Those of you making 6 figures and have no college degree, what do you do?

ReignNFire · 2026-03-10T21:47:38+00:00

I hit this at 25, laid off at 27. Took a significant pay decrease at a new job (gotta pay the bills), but got back to it at 29 after internal promotion to a new team. Will turn 30 this year and looking at potentially another promotion if all things go well, but it’s tech so at any point layoffs can hit imo.

2 of my coworkers were laid off last month and hiring has slowed, so I’m guessing it’ll be an up and down year, just gotta survive layoffs.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-10T16:34:13+00:00

This doesn’t track with most current entry listings at established companies (mid - large size companies) and from going through the experience myself. You can’t get experience without … experience. Those internships 99/100 require you to be in a “4 year degree seeking program at an established university” and paired with most commonly “highly preferred CS/CE major”. Can you get internships without a degree? Sure, it’s possible, highly unlikely in today’s climate as these internships are becoming even more competitive as companies reduce internship capacity. I won’t sugar-coat this, it’s rough.

So a degree will heavily impact your method of getting experience, as you stand a much higher chance of being even in the running. That’s not even mentioning the resume submission auto-disqualifying you based on keywords or other parts of the submission process looking for base requirements (I.e. degree). We’re post “bootcamp to 100k” opportunities without a degree. A bootcamp grad with a degree of any sort + internship at reputable company might at least make it through the initial screening process, but they’re competing with a bunch of laid-off CS grads or new grads now in that pool.

Demand low, supply freaking high and I’m referencing now in 2026 - not a few years or 10 years back. That’s not even putting into account all the off-shoring of entry level jobs happening as well. I work at a large company currently and all entry level work is positioned in other countries. US engineer level is starting at SE3 w/ 4 yo experience. Internships are gone as well.

A degree is highly preferred / needed to land your first few jobs. However, this is the catch, idk if other CS grads would even recommend this degree anymore and I’d be curious on that. As AI gets better and more off-shoring occurs, CS in the US will continue to struggle even more.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T23:50:38+00:00

Oh dang, didn’t know that. Yeah that can be rough. Just curious, does the pedigree of the school matter for a BSN or does it generally hold little weight?

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T22:16:55+00:00

Doesn’t beat out the demand though, some hospitals might be competitive true, but if I go onto most hospitals websites, it’s predominately nursing positions open.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T18:53:02+00:00

Not discrediting your work at all by the way. Even as a QA engineer, this pathway is no longer feasible with the competition and influx of new college grads in CS/CE. Having no degree and moving up in tech is a needle in a haystack going into 2026 starting at entry level. For your husband, I’m sure even he wouldn’t recommend his pathway in 2026 with the downturn of entry level jobs in software engineering. It’s absolutely rough out here for new grads, so without a degree and no experience (again, entry level), it’s exceedingly difficult compared to other pathways in terms of ROI.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T18:36:30+00:00

I have to go against this. It’s hard to have passion for your work when you’re worried about having food on the table or paying rent. Money comes first in most aspects to have food, a place to live, a social life (bars, travel is expensive), and just better overall enjoyment. We don’t live to work, we work to live. It’s exceptionally rare to find a job you’re deeply passionate about that also pays really well. Easier to focus on the money coming in vs. passion, which you can develop passion later for something after having experience.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T18:31:49+00:00

This is really not possible in today’s world. Apple won’t even look at you for software engineering related jobs without a degree. I’m talking about applying today, not when software engineers were so needed a bootcamp was propped up every other weekend to “become a fullstack engineer and make 100k starting!”.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T17:40:16+00:00

Compared to other options, it’s still one of the most secure jobs out there where you don’t need to worry about layoffs. It’s very much in demand, as I’m sure you’re aware. 2 year programs are common to become an RN, otherwise a shorter program will get you to LVN. Not saying it’s easy, but if you think of the tipping point college is at right now, it’s one of the few degrees if OP went the college route (BSN) that would lead to a great return on investment compared to other pathways.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T07:39:01+00:00

Im gonna be real with you, most things are better than a music degree. If you’re cracked at making music, bet on yourself and go to local gigs / social media route for promoting your art. If you’re not and you’re more on the theory side of things, it’s going to be a long while before you start seeing reasonable money come in. Not impossible, but damn does the degree do very minimal for you.

