 What's happening? It's Shane here and today we're going to be talking about high paying jobs that you do not need a college degree for. These are jobs that you can get with a high school diploma, a GED, and in some cases no education whatsoever. And they are going to be jobs that pay relatively well and have good job growth, right? Because even if they don't pay as well right now, if you see a lot of good job growth potential, that means that there's going to be a supply and demand imbalance. There's going to be a lot of jobs out there, not enough people to fill those jobs, usually. And so therefore the companies are going to pay you more, there's going to be more opportunity, and they're probably going to treat you quite a bit better as well. And we are going to start from the ones that pay the least all the way to the ones that pay the most. So first one on the list is going to be solar installers. So this is going to be people who install solar panels. And these of course are sustainable solar panels that are going to convert the energy from light from the sun into energy that you can use for everyday uses, like turning your lights on and off. With this job, you would generally be spending quite a bit of time outdoors because you'd usually be installing this onto people's roofs. Now this one, generally speaking, is going to require a high school diploma and some on-the-job training, and they pay about 44 to $45,000 per year. On top of that, the outstanding thing about this one is, according to BLS, the job growth is going to be about 51% over the next 10 years. That is ridiculously good. To put that in perspective, the job growth for engineering in general is about 5% over the next 10 years. So this is literally 10 times better than a pretty good job, which is engineering. Next one on the list is going to be sound engineering technicians. And this is one that I can personally speak to myself. These are people who are experts in sound, they're going to help people set up events, for instance. So if you have an event where you're going to have somebody talking into a microphone, they also help out TV stations, radio shows, podcasts, YouTube channels, etc. Anything that involves sound, they are going to be the person who helps make it sound as good as possible. Now this probably sounds like it's a very easy job and that could not be further from the truth. As somebody who has started a successful YouTube channel, I can tell you I have had the most issues with sound. The video part of it was relatively easy to get down. The sound part of it, I am still getting it down to this day. I cannot tell you how many times I've recorded a video and then there's some kind of problem with the sound and then I end up having to re-record the video. Sound audio is very, very difficult to get down. Even getting decent audio is not the easiest thing to do. So all these shows that you see out there like podcasts, for instance, all of the big podcasts are going to have sound engineers and sound technicians that help them get the best possible sound. Same with a lot of big YouTube channels out there and it can be especially difficult if you do live sound. So it's one thing if you're recording sound and then you can go into the studio and kind of mess with it afterwards. You can boost it. You can mess with it. You can take out little errors here and there. You can just like, you know, sometimes you can just shave them off. It's a whole other thing when the sound is live and you're live broadcasting to people and you still want to have really, really good sound. That is super, super difficult to do. So I can definitely see why this one is on the list. This is a fantastic job and I could see a lot of growth into the future. Right now it doesn't require a degree. However, some people get an associate's degree in something related to it. The median salary here is $45,000 a year and it is growing at 9% over the next 10 years, which is fantastic. Next one on the list is going to be a licensed practical nurse or LPN. Now you might be thinking, a nurse, what are you talking about? Nurses have to have degrees. Well, there's basically different levels to nursing, LPN specifically, and this kind of varies depending on the state you live in and all this sort of thing, but LPN generally speaking just requires a certification and some training. So depending on the LPN program you go into, sometimes it might be a matter of months. Sometimes it might take one, maybe even more than one year. So I kind of equate it more to like an associate level degree even though technically it's not a degree. It's more of a vocational school and you get a certification afterwards. But with that being said, a lot of opportunity as an LPN, especially depending on what career path specifically you're going to, there's also a lot of room for growth. You can get your LPN degree or certification I mean, work for a few years, get an RN, work for a few more years, get a nurse practitioner degree, which is like a master's level, work for a few more years, get a doctorate in nursing practitioner or DNP or that is an option for you. So you can just basically keep on going up and up and up and you know, nurse practitioners can make like $200,000 a year, DNPs probably can make even more. So there is a ton of upward mobility. Nursing is something where there's been a shortage for like the last 30 years and I don't see any changes to that health as well in general is one of the most stable careers that you can go into. So if you're somebody who really values stability, health is probably one of the best career paths that you can possibly go down. So they make around $47,000 a year and there is a 9% growth over the next 10 years. The next one on the list is another healthcare related career and that's going to be a surgical technologist and they are basically people who help out doctors and nurses when they are performing surgeries and they help them out both before the surgery, during the surgery, as well as afterwards. So basically, you know, before the surgery, you're going to be helping them set up everything that's going to be needed during the surgery. During the operation itself, you're going to be assisting the surgeon. So handing them the proper tools and then after the operation, you're going to be cleaning up and making sure that the area is sterile and everything is good to go. Now, I have witnessed many surgeries throughout my life. You know, I'm a