Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

If the options are 4 years making okay money or 4 years likely accumulating debt, after which you're at the same income level either way, why would anyone in their right mind go to college?

I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, I just think that that's not the best way to highlight it. For example, college is quite useful for the connections and career placement assistance.

1) There is no one size fits all answer to the question is college worth it. Depending on what career you intend to pursue it could be required (i.e. try being a medical doctor without a degree) or silly (music composition degree for a non-academic role).

2) Most HR recruiters and certain 'this-is-what-all-the-other-managers-do' hiring manager types do care about the degree. Without it you will not be likely to get in the door. However, consider if these are the kinds of people you want to work for/with. The other type of hiring professional where the degree matters is the manager that wants 'only people from Stanford (Columbia, Harvard, etc)' or 'only Ivy League'... then the degree only matters if it's from one of those (obviously).

3) Be honest with yourself. We are not equal all equal and facing reality will help you better make choices. If you are brighter, more intelligent, better skilled, more highly productive, and better with self-promotion than the majority of people you know/encounter the college degree (and expense thereof) will often times not be worth it. There are other more effective ways to prove your worth. If you are much more average compared to your competitors, or less interested in proving your worth in terms of career, then the degree will open options that aren't readily open to your more marketable peers; however you will also be competing with a greater number of people in the same boat. Being average or not career driven doesn't make you bad, it's just a consideration.

4) Any job you get you will be competing with others. That competition will be more important than the degree once you're inside. A degree can get you in some doors, but once you're in it will be all about performance. If it's not, you may want to question organizational effectiveness in the business. As your career progresses, the degree will matter less and less and experience/achievement more and more.

5) A good job is one that you enjoy doing and that pays for your desired lifestyle. It's not what your parents wanted you to do or society for that matter. And not all of them require degrees. Not all of them are behind a keyboard or a suitable for telecommuting. raiseyourflag.com looks young, but has some interesting ideas in regard to careers. But there are others touting (http://profoundlydisconnected.com/) that there are good jobs with good pay that society (stupidly) tends to look down on. Don't let the opinion of others determine your course of action.

As for me... I have no degree. Despite that, I've managed to be in fairly senior information technology management positions throughout much of my career. I've been a consultant in the professional services group of business systems company and for the past several years I've run my own tiny boutique consultancy with clients ranging from M&A/Finance to frozen meat distribution to mobile app start-ups. More recently I've been doing much more hands-on software development work and enjoying the change. I tend to make as much or more money than the majority of my fully credentialed peers. I'm mid-40s and, true, I do have some college (music composition focused), but the lack of a degree has not stopped me from achieving what I want in career. Anyway, my two bits.

If you're going to be indentured, then at least indenture yourself for an engineering degree. $30k isn't hard to pay off within a year or two of full time employment, and even $100k-$150k in debt isn't infeasible to pay off in a short amount of time (shorter than it took to accumulate) if your degree qualifies you for a well-paying low-stress engineering position at BigCo.

Do you think that your assertion about not taking on heavy debt will remain true? Debt continues to rise, as does the cost of tuition. If more students seek out the cheaper state schools, or the cheaper community colleges beforehand, the cheaper state schools are going to raise their prices to deal with the increase in load.