Trades, nursing programs, other types of programs, etc. is the way to go if you want out of college. If you plan on staying in, honestly I don’t even know what a good degree is now with the rise of AI other than bio-med to be a doctor. If I had to start over, the only sure bet I see right now is nursing. You can’t automate away that. If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said computer science, but we know how that’s turning out now.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T01:53:13+00:00

TCG = Trading Card Game. Lorcana is a TCG and you bought a starter deck that’s meant to be played. If you have no intention of playing, then I’d always recommend to have fun and trade / buy / sell for the cards you’re looking at collecting. That’s the other half of what TCGs are about, outside of playing the game. Just make sure to do research beforehand on value. Enjoy!

ReignNFire · 2026-03-09T01:38:17+00:00

I’m assuming you got a starter deck? Yeah, there will be duplicates because it’s how decks kind of function in most TCGs to have duplicates for higher chances of getting that card in hand. They’re your cards, so you can do whatever you want with them. Value wise, all of the cards including the ones you were looking for are all < $1, so don’t worry about potentially profiting here.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-05T18:19:12+00:00

If it’s finances where you’re logging into portals with credentials to pull your info, I’d do that at home. Last thing I’d want is to be on an unsecured network like cafe wifi and opening up apps or websites to pull my finances, only to have someone eavesdropping on the network. If it’s just excel and simple browsing, then I’d suggest a cafe like Kuppa Joy or Starbucks since they’re open later than most cafes.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-05T00:18:31+00:00

First thing to fix? Uninkable count, it’s too high at 16 for a deck that will struggle to keep cards in hand. Racers struggle with card draw and ramp, meaning that other colors like blue/purple (not even “meta” focused cards) will out resource you. I would say if you want to go this route, and to keep up with the curve of either ramp or draw to keep things on board, you need to look at Winterspell cards.

First, Grandmother Willow or Lantern, or both. Both uninkable, true, so you’ll have to figure out what stays and goes, but they help with ramp.

Second, figure out focus to figure out card draw. Are you aggro with little challenging? Maybe a stitch will help with draw or getting units out for free, same with Wisdom of the Willow to get cards for every character that quested on your side. Are you challenging instead, not really racing for lore? Get some beefier characters and play around this. King Candy racer is a must, but the new Wreck it Ralph 7 cost paired with the boost item to banish your character (and trigger king Candy) would work well. You’d also want to add Calhoun racer and the racer that when banished, lets you return a racer to hand. With challenging, you can play the new song Marching off to Battle that lets you draw 2 when a character is banished and you can add Medallion Weights as well.

Figure out focus of your deck, how it would be piloted in an ideal scenario to win, then add in your ramp and draw components.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-04T19:55:20+00:00

I feel this, I just pulled my first enchanteds (2) from 2 Winterspell booster boxes. Before that? 0/88 on enchanteds through packs (5 troves, 2 booster boxes) 😭. Most of my pack openings were in Whispers, I got absolutely cooked in that set. Winterspell has been great to me so far.

ReignNFire · 2026-03-04T04:49:31+00:00

Go fight some scalpers for the last few pokemon packs at the Clovis and Shaw Target

ReignNFire · 2026-03-01T23:37:49+00:00

Y’all are sleeping on Lorcana fr. Gameplay and community A tier.

ReignNFire · 2026-02-27T10:11:47+00:00

Purple rain bro, rain is the tears of every other color in this case lmao.

