People without college degree, what do you do?

If you're a foreign student and not fully fluent in English, see if you can find some resources at your university to help. I would expect a UK university to have something. If you have a guidance counselor or a student resource center, those would be good places to start asking.

Taking a long time on homework or missing a deadline due to unclearly written direction in a language you're not fully comfortable with doesn't make you bad at university.

Currently work for an organization helping people on centrelink / workforce benefits get a job.



I've managed pubs, nightclubs and restaurants. Been a dishy and wait person.



Managed a warehouse for consumer pc parts, with the same mob I did marketing and procurment dealing with some big international brands and local distributors.



Worked for a government body (think motor registry but broader) assisting people with forms, really just helping them get across the line before they enter the queue.



Climbed towers and installed mobile equipment / antennas replacing the analog mobile network (3g installs). Installed police cameras in back of their vans along with police radio installs with the same rigging mob.



Highest qualification I have is year 12, some certificates for safe work / working at heights and some hospo related tickets. Nothing special, just a string of random jobs.

First of all you are not dumb, just because you are bad in school. School often sucks for people as it's way too standardized and cannot take into account the needs of all students. The fact that you are thinking that hard about it shows that you are quite a smart person. Also language barrier often makes things more complecated.

Now a question you have to ask yourself, do you really like going to collage that much? Or are you there because of social preasure and the fear of not making it in life if you don't get a collage?

Once you can honestly answer that question ask you this: is there focational programs in the country you are at? If so, what trades can you see yourself working at? Are there trade schools on that specific field, to keep climbing the leader? How difficult is it to start your own business once you are experienced in that trade?

If you are unsure about all these question, maybe look for a career counselor, so they can help you find something you can do.

In anycase, good luck and stay strong and remeber you are so much more worth than just a career choice.

Sales.

I worked retail and just worked my way up. I managed for awhile and I got all the way to Microsoft with no degree believe it or not. I stepped away from big tech for mental health reasons and found my way back to traditional retail sales and love it.

My cousin got an apprenticeship with ibew and became a worker for the city power grid

Project manager. (i can hear you all rolling your eyes, and i agree with you....)

You don't sound stupid.

Look into the trades: electrician, plumber, hvac...I retired from Walmart last year making $125k/year as a refrigeration tech. The trades won't be replaced by Ai any time soon. When your ac doesn't work or your drain's clogged or you need some power run, ai can't do it. Although Walmart's got some pretty slick ai to flag stuff that's running out of spec.

Currently a factory / site manager for a small food production plant, so plant maintenance, warehouse management, staff management, general IT, data analysis...

I have sat on both in house on external advisory boards, worked with scientists on research projects, been involved in technical trials (field trials) for disease diagnostic kits (lateral flow devices like the now [in]famous covid tests), driven heavy good trucks, line lead in plastics production, lab tech in plastics, and a few other things

I did my first year at uni and averaged flat C's and then went working. I have gained a few certs over the years where needed, but nothing above first/second year uni level.

Air traffic controller. A shit ton of money for a shit ton of days off and holidays.

My highest degree is from the aviation school so it’s kinda useless outside of aviation.

Same for my pilots friends, none of them went to university/college but rather straight to flying school after the mandatory diploma you pass at around eighteen (Baccalauréat in France).

It is great but the downside is that if we want to change careers we can only become business owners (aka, create our own jobs) because nobody wants us and we don’t accept their "real world" shitty work conditions.

Pharmacy auditor. Started out in retail pharmacy in a state where pharmacy technicians don't need formal education (using on the job training instead). Actually started in the retail front end until they needed someone to help back there. Worked my way around the pharmacy, floated in multiple stores for a bit, moved to Long Term Care for a while before landing a work from home job.

I went to University for Electrical Engineering, switched to Computer Science after a semester and then dropped out after 5 more semesters. I had about half of the required credits after those 5 semesters, so I guess I was on track to graduate after studying for 5 years (which isn't bad considering my University's reputation for being so hard that the town opened a second easier University just for the dropouts, but I was still not very happy and really wanted to do real work)


So I got myself into an apprenticeship program to become a Programmer. There was a special one in my town that got you there in just 1.5 years instead of the 3 years that are the norm for apprenticeships here in Germany (again, University so hard they have an entire sector of special programs for dropouts). Just one day of school per week, the rest is spent at an actual company doing actual work. Finished that one with ease, got hired by the company that I did the apprenticeship with and have been working there for over 3 years by now.

I'm now in the job market for the first time because I want to work for a different company, and I'm seeing that I absolutely did the right thing. Because fresh graduates who only studied but never worked are absolutely flooding the market and no company wants them right now. I had a pretty interesting conversation with a hiring manager for a company I'm considering a few days ago, and they said that most applicants they get are either fresh graduates who are asking for insane salaries without any relevant skills to back it up, notorious job-hoppers who spend like 6 months per company and never get deeper skills and vibe-coders. It's insanely hard to find normal people with relevant hands-on knowledge because those people are staying with their existing companies.

Anyways, what I want to get at is that if you just want to work in a specific field that you're passionate about, there's a chance that you can just go and do that. Ofc I don't know your country's market situation or work system, but I bet as long as it is not something highly regulated like Doctor or Lawyer, there could be genuinely good alternative paths into it. And once you have a job in an industry and prove yourself, your academic success kinda stops mattering.

what do you do?

No degree: ran out of cash and spent a decade settling the loans.

I learned a little Linux in college, and I found it's done me well, since. Better and better jobs, and now I'm in a unionized I.T role with a pension. I'll be 90 before I can collect, but the people are nice. I'm also working a side gig, one where I could be fired on the spot but there's always 3 months of I.T work in the hopper .. and has been for 24 years. So that's nice.

Youre on Lemmy and know what a UI is. Youll be fine.

Find something in network security or sysadmin. Or engineering of some sort. If you can compute, youll be sought after. People are idiots with computers now.