8 High-Paying Jobs – Without a 4-Year Degree

In this video, I track down 8 different jobs that pay above the average US salary that you can obtain without needing a four-year college degree.

Having a college degree is no guarantee of a high-paying job – and now more than ever, I feel like you can have a great career without having a four-year degree. I, myself, don’t have a bachelor’s degree, so throughout the years I’ve read a lot of articles on topics like this, seeing if any particular career path sounded interesting to me without requiring me to go to school for 4 more years.

And of course, salary is just one component of a job – if you don’t like the industry or the people or the work itself, you may find you’re far happier working a lower paying job doing something you love, and that’s great too. I met a guy who quit a high paying job as an engineer to become a helicopter pilot, and he said he’d never been happier, so money doesn’t need to be your main goal if you don’t want it to be.

Now with just about any job with a degree or without, you usually have to put in some years grinding it out to get into the next level of compensation that you’re really after, so some of these options may start at a lower salary, but allow you to advance with experience. Let’s take a look.

Locomotive Engineer

Back in 2009, I had a friend tell me I should look into this career path, since they hire people without a 4-year degree and they can make pretty good money. And I think we all are familiar with locomotive engineers – they operate trains hauling passengers or freight. Since trains are running 24/7, you may work nights, weekends, and holidays, but the pay can be pretty good, averaging at $70,000 per year, but according to job sites ZipRecruiter and Glassdoor, salaries can break into the six digits, between $120 and $130 thousand.

To become a locomotive engineer, you generally need a lot of on-the-job training. You may be able to start at an entry-level position with a railroad company as a switch or brake operator and work your way up. From there, you’ll likely need a certificate you can obtain after taking a course, like this six-week conductor training course. Then, you get a federal license, which is required for all railroad engineers.

So if that sounds interesting to you, it may be worth looking into.

Mortgage Banker / Loan Officer

If you’re interested in real estate, consider working in lending services. Helping families or businesses obtain mortgages for properties can be a well-compensated career path without needing a 4-year degree. ZipRecruiter shows an average salary of $125,000, but the pay range varies greatly as a lot of your compensation is derived from commissions. You will probably start out much lower – likely making around $36,000, but with plenty of opportunity to earn more as you progress.

Here’s an example of a mortgage banker training program – they’ll have you contact leads that you can then transfer to a licensed broker, so it seems like call center work, but from there, the company may sponsor you to complete the online course and exams to receive your Mortgage Origination Officer License, which is required to move to the next level in this career. So if you’re good with people and paperwork, this may be right up your alley.

HVAC Technician

There are a lot of jobs in trades like heating and cooling that can have higher than average compensation. In this job, you’ll be installing, maintaining, and repairing climate control systems. You’ll probably work overtime during peak heating and cooling seasons, and it may take its toll physically on you, but the salary can range from the mid-30s to $90,000. Here’s a job listing with the salary range going up to $110,000 with 5 years’ experience.

If you want to be an HVAC technician, your employer will likely want to see that you received a certificate from an HVAC trade school. This can take 6-12 months and cost in the range of $1,200 to $15,000. But if you like working with your hands, diagnosing and fixing mechanical issues, you may enjoy this line of work.

Video Editor

Video editors are more in-demand now than ever with many companies seeing the benefit in creating video content for the internet. It also seems like everyone thinks they know how to edit video, but as someone who worked for years as a video editor and was recently hiring a video editor, finding candidates who are actually great at video editing was more challenging than I thought. It’s unlikely you’ll break into a 6-figure salary in this line of work, with the average salary here in LA of $65,000. I started my career off with 0 work experience at $20 per hour, but worked my way up from there and learned a lot on the job.

If you like working on a computer and have a flair for creativity, then this may be a great job for you. Whether you want to work on Hollywood productions or remotely for Youtubers, or in-house for a company, there are a ton of jobs openings out there, and this line of work can also allow you to explore other types of digital media as well. I transitioned from doing straight video work to working only as a motion graphics artist, by just learning on the job and in my free time because it was work I enjoyed.