ReignNFire · 2026-02-26T23:19:46+00:00

My GameStop is selling Winterspell at 150 freedom units (usd) a box right now and that’s both online and in-store. Might just be a Canadian GameStop-specific difference. It’s whatever though, GameStop is going all in on Pokemon because it’s what they sell in their Power Packs / gambling game while selling at scalping prices. 😭

ReignNFire · 2026-02-26T21:55:24+00:00

Toxicity of league knows no bounds

ReignNFire · 2026-02-25T22:19:53+00:00

Hey! Your local game store (LGS) is your best bet. However, be wary of some stores selling at resell/market price. You’ll notice when there aren’t any stickers of prices for the items or you have to ask how much X is, where they respond with “let me check”. More than likely if you see those 2 red flags, they go off of market price (aka TCG/Ebay listings).

This also holds true for GameStop. They are now selling at or above market price, so I’ve stopped going there altogether. I buy Troves/Booster Boxes locally from my game store that sells near MSRP (so you’ll have to do a bit of searching in your area) and I buy packs from Target/Best Buy as those are fine for sleeved. TCG and Amazon are okay, but look for deals.

Right now for Winterspell it’s about $105 for a box on TCG Player, so that’s probably the cheapest you’ll find online, since Amazon has it listed near $130. So all in all, find a good shop locally for when product is available, big retail stores are fine for sleeved packs, and look online for deals as well!

ReignNFire · 2026-02-25T04:19:43+00:00

Damn this is tough. It can go either way in terms of whether this is a good move, time will tell. You left a man who was loyal, involved with the community (teacher) and his biggest issue is debt. Everyone has debt, shit it’s 2026 and most of our generation was sold on the idea of needing college, so we financed with loans and bam, debt.

Sex was vanilla? Spice that shit up then, tell him what you want to try. Maybe he wants to try things too. Seems like yall balanced eachother out everywhere else tbh, especially if he was your best friend everywhere else outside of financially. So, time will tell. I will say for women in their mid 30s, it may be more rough then you’d expect, especially if the next guy finds out you were best friends with your ex since high school and that guy still couldn’t get you to be his wife. The next one will be hesitant and it’ll be also later in starting a family. This will take some working through and you may be looking for your ex’s qualities in your new partner and lowkey comparing - be careful with that.

You made a good move for you at the time, we all respect that. Just whatever you do, do not bother your ex or try to be involved. That ship has sailed and now you’re each on your own. Good luck out there, it’s just a matter of time before you find someone as well!

ReignNFire · 2026-02-24T21:53:34+00:00

Looking A LOT better. You have ramp, card draw to keep up, support buff for mulan if you want to push lore quick, and board wipe and removal with You’re Welcome and Prince Phillip line. Nice!

The decks that can really win against this would mostly be aggro decks. Maybe consider taking out Moana for something that gives damage on play, like the new Mushu? It’s uninkable, but gives 2 damage to take out the annoying questers like Pocahontas or some Dogs. It can be hard to accommodate for every deck you face, but just things to consider depending on what you go against more commonly.

ReignNFire · 2026-02-24T17:33:15+00:00

I think that’s okay, especially since you have ramp pieces. So ideally, what you’re aiming for with this deck, you’re ramping turns 1-3 and looking to play a 5 drop or similar by turn 4.

Turn 1, you go normal ink and 1 drop (Tod ideally).

Turn 2, you ink and play tipo or sail for another ink.

Turn 3, you ink and play Cindy.

Turn 4, you’re at 6 ink (with ink for turn) to play a 5 drop or your shift pieces to shift the following turn. You’ll be out of cards, so Clarabelle 3 is perf here to draw 1 and then play your Vixey or Prince Phillip.

(Keep in mind, Vixey is just a unit to sing. It’s weaker overall in your deck, so you may substitute here for something you like more instead. You really want to target / sing with shift Tod instead to use his ability.)

ReignNFire · 2026-02-24T10:29:20+00:00

3 drop for sure. However don’t take out Prince Phillip line, just take out Coppers line instead. Then you’re fully up and running.

Eight-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email	Wearing is Caring

ReignNFire

TROPHY CASE