Stephan Miller

01 Aug, 2008

How to Get a Tech Job with a G.E.D

Posted by: User ImageStephan Miller In: Ecommerce| Internet| Journal

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DiplomaI have never been one to hold a job for long. I don’t have a degree. About two years was my limit. It has not been the pay as much as the boredom. Once I could do the job in my sleep, there was not much keeping me there. The internet has been the only thing that has held my interest for this long.

And the degree thing. I am still sure to this day that if I would have had a degree, it would have been the same. I would have spent four or more years to get a job writing obituaries for the local news or writing the same algorithm over and over in my cubicle. But I would have been paid more and been stuck longer because of it.

When I moved back to the Midwest with my family, a decision I rank with some of my worst, I made it about three months marketing affiliate programs full time with two kids running around the house. Then both my wife and I realized that to do it again, I needed an office. I can read, watch TV and take notes on both at the same time, but the kids are different.

So I got a job at a local window and door shop. I had manufactured, delivered and installed commercial doors in Phoenix.Downtown Phoenix Here, I chose the company who had a website. This is the Midwest. The interweb is alive and well. It’s going to take a while for the internet to get here. So I picked a business that acknowledged the existence of the 21st century.

So I installed doors and windows for 6 months and then winter came. I had worked in Phoenix for 6 years before this. I was not looking forward to putting windows in a house in the freezing cold.

Fortunately, before this happened, I had already hinted at my abilities in internet marketing. They had been paying a college student part time to do what I do now. Well, not all of what I do. He was strictly tech. I knew a little bit of everything because I had to. I started affiliate marketing on a dialup connection and a Pentium II frankenstein machine.

When I started in the office, I started my day by receiving orders. Then I packaged and shipped the orders to go out. Then, in the afternoon, I was back in my office uploading products, tweaking titles and descriptions, running Adwords and Yahoo ads, and building links.

Andersen Hardware Fast forward to now. A year and a half later. Each of the last last three months in sales have been 2-1/2 times the sales on the month I started back here. The receiving, packaging and shipping is done by three full time people and they work 6 days a week or else they will never stay caught up. And they still don’t at times. I work 4. The boss sold the local part of the company which he had for 25 years and now we are strictly internet. He has to go to auctions to buy shelves for stock every three months or so.

To all you internet junkies without a degree, this is for hope. To all of you internet companies refusing to hire people without a degree, this is me laughing.

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8 Responses to "How to Get a Tech Job with a G.E.D"

1 | Turnip

August 2nd, 2008 at 9:32 am

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Great story there! I learned cad for an engineering company, even though I was an English major with no engineering background. When I wasn’t desinging products for them, I’d answer the phones. This became so boring I designed a new website for them, so I bacame their internet guy. I showed them how their competitors were using the internet, and they didn’t care.

The biggest insult was that they wanted to keep paying me at a rate to answer phones, when I primarily did product design and all their ordering. Other companies would hire me through then at 5 times my hourly rate. When it came time to make a new website, one of the owners said to the other “I don;t want that guy doing it, he’ll waste all day doing it”. Which was ironic since I had nothing else to do but listen to the radio. So before I left, I said “BTW, I designed a new site for you, if you don’t want to use it, go hire a guy like you planned”.

Over a year later they are still using my website design, unchanged from how I left it. I now do consulting work. I earn a little less per month, but only work 2 hours a day. The additional income I make from affiliate marketing to make up the difference. The only real issue is the lack of benefits when self employed. I’m working on that issue now and should be hae something within 2 months.

Turnip’s last blog post..Performancing Ads Exceeds Expectations / Bug Fix

2 | Stephan Miller

August 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 am

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Thanks for dropping by. I may have to pick your brain. I have cut my hours at the job from 5 to 4 work days, but still need more time to focus on affiliate marketing. But then again, I have the issue that once I cut back more time, I still don’t have an office space anywhere, except where I work. I am actually there now, on Sunday. I do this every once and a while and get a lot done. There are some things I can do in the midst of family life, but programming and writing don’t work. For those, I need some space.

It will work out in time.

I think this is an awesome subject and would really like to get more people’s stories and compile them into a report or book. It would give hope to a lot of people and a different route to the job they want. I could have used it about four years ago.

We all dream of making big money on our own. I make good money, but not day jog quitting money yet. But the fact is that it takes time. If you don’t have a degree, getting a job like mine sure beats manual labor while you are trying to get a business started. Plus, you learn along the way.

3 | Debo Hobo

August 12th, 2008 at 10:57 am

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This is a great post, there are so many of us out here without the much sought after degree. I feel we accomplish more and achieve greater things because we have to learn on the job, our survival is dependent on what we know, and not how well we bs’d on a term paper.

I am taking a couple of online classes but I an content doing it on just a GED, thank you very much.

Debo Hobo’s last blog post..Touch Downs not Tearjerker Songs for MeMe

4 | Stephan Miller

August 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am

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And a lot of what is actually cutting edge is here on the internet, not in a textbook. And textbooks are easy. Thanks for coming by and I am glad I found another "college dropout". :)

5 | John

August 21st, 2008 at 7:04 am

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I feel the same way but I went through with the degree. About 2 years into college I got bored out of my mind, but stuck with it because all I heard was that you couldn’t get a good job without the degree. Out of school I ended up working in advertising sales in a position I didn’t need a degree for. I now work for myself. My wife who also got a nice fancy degree also works for herself. We both do things we could have done without the simple pieces of paper and lifetime of debt.

6 | Stephan Miller

August 21st, 2008 at 1:21 pm

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Another thing I forgot to add to this post and now may be using: the first tech job you get this way may never pay well. Stick there long enough to get experience to get a better paying one.

7 | Hernandez

September 6th, 2008 at 11:16 am

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reading along the way. it inspired me in someway… but, also held me back…you need money to make money…i want to get paid well.. but i dont have a degree.. and i work at a boat dealership. as a consigner… but im so good with computers… but i need a ged. to go to school.. can u teach me more about online marketing.or ways to do what i want to do?

8 | Stephan Miller

September 8th, 2008 at 9:20 am

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Anything you want to learn, you can learn online. It takes a while and you have to be dedicated. My posts here should get you part of the way there.

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