Aircraft Mechanic

If you like aviation and are mechanically-inclined, consider becoming an aircraft mechanic. The FAA regulates this job, and they require you to have 1900 hours of hands-on and classroom training to then take the airframe and powerplant license tests. So generally, you’ll spend about 2 years in school focusing on this career path. It’s challenging and rewarding and while you won’t get rich doing this job, you can make a nice living. The average starting salary is $40,000, but once you’re established, you can make between $75 and $100,000 per year.

To make it into the higher salary ranges, you’ll want to choose an appropriate specialty other than general aviation. There’s commercial, cargo, helicopters, etc. It is a high-pressure job with no room for error because people’s lives rely on your doing your job correctly, so if you can handle the pressure and enjoy working with your hands and your brain, this may be a good fit for you.

Journeyman Lineman

As a journeyman lineman, you’re involved with the construction and maintenance of overhead and underground powerlines. You’ll work in all weather conditions and not afraid of heights. It is ranked as one of the 10 most dangerous jobs in the U.S., but they can make at least $80,000 per year on into 6 figures. In order to get the training, you can usually find an apprenticeship program where you earn while you learn to pay for your tuition costs. Here in California, there’s a 3 and a half year apprenticeship program with at least 7,000 total hours of required on-the-job training.

Since you’re building powerlines and they are built on-site, there’s a fair amount of travel involved. If you’re okay with heights and electricity, well, this sounds like you.

Real Estate Agent

Do you like real estate? Do you like people? Do you like sales? Well have I got the job for you! Becoming a real estate agent is essentially deciding to start your own business. You will need hustle. You will need marketing. You will need a network of people. If you can excel in all of these facets, you can have a terrific career as a real estate agent.

Generally, commission on a home sale is about 6%. The average home price in the US in May of 2021 was $287,00, which would make the commission equal $17,220. But the agent that sells the home is generally going to give 50% of the commission to the buyer’s agent, earning $8,610 on that sale. The average real estate agent makes about $43,000 per year, but there are a lot of part-time agents and a lot of bad agents, so if you work in an expensive market or can even dominate an affordable market, there is opportunity to earn a good living. According to the job site Indeed, the average real estate agent in LA earned $106,000.

To become an agent, every state has their own licensing requirements, but generally you’ll take classes either online or in-person and once complete, take the state exam. Then, once you have your license, you can find a broker to “hang your license” with. This is your KellerWilliams, Century 21, Compass, etc. From there, it’s typically on you to then hustle for clients to either get listings, represent buyers, or both.

This is something I’ve considered doing before – I even completed the classes in Illinois. But it’s worth noting that agents are in no short supply. In January, there were more agents than homes for sale. So there is no guarantee of success, but if you really want it, I believe it can be an attainable career that pays well.

YouTuber

You may have heard the poll where more kids want to be YouTubers more than other popular career paths, and it makes sense. If you look at what many YouTubers lives appear to be, sure, it can seem pretty appealing! Well, as someone who has been a Youtuber for over four years, I can say for certain that you obviously don’t need a four year degree, and you can make a nice living doing it. Obviously, it’s an incredibly saturated platform with hundreds of hours of video being uploaded every minute.

There is no guarantee of success no matter how good you are. You could make videos every week for years and never see any revenue whatsoever. To maximize your chances of success, I think it’s best to pick a niche that you are passionate about, find a unique approach that will differentiate yourself from the other channels, and focus on creating engaging videos that provide value – whether information or entertainment – to your target audience.

Running a Youtube channel isn’t that different from running other types of online businesses. You wear a lot of different hats – producer, writer, videographer, presenter, editor, bookkeeper, etc. And like many other online businesses, there isn’t necessarily a cap on what you can earn, but it is important to diversify your revenue streams since you are relying on one platform to publish your videos and show them to your audience. It always feels like at any moment something could change, and your career could evaporate. Depending on your niche, your audience size, and your business acumen, you could make well over $100,000 per year once you’ve established your channel.

Final Thoughts

From working on a computer, to working with your hands or people, those are 8 jobs where you can earn an above average salary without your standard bachelors degree. If you know of any jobs you’d add to the list, let me know in the comments. If you would hit the thumbs up button on this video, that will help get this out to more people and consider subscribing if you haven’t already. That’s all for this one, I’ll see you in the next one.