The 15 Best Jobs That Don’t Require A College Degree

The job pool is a crowded place these days and recent college graduates are feeling the brunt of the competition. College graduates still outpace those without degrees by earning as much as 84% more throughout their careers, but there are also plenty of stable and even lucrative industries that buck the four-year degree requirement. And while the annual median salary for college grads might remain significantly higher than the rest of the population, daunting tuition and looming debt are fair reasons to think twice, or at least look at a degree through the cold lens of potential return on investment.

A new study published by Careercast gathers a list of more than a dozen of the best jobs and careers if you don’t have a college degree and proves that there’s more than just a handful of options out there. Even though these jobs don’t call for a four-year degree, almost all of them require some form of industry-specific training or the completion of a certification program. Still, for some jobs, like administrative assistant or bookkeeper, the minimal training and work experience requirements make for easy entry.

Generally, the median salaries featured here are significantly lower than those from a comparable list for grads, but the projected hiring outlook, or growth potential, for each career is noticeably strong. And even though the payout is less without a degree, some titles (like dental hygienist) can fetch more than $70k a year. (The dental hygienist field is also one of the most stable-looking of the bunch with a projected hiring outlook of 33%.)

Check out Careercast’s list of the 15 best job prospects that don’t require a college degree ranked by median salary below.