7 high-paying careers
Ask most high school guidance counselors, and they’ll tell you a college degree is your key to a well-paying job. But that’s not always the case. While lawyers, doctors, and many other professionals still require degrees, Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at Payscale.com, helped us pinpoint several jobs that don’t.
But before you ditch your plans to attend a four-year college, note that these jobs do require specialized knowledge, obtained through either a vocational training program or an on-the-job education. (And many people in these occupations do have college degrees, so one certainly can’t hurt.)
“There’s no high-paying job that doesn’t require a high-level skill,” says Lee. “You can learn it on the job, but you’re going to have to learn it.” With the rising cost of college tuition, pursuing one of these career paths may make sense.
1. Freelance Photographer: $47,800 median salary
Lee says that non-degree jobs tend to fall


