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Community College is the New Grad School: Spend Less, Make More If you’re out of college with a liberal arts degree and having little to no luck finding a job, don’t despair. No need to be poor forever, or even wade through a time-consuming grad school application process, a long one-year wait, and $40,000 more in tuition debt.
Instead, consider saying goodbye to a master‘s degree.
That’s right; it’s possible you’ve had enough. In fact, it’s even possible that you’ve read so much Marx you’ve actually decreased your earning potential; there seems to be an inverse relationship.
Tired of wading through theory, many college graduates these days are forgoing grad school for a technical degree or certification from a for-profit or non-profit institution. In fact, some community colleges say that up to 50% of their incoming students are recent college graduates (some with bachelor’s degrees, others with PhD’s). These students are looking for a certificate or associate’s degree so they can finally make some money.
Learn a Trade--And, No, You Don’t Have to Be a Welder
At first, the prospect of learning a trade may sound dull, like it’s the 1940s and you’re off to learn welding, but that’s no really the case anymore. In fact, you can learn all sorts of things you may or may not have learned in college, such as:
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How to plan a good party.
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How to make average-looking people beautiful (without alcohol).
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How to give a good shoulder massage (and get paid for it).
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How to save someone’s life (before or after alcohol intake).
How to Plan a Good Party
If you like a good party, with an emphasis on the planning part, consider event planning. While most event planners will tell you that event planning isn’t really party planning -- it’s highly strategic, analytical, and, well, corporate -- they’ll also say it’s pretty fun. Many corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on event planning, dishing out an average event planner salary of $45,850-$55,000 per year. Some event planners choose to start their own businesses, focusing on wedding or party planning. Many colleges and universities offer certificates in event planning, some for as little as $1500-$2000. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008-09 report, “Employment of meeting and convention planners is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations over the 2006-16 decade.” Sounds like a good time to be an event planner.
Many schools offer one-year certificates or two-year associate degrees in hospitality management, some with a focus on event planning. Traditional colleges and universities also offer certificates in event planning or hospitality management; check your local educational institution, particularly if you’re looking for hands-on experience and local projects. Accredited, national institutions that offer event planning certificates include:
For-profit institutions:
Non-profit institutions:
How to Make Everyone Look Beautiful (Sans Alcohol)
If you miss the slumber parties of your younger days where you all painted each others’ toenails, and did each others’ make-up, consider being an esthetician. Or if you’re a guy who has a passion for making women feel beautiful, here’s your calling. The average hourly wage for an esthetician, or skincare specialist, is $14.21 an hour, with the average salary being $29,550, and the highest $51,040. Most estheticians work under the philosophy that everyone is beautiful, and they make that happen with facials, exfoliation treatments, make-up artistry, manicures/pedicures, body wraps, and the like. To become an esthetician generally costs anywhere from $3,000-$5,000. The following schools offer esthetician training nationally:
How to Give a Good Shoulder Massage
If you have any instinct for healing, helping, or just giving someone a good shoulder massage, you may want to consider becoming a massage therapist. Certification takes anywhere from 6-18 months depending on the scope of the curriculum, and can cost anywhere from $6000-$10,000. (You can get financial aid just as you do for college.) The salary ranges from $10,000-$60,000 a year, hovering at about $25,000 or $20 an hour. Drawbacks include the limitations of part-time work and physical exertion. Plusses include defining your own schedule and bringing healing to people -- helping alleviate physical, emotional, and even spiritual pain. Massage therapists work on cruise ships, and in spas, massage clinics, hospitals, fitness and wellness centers, or out of their own homes/on-site. Specialties include pregnancy and geriatric message. Find schools at the
National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork
.
