COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY Degree: I didn't need it, so don't you
i went to campus but complications led me to drop out from Actuarial Science in my 2nd year.
i did academic writing and it made me decent cash before AI led to the industry's collapse. So i decided to pivot into marketing and here is where the real lessons emerged.
I started out by starting a youtube channel. I was an academic writer, so my first step was to write a script for my faceless youtube video, i learnt video editing, and posted the vid. it performed bad!!!!!!
i started learning about how to better structure my scripts, i practiced editing, learnt how to make thumbnails and slowly my channel started to grow.
Using my channel as my first portfolio, I used it to gain clients for video editing gigs ( r/VideoEditor_forhire , r/slavelabour etc)
The pay was low, but so was my skill and i was grateful nonetheless.
With every client vid i edited, with every personal video posted onto my channel, my portfolio grew. I started successfully pulling in views which led to more work, and, in turn more experience.
up to this point, i knew that huwezi pata a corporate job bila degree. aje sasa????
but surprise, i heard there was an opening for an editor at some company. I presented my portfolio and was picked!!!
so far, my content for the company has brought millions of views (shortform content though... ig reels) and led to tens of thousands of signups to their website (could be hundreds of thousands at this point, they stopped updating me...)
currently i have numerous local gigs to revamp socials, improve sales, visibility, etc
all ive learnt is, i have seen people who have marketing degrees but have no idea how to build an online audience organically and how to get them to become actual customers.
When your focus is a degree and not skill, chances are you will suffer in the workplace.
when your focus is skill rather than a degree, chances are, you will always find demand for your work.
Degrees are important! They do give you an edge...
But remember that a degree has the most use when you have connections, or can deliver the skills it claims you have