The NoDegree Podcast – No Degree Success Stories for Job Searching, Careers, and Entrepreneurship

She did well academically. So much so that Nikema Prophet was in the gifted program in elementary school. But, she struggled socially. But she didn’t when it came to dance. So she decided she’d become a professional dancer. Listen in as Nikema tells Jonaed about: How her undiagnosed ADHD affected her in school Getting pregnant while enrolled in a Pharmacy technician course. Her struggle to get a j...

He always struggled academically. So much so Jeff Giorgi got kicked out of school and had to join the high school’s night program so that he could graduate. He still signed up for college despite his academic challenges. Determined to become an entrepreneur he joined the accounting program in college. But his academic struggles continued. Listen in as Jeff tells Jonaed about: How he dropped out of...

He’s the youngest of 10 kids. Although he wasn’t sure what career he wanted to pursue after high school, by the time he graduated, he knew he wanted to make photography his career. Listen in as Zusha tells Jonaed about how he: Started off doing work for free before How networking helped his career Photographed Ben Stiller, Courtney Cox, Samuel L. Jackson, Charli D'Amelio, Sebastian Stan and Octavi...

He’s from the hood but he made sure the negative influences around him didn’t affect him. Rahkeem Sabree was a good student. He got along with everyone, played sports and got good grades. But then his parents separated. The stress from the custody battle that followed affected his grades and he failed 5 classes.  Listen in as Rahkim tells Jonaed about how he: Bounced back and went to community col...

He was in med-school and he didn’t have to worry about student loan debt. Bennett Maxwell had good grades, a full scholarship and grants to cover other college-related expenses. But he took a summer sales job and earned doctor’s annual salary in 3 months. That was enough to convince him that he didn’t need college, so he dropped out. Listen in as Bennett tells Jonaed about: His parent’s reaction w...

Do you want a good job? Most people feel that to get one, you need to follow a preset path. Go to college. Get a degree. But with information at our fingertips in split-seconds thanks to the internet, there are options. In this episode Joel Bein talks to Jonaed about how Career Hackers is empowering job seekers to take charge of their learning and careers. Listen in as he tells Jonaed about: How t...

His parents were divorced and his mom worked all the time. Will Fang didn’t like school and it certainly didn’t help that he hung out with the wrong crowd. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t know what he wanted to do after he graduated high school. But when he got expelled, he made a change for the better and got his GED. Listen in as Will tells Jonaed about how he: Made a living after high school Became a...

She was either getting into fights or talking too much. Pixie, hated high school and her living situation at home didn’t help. Unsurprisingly, she spent a lot of time in the principal’s office. She dropped out when she got pregnant. Listen in as Pixie tells Jonaed about: Having a baby at 18 Dropping out of high school to get a job and care for her new born The job she had that made her decide to g...

He got raises although management said they weren’t giving raises that year. Scott Barlow has even transitioned from Operations Management to HR. He made career changes like that many times over a 20-year period.  If you don’t know what to do after high school or you want to make a career change, listen in as Scott Barlow tells Jonaed: How he transitioned from one career to the another in a differ...

Richard Barlow was a smart kid that wanted to play video games for free. He wrote computer magazines and offered to review games and write about it. To his surprise, they paid him to do that. Listen in as he tells Jonaed about becoming a Director of IT when he was just 18, working for million-dollar companies and eventually becoming the CEO of WeJo, a company that raised $157 million during their...

You see a vacancy. You read the requirements and halfway through you decide you won't apply because you don’t meet all the requirements. But Jonaed says you should. He isn’t just the CEO of NoDegree, he is also a resume writer and career coach. To date, he’s helped over 350 job seekers get jobs at places like Tesla, Amazon, Disney, Microsoft and Google (to name a few). Many increased their income...

Nobody makes $100k per year where she came from. So Ebony Johnson was quite happy making $45k per year working as a Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR). She was so good that she taught CTR prep classes and presented at state and national conferences. Five years in, a start-up founder wanted her help with a software for oncologists. She became the mediator between the customers and the engineers. She t...

