MANY people think you need a degree to scale the career ladder - but you’ll be surprised to hear some industries don’t require a university education to become a top earner.
With the right attitude, school leavers can apply for jobs at recruitment firms - and start taking home salaries of as much as £30k a year.
That’s exactly what George Goodier, 27, did after dropping out of college at the age of 17.
After working his way up, he now takes home more than £50,000 a year - and has his sights set on a top job that could earn him as much as £150,000.
After leaving college with no AS Levels and just his GCSEs under his belt, George tried roles in sales and as an estate agent before eventually moving over to recruitment at the age of 19.
Just one year later, he was hired as an associate recruitment consultant at Michael Page, earning a £24,000 base salary.
But with commission on top he was taking home £30,000 a year.
By his second year in the job, George had received two promotions and was hitting around £40k annually - at the same time his friends were leaving university in thousands of pounds worth of debt,
“The money I started to earn in recruitment made a huge difference,” George says.
“I moved out of my parents' house on the outskirts of Manchester and into the city centre soon after joining Page.
"I was able to save, it meant I didn’t have to massively cut back if I wanted to do something like go on holiday.
"It was the first time in my life I had a bit of spare money, which at 20 goes a long way.”
George’s first role saw him recruiting Cloud and Technology experts for jobs and involved generating a wide-spreading client base to place people in roles such as IT service desk workers and heads of IT.
“I had to chat to candidates and figure out what they’re looking for, then try to drive new business by speaking to as many clients as possible to try and get those candidates jobs and place them in the right places,” George explains.
He stayed in this part of the firm for five years - and says while Covid was a difficult time for the recruitment industry, it was one of his best years financially as there was increased demand in this area of work due to everyone working from home.
As a result, George was able to take home as much as £65,000 annually when he was just 25.
George has since moved to a different part of the business, which deals with high volume recruitment projects and has a slightly different pay structure, which is less financially target driven.
As a result, he is able to take home a more regular paycheck, upwards of £50k a year including bonuses.
“My new role is still recruitment, but it’s a slightly different way of doing it,” George explains.
“It’s more project focussed. Instead of having lots of different clients, I work with one client and do all their recruitment for them, which could be anything from warehouse operatives up to the CEO.
“It’s a bit more challenging because you’re not specialising in one market, but it’s quite nice to focus on one client and see the changes.
"You can see the new people starting and see the impact of it.”
George, who splits his time between working from home and on site with his client, now has his sights set on working his way up to become a director.
“Personally I want to progress as much as I can, which means moving up the rungs from manager through to director - where I would step away completely from recruiting and would be in more of a strategic role, where you liaise with new clients and work on new projects,” he says.
“There are different options though, if you don’t want to go into management you can still work your way up to a higher salary just in recruiting - but without the people management and additional responsibility. It just depends on what people want to do.”
George also says there is no ceiling for employees without university degrees, adding: “It feels like a nice, attainable goal when you have seen other people you work with get those jobs before.”
Looking back at his decision not to go to university, George says he believes his career trajectory proves it was the right decision for him.
“I always thought that my friends who went to uni would walk out into a £30k a year job, so I told myself if I wasn’t earning that or more by the time they finished then I’d have wasted my time,” he explains.
“I was earning a lot more than them at the start of my career - and they’re now starting to catch up so we’re all on the same sort of level and I haven’t been left behind, which shows it was worth it.”
George also says recruitment is a great career opportunity for others who haven’t been to uni, as long as they are resilient and not scared to speak to people.
“Dealing with people can be difficult because you can’t control what they’re going to do,” he says.
“If someone says no or pulls out of an interview it might be hard, especially if you have a massive fee on the line and can see your commission melt away - but you’ve got to get on with it and make the next call, so resilience is the top skill you need.”