Buyer's Remorse: High Debt and Low Pay Leave Some College Grads Rueful
And this is why, at 34, I have zero desire to get a degree yet many employers want a 4-year degree for even entry-level positions now. I had a company last summer refuse to even interview me for not having a degree, despite the fact at the time they&#x27;d existed for 6 years and I had been doing the EXACT job for 12 years for a company that dwarfs them.<p>I hate it, no one will give me a chance because I don&#x27;t have a degree so I scrape by at 32k a year with virtually no hope of retirement only receiving merit-based increases that often leave me taking home the exact same amount (once or twice LESS) if you factor in inflation and annual increases in insurance costs.<p>It&#x27;s infuriating. I can either take on tens of thousands of dollars of debt and spend 4-6 years chasing down a 4-year degree while working full time so I can compete for jobs at 38-40 that 20-22 year old applicants are applying for now that some high schools are set up so that students graduate with an associates degree and a good chunk of their bachelor degree done or I can slip more and more into lower class each year, hoping like hell that I don&#x27;t have some unforseen emergency or unemployment, while I watch people on &#x2F;r&#x2F;leanfire &#x2F;r&#x2F;financialindependence etc talking about how &quot;I&#x27;m on track to retire by 30, should we work til 32 so we can have an extra 250k?&quot; and I&#x27;m like &quot;yeah, I&#x27;m 34, I barely have a year&#x27;s gross in my retirement accounts let alone the 25x (minimum) my annual spend needed to retire&quot;... so at this rate I can retire by the time I turn 350 years old give or take a few decades.<p>Whats worse is I have friends that are independently wealthy at this point (the most successful of which is a college dropout), that can choose to do whatever job they want, they can chase their passion, while I have to work just to be able to live so that I can work more.<p>Even with introductions to some startups within their first 5 years or so from investors, they&#x27;re like &quot;yeah, come back when you have a degree or have a major accomplishment of working on a big project&quot; and I&#x27;m over here like &quot;dude, I&#x27;ll do remote customer service for a fraction of what you are paying people or mop floors just to prove myself!&quot;<p>My own employer (well my opco) will not let you move up more than a couple of rungs without a 4-year degree minimum, they&#x27;ll flat out tell you as much, and hey prefer an MBA. This is a parent company with 400k something employees...<p>FML.