A parent called me a couple of days ago. Her concern was that her son although intelligent (well most mothers feel that way) was not very keen on completing his degree. The kid started his degree college two years ago, but failed in almost every subject and now plans to drop out. So this parent wanted to know what career choices did her kid have?
After some research, here are more than a dozen options that I came up with:
1: Programmer/Technical Expert/Geek/Ethical Hacker: While most top software companies hire students with a degree, if you are a pro at what you do, there are many startups that could hire you even if you don’t have a college degree. You could also become a freelance programmer/technical consultant.
2: Real Estate Agent: This is one job that requires no degree. All you need is a lot of hard work, persistence, and of course nowadays a RERA Registration Certificate.
3: Sales Jobs: If you have the skills, a degree doesn’t matter. Most small/medium companies would hire a sales person as long as the person can sell.
4: Stock trader: If you develop a knack for how the stock markets work, you could make enough money trading stocks for yourself as well as do it professionally for others for a fee.
5: Interior Decorator: While a diploma or some sort of training in interior decoration helps, it’s not always needed to take up such jobs as a interior decorator for individual residential projects.
6: Social media influencer: You could be on Instagram posting about a particular trend or a Youtuber making videos on a particular topic or any other social media. If you manage to consistently churn out good quality content and gather a large fan following, this could be a very rewarding career.
7: Fitness/Dance/Yoga Instructors: I don’t think anyone has ever hired a yoga/fitness/dance instructor based on their college degree. But yes, if you decide to become one, getting a certificate/diploma in the respective stream would help.
See this post on becoming a Yoga Instructor: https://careerfox.in/diploma-in-yoga-for-wannabe-yoga-instructors-researchers/
8: Photographer/Film Maker: Film making and Photography are arts where college degrees don’t matter. If you intend to pursue this career I would strongly recommend taking up certificate or diploma courses in Photography and/or Film making. You could make a career as photographer or by making short and independent films.
9: Event Management: If you have the right connections, you could get into event management. Be it a wedding planner, or a birthday party organizer or organizing corporate events, the options are many.
10: Pet Groomers: If you have an affinity towards pets, this could be a career option for you. Of course you will have to learn the tricks of the trade. Your clients may not complain, but they do bite !
11: Actor/Model: If you have the skills required to become an actor or a model, I would strongly recommend working on them. There are many acting and modeling courses that help you polish your skills, and prepare you for the stage and camera.
12: Hair Stylist/Makeup Artist: Of course you need to learn (get a diploma/certificate) how to mess up someone’s hair and face, and still get paid for it. But yes, no college degree required.
13: Entrepreneur : All you need is an idea and a plan to make it happen. There is no limit to what you can achieve here.
Well beyond these there are several other careers such as Travel Consultants, Commercial Pilots (you can enroll for pilot training after 12th), Private Detectives, Musicians/Artists that that don’t really need college degrees. But of course some specialized training is required.
PS: This article is NOT intended to encourage students to drop out of college.
In 2005 Jay Rege, along with his wife Jothsna Rege, co-founded Academy One, a career guidance and study abroad counseling venture. Prior to co-founding Academy One, he worked as a software developer with HCL Technologies. He holds a computer engineering degree from Mumbai University and a MBA from the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, USA. He has also been a visiting faculty at a few colleges where he teaches topics related to entrepreneurship.