She wanted to go to college to be an Interior Designer. But Faith McKinney’s dad saw no value in that and said he wouldn’t pay for college if she pursued it. He told her to go to college for business instead. She did and dropped out. Listen in as Faith McKinney tells Jonaed about how manifestation helped her to break out of her introverted-shell and go from working as a janitor to sales, becoming...

He had his own lawn mowing business before he was 14. By the time Johnathan Lightfoot was 17 years old, he was a supervisor at Target. He always wanted to join the Navy though so when the opportunity came, he took it. Listen in as he tells Jonaed about how he got into IT after the Navy, worked at Norwegian Cruiseline as a part of their IT department, lectured at MIT and wrote books that out-perfor...

Everywhere would stink if the garbage men went on strike and bridges wouldn’t be built without iron-workers. Both occupations have one thing in common: they don’t require a college degree. Although these jobs are essential for our society, students aren’t usually encouraged to go that route. Listen in as Jonaed discusses how he founded and became CEO of NoDegree, the opportunities he’s creating fo...

He was convinced he didn’t need college. But Stone Fredrickson’s parents were not. He had to prove to them that he could create and maintain a stable income. He hasn’t graduated high school yet, but he got his start as an entrepreneur pretty early. Listen in to find out how Stone taught himself about financial literacy, started investing at a young age, and how his success on TikTok led to him cre...

She went to high school and worked simultaneously. Soon after starting college, Kira Renee got discouraged. She felt like she wasn’t learning enough while accumulating student loan debt. Frustrated, she decided to drop out.  She went on to become an inbound marketing strategist. This is the story of how a frustrated college student dropped out of college and found success as a marketer. Support/Co...

He was forced to say goodbye to the only home he knew. Saif Ali came to the US as a child. He had a good life: friends, a girlfriend and plans to get a degree in Biomedical Engineering. But, he lost it all because of circumstances beyond his control. He got deported.  Forced to abandon his plans to go to college so that he could make a living, within 30 days of being in a new country, he got a job...

In high school he was got paid $100/hr to do social media consultations. Collin Castrina’s dad was a businessowner so he grew up surrounded by entrepreneurs. He got his start in middle school the way most kids did-he sold candy at school dances and shoveled snow.  By the time he got to high school, he interned at a local marketing agency where he eventually became the VP of Marketing and made $100...

Did you know that many vacancies are filled as a result of networking? Some estimates show that up to 85% of jobs are filled this way. While job-seekers focus their efforts on job boards, many opportunities are missed simply because many vacancies aren't even advertised. Interestingly, many are convinced that one major reason to go to college is for the network it provides and how it will benefit...

Although his mom was a teacher, she didn’t object when he dropped out of college. There was one catch: Lucas Bédout (pronounced Luka Bedoo) had to get a job. Initially, he decided he’d become a tennis coach but in the words of his manager, he was too bad at tennis to train at the pro-level and, he couldn’t afford the training necessary to become a tennis coach. Listen in as he tells Jonaed about h...

Grew up in the hood. Raised by a single mom. Always got into fights. Marlo Jones wasn’t a violent person. He was just always defending himself. You can imagine his surprise when he was kicked out of school for fighting. Today, he says it was a good thing though. From working odd jobs, playing football and getting recruited by a bouncer, listen in as this mobile engineer tells Jonaed about what it...

He was working in a warehouse and started fighting as a hobby. His work ethic and discipline made him one of the greatest fighters of all time. Demetrious Johnson a.k.a. Mighty, is the first flyweight champion in UFC history. In 2017, he won ESPY award for Best Fighter. He has 11 successful title defenses, the most in UFC history. It all started with his mom. She told him that he could either play...

In high school, they fantasized about being a fashion designer. Paidamoyo-Janet “Myles” Azehko grew up in a typical African family. Education was important. Myles got good grades and was enrolled in Advanced Placement classes for college. had her doubts about college but went anyway. Listen in as she tells Jonaed about how she changed her major two times, dropped out of college to join the circus,...

Many people he knew struggled to pay their mountain of debt. Although Robert McGraw graduated from college, from experience, he recognized that there was a lot that was wrong with the process of deciding to go to school. Listen in as he and Jonaed discuss his book, 12 Lies About College, and and why following your passions can sometimes work against you. Support/Contact Robert: LinkedIn Books ment...