pharmacist. I did lots of internships. I spent quite a bit of time in the hospital and surgical technologists, especially the good ones are super hard to find. So basically, the way it goes is, you know, surgeons don't really speak in complete sentences. Surgeons are kind of like a very weird and rare breed of human being if you spent like a lot of time around them. They don't really speak in complete sentences at all. They basically just say one words and like grunts and stuff and you have to know what they mean, right? So it's almost like they speak their own language. And so the surgical technologist has to understand surgeon. And so surgeons, you know, if they really like a surgical technologist, they'll request them for their operations. And so that makes you more and more valuable as a surgical tech, if you get requested a lot. And, you know, watching surgical techs, a lot of the time they're going to be getting stuff ready and they work super, super fast with their hands. Speed is definitely going to be key here. It's also pretty exciting, I guess, slash stressful, depending on the way that you see it. You know, you are operating on a live human being. And, you know, that can be very exhilarating. But at the same time, it can also be very stressful. So for the right person, this can be a fantastic career to get into. And with this one, you can get into it with just a high school diploma. Sometimes people will also get an associate's degree as well. They make around $48,000 a year and the job growth is 7%. The next one on the list is going to be real estate agent. And basically as a real estate agent, you're going to be going out and usually you're going to specialize in either helping people buy homes or helping people sell homes. And essentially, people don't like to think about it like this, but essentially what you are as a real estate agent is you are a high ticket sales person. And the reason for that is because all of real estate is going to be commission based. Now depending on what brokers you work for, you might get like a base salary, but most of your salary as a real estate agent is likely going to come from commission. So that means how much you end up selling or buying if you are helping people buy homes. So you will get a certain percentage of whatever a home sells for. So this is just an example. The rates are going to change depending on where you live and what brokers you work for, etc. But let's say you sell a $1 million house, you might get a 4% commission, which would be $40,000. So all you'd really have to do is sell one or two houses a year at $1 million and you'd be pretty much good to go. Now one great thing about becoming a real estate agent, and I covered this in my most happy careers video, is a real estate agent is one of the happiest careers. Like people who get into real estate and they actually stick into it tend to be very happy with it. Now this one, it only requires a high school diploma, but depending on what state you're in, there's different licensing requirements. Usually you're going to have to take a test, as well as go through a bunch of study, but it doesn't take too long to get licensed usually only a few months. And the median salary here is about $50,000 a year. But in my opinion, this is a little bit off in some ways because a lot of people who get into real estate actually just do it part-time. So they're not full-time real estate agents. They're basically just doing it part-time and they tell their family members, hey, whenever you're looking to buy your house or sell your house that you already have, give me a call and I'll help you out. And that doesn't happen very often. So they're not really actively going out and searching for leads. But if you're a full-time real estate agent and you really take this seriously, you can make incredible money. And this is especially good if you live in areas where there's a high cost of living, right? So houses cost quite a bit because you're basically going to get a very similar percentage when it comes to your commission, whether you sell a $100,000 house or a $10 million house. So if you sell a $100,000 house, you're going to get like maybe a $4,000 commission, 4%, let's say. If you sell a $10 million house, you're going to get a $400,000 commission. Now the job growth on this one is 2%, so not super great. But like I said, there's a ton of people who get into real estate that just kind of do it as a side job. They don't really take it all that seriously. So if you're very serious about this one, it can be a fantastic career. Next one on the list is going to be a firefighter. Now I think everybody knows what they do. They're going to be helping out people whose houses are on fire. They put out the fire. They make sure that everybody is safe. Now this is one of those careers that is glamorized a little bit in the media. Firefighters are thought of as heroes. A lot of kids grow up, you know, hoping that they become a firefighter when they are older. And so although this one does not require a degree, it can be very competitive because a lot of people want to get into it. You see this very commonly with all different types of careers out there where, you know, for instance, if you see a bunch of TV shows that have certain types of careers, you know that that career is going to be very competitive because people grow up watching those TV shows. And you know, when they grow up, they fantasize about becoming a doctor or a lawyer. And that means there's going to be a ton of competition. So it can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing in some cases. But with that being said, firefighter can be a very good career. I had an old roommate back in college when I was going to pharmacy school who was a firefighter. He told me all about the process. Very competitive. There's basically levels. And when you first start off, you're at the very bottom of the totem pole. It's almost like joining the military. They're going to have you like cleaning all the time, doing all kinds of stuff that you don't want to do, working really crazy hours. But once you get to a certain level, you kind of have seniority and you're going to have a lot of time off and your quality of life is going to get quite a bit better. A lot of the time you will work very long shifts where you might work like three days in a row. So maybe like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you'll basically be living at the fire