$70K range.

A diesel engine mechanic can be earning $39K annually within 2-4 years. Entry-level automotive mechanics can earn $31K, with aptitude and some drive, a mechanic can be making $49K in a little over four years.

Various computer science jobs net national averages of $48-$59K annually, but that’s a national average and not necessarily equivalent to a four-year head start out of high school salary. I’ve been told that a lot of folks in the real world just start internships and don’t leave. Jobs like SysAdmin can be started with certification classes that aren’t too expensive compared to the salaries, and can lead into programming work.

Licensed Practical Nurses need certification but not a degree, and can make in the high $30s.

An EMT Paramedic can be earning in the high $30s to low $40s within four years, and it’s a job in demand with a lot of mobility. Locally, they’re requiring some college credits before considering applicants for the classes, but that may not be the case everywhere.

Sales jobs are more typically commissioned than salaried, but several don’t require any type of higher education for entry, although some require licensing and some entry exams. Insurance salesmen, realtors, and car salesman can, with a little hustle, out-earn the average college graduate well before he even graduates.

Speaking of real estate, now is just about the perfect time to start thinking about re-entering real estate as an investment. It takes no degree to be a real estate investor, and anyone choosing real estate as a paid job has an easy “in” on the best investments. Under the current tax laws, if you’re young and know a little about painting, carpentery, and landscaping, you could buy a fixer-upper every two years, live in it for a deuce, and keep the gains tax-free, adding each set of gains into the next home (or a retirement account). Just a thought.

A surveyor may be making high $30s after an apprenticeship, be making $50K with five years experience, and making $80K as a manager after 7 or more years. I don’t know about you, but to me, making $50K annually as a 23-year-old after having spent the last five years earning up from $30K just beats the ever-lovin’ snot out of graduating in debt with little job experience and a salary expectation below that of a land surveyor manager.

When you can drive a truck, you’ve got a job, mister! $43K or thereabouts is the national average for a tractor-trailer driver, and it’s in the $70s for a supervisor. Honk the horn, baby!

Being a stockbroker supposedly requires a degree, but more importantly, an exam must be passed. Being an actuary, at least, a credentialed one, requires a series of exams and some knowledge of the industry. It may be a tough row to hoe, but I’m certain that anyone in high school that’s capable of taking AP calculus could start the studying process for one of these jobs. An internship and several actuarial exams might render the final degree irrelevant. The profession is hopelessly stodgy and old-fashioned, and some employers may pass up a candidate with multiple exams for one with a degree and fewer exams, but to my knowledge, there is no requirement in the exams and certification organizations themselves to have a degree in order to obtain the title. I do know that no amount of ability or experience will stop some companies from barring candidates without the magic initials or several exams towards them, however. Chasing these jobs without a degree is not for the squeamish.

Moving back to the trades, the career advancement path is clear: it is movement from working, to supervising, to owning. If you own a small business and don’t own the land it’s on, do the gene pool a favor and shoot yourself. Go ahead; I’ll wait. You see, one of the primary benefits of owning a business is paying the mortgage on the land where it resides. If you work a trade and move up to the point of opening a business in that trade, all you have to do is keep up with the payments and your COLA, and before long you’ll have an asset that could fund a nice retirement. Without that infrastructure investment, what do you have to retire on? Let’s face it, if you’re a business-owner and a tenant, you’re paying a mortgage and funding a retirement: your landlord’s.

This is just a short list, and is meant to be a mere taste of what is available. I’ve only scratched the surface; books have been written about jobs without degrees. One of Gary North’s over-arching themes has been entrepreneurship, the calling, and various flaws in the system of “higher eduction.” Gary North’s site is worth a look.

I hope I’ve inspired the young, especially those who anticipate “graduating” soon, to take a wider view on the possibilities of life. College is far from the be-all, end-all of existence. Makes me wish I had read this post twenty years ago, instead of writing it now.