Despite the notion that a university degree and high-paying job are closely linked, it is not an absolute truth. Hannah Maruyama, from the United States, previously worked as a lifeguard, bartender, and other jobs with an annual income never exceeding $30,000. However, she was not content to settle for low-paying jobs forever. Through hard work, she eventually secured the position of operations manager at a technology startup, with an annual salary of over $100,000. How did she achieve this?
At the age of 29, Maruyama, encouraged by a teacher, enrolled as a high school senior at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia. Concerned about accumulating heavy student loans, she left the university after a few semesters.
Maruyama told “CNBC Make It” that for a while, she felt that without a college degree, her only options were low-wage jobs or starting her own business. Aside from being a lifeguard and bartender, she worked as a sailor on a dolphin-watching boat and in a company’s call center.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maruyama had to close her beauty and tattoo studio and was put on involuntary leave from her call center job.
She said, “I knew it was time to find a new job. And we have two rents to pay, for both our house and studio, and Hawaii isn’t cheap.”
Maruyama found that most job openings she saw online were in the technical field, requiring skills she had never heard of before.
“All of these different acronyms like CompTIA, AWS, CISSP were foreign to me,” she recalled. “But I spent hours reading on Reddit, Quora, and various internet forums to understand which tech certifications were in demand and could help me land a job.”
She eventually became a Salesforce certified administrator. Obtaining this certification took about four weeks to complete. According to information she saw on Reddit, this could earn her at least $70,000 annually, more than double what she was making in customer service.
The cost of Salesforce courses was around $300. Maruyama spent an entire month in April 2020 to complete the certification. Three months later, she landed her first technical job as a remote Salesforce developer at a corporate consulting firm in Honolulu, with a salary of $70,000.
In November 2021, Maruyama left her job at the consulting company and joined the AI software startup Neo License as operations manager, with a salary of $100,000. She believes that continuously improving her skills is her greatest advantage in advancing in her technical career. She now holds certifications in data analysis and project management.
She expressed that her current career path is far from what she imagined ten years ago. Growing up, Maruyama was often told that university was the ultimate goal, and without it, success was not possible. “But that’s no longer the world we live in. You can explore a million different paths without a degree, and I was lucky enough to find one that really makes me happy.”
Maruyama’s approach to job applications is to apply even if she lacks the educational background some employers require. She emphasizes during the application or interview process that, “I will learn any necessary skills quickly.”
“I think the exact phrase I use is, ‘I am a shiny new penny!'” she said.
In 2021, she and her husband launched an online platform called “Degree Free,” guiding 16 to 20-year-olds in planning their degree-free careers and offering vocational training and free educational resources.
Financial documents seen by “CNBC Make It” show that in 2023, “Degree Free” brought in a profit of $128,000 for the couple.