Self-made successful women, here, with no college degree?

amother

Goldenrod

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 3:38 pm

amother wrote:

Not op, but this is something I'm considering to do. Was it very hard to get started on your own - is there a lot of competition? How did people hear of you? I'm going to a good school for it, but if I don't have any real world experience, would I be able to build up on my own? Is it realistic to hope to make say 25,000 a year working part time after 3 years?

There is a lot of EXCELLENT competition and it drives me crazy to no end when untalented people flood the market because they're seminary girls or "it's easy to do from home with a baby". If you're good, and you're trained, and you product worthwhile good quality work, yes you can make money. If (general you) you have no talent and think a course will teach you everything you need to know, your portfolio is one of the hundreds of terrible things I see all the time. Sorry to be so heated about this but I hate how it became the new frum thing to do and awful design should honestly be a crime. For some reason anyone with a laptop thinks they can be a graphic designer, you don't hear anyone with a paintbrush suddenly becoming an artist. It's a real profession with real skill and talent required not to mention juggling, dealing with clients, keeping on top of latest trends and techniques etc.

Maya

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 3:41 pm

amother wrote:

But if someone is awful, they wouldn't be taking away a lot of jobs from the talented ones.

amother

Wine

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 4:19 pm

amother wrote:

I agree with you. I went into another field because the money was good and the hours flexible with a family, and the type of education needed wasn't bad for a bais yakkov girl.... I hate it, and just like you said passing collage but with no real talent in that area, did not help much...

So I feel like I wasted a few years of collage. Now I have 3 kids and am stuck with a job I don't know how much longer I'd be able to tolerate. Graphics had always been something I enjoyed - although I never made anything on a professional level since I have no training. Because of my previous experience, I'm scared of wasting more time on learning something - even if I think I'd enjoy it more, if I wont make any money in the end, there's no purpose in it. I have 3 kids now, and already paid a lot of money for collage so I cant afford play around this time.

amother

Tan

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 4:22 pm

amother wrote:

You went to a college that didn't teach you how to spell college? Wink

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 4:27 pm

amother wrote:

This. There are way too many graphic designers who have no idea what they are doing.

Some tips for all the myriads of seminary girls and newlyweds doing the frum courses:

-Do not use the template portfolio your course gives you and fill it with your work. When you apply to work in a creative agency or for a graphics position, your portfolio will land up in the garbage - do you know why? Because there are hundreds of women looking for the same type of job as you, who went to the same course and use the same template. The poor recruiter or employer is bombarded with hundreds of portfolios which all look the same.

-Most of the frum courses are quickies which teach the tools of Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign, and spend way too little time on typography, color theory, principles of advertising, etc. People spend years learning these skills and honing their craft, don't think you've covered everything in a 5 month course. Keep learning on your own - there are excellent online resources. Learn everything you can about the theories, principles and mechanisms of design.

-Artistic doesn't necessarily translate into graphic design skills. Be prepared to accept that if you're mediocre, unless you're extremely gifted at promoting yourself, you will likely get low quality gigs and a constant turnover of cheap clients looking for a bargain.

-Learn how to market yourself. This is absolutely essential for the success of your freelance business. And as a free bonus, let me tell you: never, ever make an ad for yourself that involves the theme, whether in words of visual of "out of the box" or "stand out in the crowd". That is what all the clueless graphic designers are doing, and all they're doing is going deeper into the box and blending nondescriptly into the crowd with all the other ads with the exact same concept.

amother

Ginger

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 4:35 pm

I'm a project manager for a Fortune 100 company earning a very decent income. Many of my colleagues have MBA's, and I have yet to complete my undergraduate degree. I have extensive work experience in some niche tech fields that are quite valuable, and I've pursued skill based certification. Right now I simply don't want to halt the momentum of my career by taking more time off work to complete my degree, and because of my nice salary, I'm not incentivised to do so. Regardless, my major had no relationship to the work I do and would not impact my salary or skills.

peekaboo

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 6:09 pm

amother wrote:

This.

My not so creative friend told me she wants to go into graphic design and shed be awesome, because she thinks shes really creative. She might be a creative writer, but when it comes to visualizing a design she's terrible at it. And she wants to be a graphic designer At wits end

Back to op's question:
Im also a freelance graphic designer, and my average per hr is between 50-75. The hard part about being a freelancer is that sometimes you're so busy that there's no time to breathe, and other time business is slower so theres not too much money coming in. Im doing freelancing for around 2 years now, and im working on getting more steady clients. As in every business, it takes time till you're settled and have a steady cashflow.

amother

Puce

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 6:42 pm

I didn't go for a degree, since I dreamed of being a stay at home and didn't want to invest money in a degree. I accepted an entry level secretarial position in a financial company in my neighborhood.

Now 13 years later (during which time I got married and had 4 kids), I'm still there! I was promoted a couple of times and now serve as office manager/executive assistant. I earn between 120-150K annually (part of my salary is commission based).

What happened to my dream to be a stay at home mom? Whenever I tried to quit my job, the CEO bribed me with different incentives to get me to stay (salary increase, benefits, on-site babysitting...). I also realized that a 2 income household is a necessary and not a choice.

My friends that went to college, don't earn as much as I do, nor enjoy the benefits that I have. On top of that - they also struggled with paying off their student loans

amother

Goldenrod

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 7:29 pm

Maya wrote:

But if someone is awful, they wouldn't be taking away a lot of jobs from the talented ones.

You would think. What actually happens is people pay the crappy cheap people money and then throw a fit if a great designer actually attempts to charge a rate proportionate to her skill and experience. "but I can get it so much cheaper elsewhere" and then you have people who don't understand or appreciate good design, and won't pay for it, and cheap crappy stuff keeps getting circulated.

trust me I've been in this for years, before graphic design even became a thing by the frum, I was studying up on design theory and typography. something your average bais yaakov girl taking a "design course" knows nothing about.

imalady

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 8:15 pm

OP - there are plenty of people earning good money without going to school. People with service businesses, people who broker products or services, people in online marketing, people who sell...I mean the list goes on and on.

The thing no matter what you do, whether professional or otherwise, to earn money you have to work hard. Period. A person can specialize in any skill, but to earn money you have to put in time. People with degrees earn higher wages because generally speaking they work more than 20 hours a week. because to earn 6 figures in 20 hours you'd have to earn $100 per hour after taxes.