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

I 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. 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.

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.