My parents were furious when I quit uni but now I earn a six figure salary – you don’t need a degree to be a success
A UNIVERSITY drop-out has stressed that a degree is not the key to success after she bagged herself a £106,000-a-year job.
Jasey Tragesser, 27, quit her university degree in 2014 after just one-year of learning – much to the displeasure of her parents.
And she was still only earning around £235-£392-per-week as a waitress in Boston four years later.
But with plenty of persistence and a little bit of luck, she now earns a three-figure sum working as a marketing manager for a software-as-a-service company.
Speaking to Insider, she said: “College is so expensive and reasonable companies are realizing that not everybody can afford it.
“But there are so many smart people and so much talent they could be missing out on if they require a four-year degree.”
With the cost of college education at an all-time high, Jasey believes she dodged a huge bullet by not getting herself into student debt.
Despite President Biden’s announcement on federal student debt cancellation, financial issues will remain for future students.
As a result, Jasey has no plans to finish her degree as it’s “not a bill that I would ever want”.
She initially decided to attend college part-time for “a couple thousand dollars” per semester but admitted that she wasn’t ready and felt “forced”.
She said: “When you’re 18 years old, and you move out, and you’re in college, and you’re just trying to be an adult, it’s so stressful.
“And just as a society, we’re forced into that. And a lot of kids aren’t ready, and I was one of those kids.”
But her decision to drop out didn’t sit well with her parents and she was forced to move in with her grandparents.
This is when Jasey became a waitress in order to support herself, which she recalls as a “really, really hard” time.
However, in 2018, Jasey finally got her big break after accepting a role as a marketing internship.
Yet after just one year, she felt she had gotten “everything there was to get” out of the role and applied for “maybe over 100” jobs in order to move on.
After sitting through dozens of interviews, something finally turned up in March 2020 when she received a job offer as a tech startup.
But the COVID pandemic hit a day later and the company pulled the offer, before Jasey was laid off by the investment firm where she was still working.
Six months of unemployment followed until the tech startup company came calling once more with a £62,000 salary offer.
But once again, it only took a year before the uni drop-out started feeling like she was “reaching that ceiling of opportunity and growth in the role.”
Whilst a further 200 job applications were submitted in just two weeks at the beginning of last year, Jasey continued to notice one thing.
And that was the lack of interest shown by companies in having a degree when applying for the roles, which she described as “perfect”.
In the end, she received three, six-figure salary job offers before accepting one for £106,000.
Six months in and she’s as happy as ever after finally feeling challenged in her role.
And the former waitress reveals there are four things you need in finding success, with the first of those being “work ethic”.
“You have to be willing to show up to work as your best self,” she said. “No matter what’s happening in your life, give it your all. Come to work positive. Go above and beyond.”
Next up is the “pursuit of knowledge”.
“If you can’t afford college or you feel that it’s just not your thing — both of which were my situation — I always tell people, ‘Consider a professional program that directly correlates to what you’re interested in,'” she said.
Third is “know when to move on.”
“There’s always going to be an excuse to not switch jobs, but if you’re one of those people that wants more out of your job in your life, you have to be able to identify when your job no longer serves you.”
And finally, you have “goal setting.”
At the end of every year, Jasey makes a list of goals to help guide her life over the next 12 months.
Every few months, though, she reviews her progress and adjusts those goals as needed.