station, literally like sleeping and living there. And you'll be on call during that whole time. But a lot of the time you're going to spend just working out, watching TV, relaxing. And then when something happens, you know, the alarms are going to go off and you have to rush over there to help people out. So if that happens in the middle of watching TV, awesome, you weren't doing anything important anyways, but sometimes it's going to happen while you are asleep. But with that being said, for the right type of personality, this can be a fantastic career. Depending on where you live, you can make fantastic money, like really, really good money. The median salary nationwide is going to be about $50,000 though, which is pretty good. And the job growth over the next 10 years is 6%, which is higher than average. The next one on the list is going to be a wind turbine technician. And this is going to be specifically people who work with those giant wind machines that collect energy. So very simple. Basically, it just uses the power of the wind. It makes the turbines turn like this. And that energy is collected and stored. Now I used to live in Kansas and these are all over the place in Kansas. It's just like the perfect environment because it's so flat. And it's actually really pretty to drive through like a field of turbines at night because the lights go on and then off and on and off. And they have lights on these turbines so that airplanes and stuff don't fly into them basically. But yeah, very cool. But it is a specialized type of technology. So therefore you have to have people who know a lot about that, aka technicians. Now in some cases, they're just going to have a high school degree. In some cases, they might have like an associate's degree, but it is going to require quite a bit of on the job training. This is a job where you're going to be spending a lot of time outside, obviously. And you also are going to be spending a lot of time very high in the air. So you might not want to do this if you're somebody who is really afraid of heights. The median salary is going to be about $52,000 a year. And it is growing at a ridiculous 61% over the next 10 years. The United States and most of the world is moving more towards like sustainable energy. And this along with solar power is obviously more sustainable. And so that's why there's so much job growth over the next 10 years. The next one on the list is going to be a plumber and trade careers can be super, super good for people to go into, right? So pretty obvious what plumbers do. They're going to be installing and repairing different pipe systems that go into buildings. And the thing about plumbing and really just trade careers in general is it's just so obvious the problems that they solve, like the place that they have in society is so obvious. So if you have a clogged toilet, like a busted toilet, that's a huge problem, right? You need to have that problem solved like right away. There's a lot of things out there where it's kind of optional, you know, like you don't have to go out and go to the movies to watch a movie. You don't have to go out and get food, right? You can just prepare your own food. A lot of things that are optional. If you have a busted toilet, you're going to get that fixed, right? So a lot of trade careers, it's just very obvious the value that they give the value proposition that they offer, right? So depending on where you live, again, there's a huge discrepancy there and variation depending on where you live. If you're union or non union, what state you live in, what part of the country you live in, etc. Usually this one is just like a high school diploma, and then some either on the job training, maybe an apprenticeship. In some cases, you might go to trade school to learn this as well. But you can make on average, according to BLS, about $55,000 a year. And the job growth is going to be 4%. Now I will say one thing about pretty much all trade careers, a lot of the time, especially if you own your own business, the transactions are going to be in cash. And because of the fact that the transactions are in cash, the way that it's reported to BLS is going to be different than a career where all of the transactions are going to be electronic. And so I can tell you for sure, that if you're somebody who owns their own business and you're a plumber, you're probably making a heck of a lot more than $55,000 a year. In fact, you are probably going to be making more like $100,000 a year without breaking a sweat, like very easily making $100,000 a year as a plumber or many different types of trade careers. So keep that in mind, you might not be super impressed by the $55,000 a year number, even though that's pretty solid right off the bat. But I can tell you with most trade careers, that number is not accurate. Same with the next one on the list, which is going to be electrician. And electricians are of course going to be working with electricity and power in different types of buildings, including your own home. And again, it's going to require a high school diploma usually, and then some type of certification on the job training or apprenticeship, which is going to be different depending on whether you're union, non-union, and what part of the country you live in. Now, one thing that is a downside of trade careers is they do tend to be relatively hard on the body. So a lot of the time, for instance, people who work in the trades will end up having back problems a lot earlier than everyone else. Now, of course, there are ways to mitigate against that and fix that, but it is definitely something you have to keep in mind. But some trade careers are going to be a lot easier on the back than others. And generally speaking, electrician is one of those. But yeah, they make $56,000 a year median salary, and they are growing about 8% over the next 10 years, which is much higher than average. And like I said, that salary is probably going to be much higher than what's reported to BLS. The next one on the list is going to be an occupational therapy assistant. And these are going to be people who are assistants to occupational therapists. This is another health career. One thing I've said about health careers is there are so many good options at every single education level, whether it's no education, just a high school diploma, an associate's degree, or what would be an associate's degree, like something that would take around two years or so, a