How to Save Someone’s Life (Emergency Medical Technician, EMT)
If you loved
ER, and would like to spend less time watching it and more time living it, consider being an EMT. You’ll be the first dispatched by a 911 operator to the scene of an auto accident, childbirth, or gunshot wound. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008-09 report, “Employment of emergency medical technicians and paramedics is expected to grow by 19 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is faster than average for all occupations.” Median incomes for EMTs are $27,070, with the top 10 percent making more than $45,280. Training consists of a certificate at the lower EMT levels, and an associate’s degree at the highest level. Training can cost as little as $3000, or as much as at two-year associate’s degree. At EMT school, you’ll learn how to deal with cardiac arrest, emergency childbirth, and other urgent situations, and the ins and outs of emergency equipment from stretchers to oxygen delivery.
Beyond planning a good party or saving someone’s life, there are other certifications to consider. These include…
How to Assist a Physician Without a Medical Degree
Envision yourself performing the sonogram for a woman who’s pregnant or an echocardiogram for someone suffering from heart disease. If you’re compassionate, with an eye for detail and a healer’s touch, you might want to consider becoming a medical sonographer. Sonographers make anywhere from $38,000–$41,000 a year as a starting salary, and the career is expected to grow 19 percent through 2011 to meet the demands of the aging baby boomer population.
Many schools offer certificates in medical sonography. Check your local community college or technical school. A great example of a medical sonography program can be found at Cincinnati State technical and community college.
How to Be “Top Chef”
This is one we won’t recommend; we just want you to be aware of it. It may sound fun to work towards becoming the next “Top Chef” now, but chances are you’ll end up paying up to $30,000 for a culinary trade school. When you graduate, you may end up cooking at a restaurant making $12 an hour. Even if the loan payments sound doable at first, they can always rise. Read The New York Times’
“ 'Top Chef' Dreams Crushed by Student Loan Debt."
How to Be Paralegal (It’s “Kind of” Legal, with No Need for Law School)
Some law firms say you don’t need a certificate or associate’s degree to become a paralegal; a college degree will suffice. Other law firms disagree. Regardless, a paralegal, or lawyer’s assistant, is often the career of choice for an English or liberal arts major who can’t find a job after graduation. Paralegal is the next best thing to college because it involves significant research, report-writing, and critical analysis for the lawyer you’re working under. (Make sure you're working for a firm where the job will go beyond copying legal documents and putting them in neat little binders; this happens too.) A paralegal career is ideal for anyone with a liberal arts background who is a good writer, researcher and critical thinker. Paralegals earn anywhere between $33,920 and $54,690, with the highest paid 10 percent earning more than $67,540. Check the
American Bar Association
for approved paralegal post-graduate certificate or associate degree programs. ABA-approved certificate programs include:
For-profit institutions:
How to Be an Animal Behavior Specialist (i.e, ,Dog Trainer)
When corporate politics run amok, working with dogs starts sounding really fun. Dog trainers earn up to $20 an hour. Imagine chasing both cute and potentially aggressive, angry little dogs around all day, and giving them treats; it’s gotta be better than the office. The program costs $2815 to $3570 to complete. After graduation, you can start your own business or do training for a company such as Petco. The most reputable school for dog training is the
Animal Behavior College (ABC)
.
How to Be an Air Traffic Controller
If you’ve always wanted to become a pilot, or you’re just a control freak, consider a career in air traffic control. If you like to manage things -- crowds, events, or simply every detail of your own and others lives -- this might just be your profession. Your job is to organize the flow of aircraft into and out of the airport, relying on radar and visual observation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Your payoff is high. The median annual salary of an air traffic controller is $117,240, with the middle 50 percent earning between $86,860 and $142,210.
Since many air traffic controllers are retiring -- according to the FAA, an estimated 17,000 are expected to reach retirement age over the next decade -- the expectation is that there will be a critical shortage; in other words, job prospects are good. To be an Air Traffic Controller, you need three years of full-time work experience or a four-year degree, in addition to an associate’s degree in Air Traffic Management.
There are only 23 FAA-approved air traffic control training centers in the nation. See
FAA-approved training programs,
and an FAA video on the job of an
Air Traffic Controller.
FAA-approved programs range from 10-month certificates to four-year bachelor’s degrees. Some shorter-term FAA-approved programs you may want to consider include:
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