10 Jobs That Pay Six Figures Without A College Degree

2. IT Manager

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IT Managers are responsible for the flawless functioning of a company’s computer network.  Because a network that doesn’t function well means loss of profit, employers are willing to pay top dollars for experienced IT managers.  Although you do not need a college degree, you do need to stay on top of current technology and continuously learn and adapt to new technological advances.

Although the job requires you to deal with a lot of user errors and troubleshoot, the job is usually very stable, with great benefits. Salaries for IT managers range between $53,000 to $125,000, depending on level of experience, locality, and employer.

Employers, such as Google, have begun to realize that it takes more than a college degree, with a high GPA, to make a good employee. In fact, their Senior Vice President for People Operations, Laszlo Bock, recently admitted that as much as 14% of new hires have never attended college. They have found that college transcripts don’t always predict an employee’s value accurately. In many cases, they are no longer requesting college transcripts from new applicants. One reason for this trend, according to Bock, is that the academic environment provides an artificial setting where students are only trained to excel in a specific place. He bases this opinion on his own college experience when it became evident that his professors were looking for a specific answer to a question. In his opinion, the best employees are those who can answer a question when that answer isn’t obvious. It is opinions such as these that make IT management one of many six figure jobs that don’t require a degree.