bachelor's degree, something that would take around four years, master's degree, something that would take around six years, and a doctorate, something that would take around eight years. There are so many good options when it comes to health at every single level. And health degrees, health careers tend to be some of the most stable jobs that you can get into. Now, occupational therapists are generally going to be helping either elderly people or people who get into accidents to live a more normal life. So basically being able to perform their normal day to day functions. You get to spend a lot of time working one-on-one with people. And one thing that is very gratifying, and that's why this is one of the careers where people report some of the highest job satisfaction, is you basically get to see people from like their worst and work with them all the way to achieving, you know, a state where they can, you know, live independently. So you get to see people take that journey from being in a really bad place to a really good place. And that can be extremely rewarding. So yeah, this one, median salary, $59,000 a year. This one will actually require a degree. So this one is going to require like an associate's degree generally. And the job growth is a ridiculous 32%. The next one on the list is going to be a wholesale sales representative. This is going to be a sales rep that has expertise in a specific industry. And you actually see sales reps at almost every level, all the way from like really basic stuff to there are sales reps that actually talk to doctors, right? So people who talk to doctors about different medications. So somebody sales, you know, really basic stuff, probably doesn't need too much expertise. Whereas somebody who is talking to doctors about medications really needs to know what they're talking about. And there's different names for these different types of careers. So for instance, somebody who talks to doctors about medications is going to be known as a medical science liaison. So the education needed is going to vary. But there are a lot of sales rep positions that you can get into where you don't need much education. It's mostly just going to be experience and on the job training. The median salary here is going to be $63,000 a year. The job growth is a little bit low at 2%. But if you're somebody who really knows what they're doing, you know, you're always going to be able to have a job. And how much you get paid is going to vary greatly because it is going to work at least partially on a commission based structure. The next one on the list is going to be police officers and detectives. So this is another one of those careers where, you know, it is somewhat glamorized. There's a lot of TV shows about it. I mean, so many different TV shows. You got like CSI, criminal minds, like really, you know, fun to watch for sure. But it's definitely going to be glamorized. And it's not going to be the same on TV as it is in real life. So it's also one of those that a ton of people try to get into. So it's going to be very competitive. And the education need is going to vary greatly depending on the police station you're trying to work for. So some of them don't require a degree at all. Some of them do require a degree, but it doesn't have to have anything to do with like, you know, criminal justice or, you know, criminal science or anything like that. And then some of them are going to require degrees and very rarely they might require you to have like a degree in something related to criminal justice. But yeah, it can be a fantastic job for the right person, median salary, $65,000 a year, and the job growth is 5% over the next 10 years. And the last one I'm going to talk about today, and I basically just tried to include all ones that I really haven't talked about much before is going to be an aerospace technician. So this is going to be somebody who has technical expertise when it comes to aerospace stuff. So things that fly through the air like airplanes, helicopters, rockets, etc. So you will likely be working on one of those types of systems. So you can specialize even further. So for instance, you might be a technician that only works on jets, and you're going to be helping to do a lot of the hands on stuff. So you're going to be testing things, you're going to be helping to calibrate, making sure that everything has been inspected, you know, inspection is super important when it comes to things that fly through the air, because if one little thing goes wrong, that can cause everything else to go wrong. And then, you know, the rocket ends up crashing and, you know, that's just not good. So you'll be helping to inspect, install and repair various parts that go onto rockets, for instance. And this requires a little bit more expertise than the average technician. You really have to be like a very detail oriented person, because let's say you leave a screw loose or something as a mechanical technician on a car, usually not going to be a very big deal. If you leave a screw loose on a jet or a rocket, that can cause the jet or the rocket to blow up, which is going to be a really big deal. So yeah, aerospace technicians not surprised to see that they are some of the highest paid technicians out there. And this is another one that is generally going to require like an associate level degree or that level of study. The median salary here is going to be about $66,000 a year, and it is growing by 7% over the next 10 years. So just to summarize things, we saw a lot of public service type careers, like police officer, firefighter, we also saw a lot of trade type careers as well, people who directly solve very common problems that you have in society, like your toilet breaking, and we saw a lot more technical careers, things that would be related to STEM, so science, technology, engineering, mathematics type careers, but ones that don't require as much education. So it's more hands on, usually like technician work. And then of course we saw a ton of health related careers as well. So I hope this gave you some ideas of different careers you might be interested in, things for you to look into. But that's all I have for you today. Go ahead, check out my other videos right here. I made them just for you. Gently tap that like button, hit that subscribe button, ring the notification bell and comment down below thoughts, comments, criticisms, etc. that you have on the video. And I will see you next time.