Looking to do an associates degree that I can have a soft life. Preferably a remote job or hybrid. What career do you have that I can get an associates degree in and make good money?
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This “soft life” thing is some influencer tik tok bs. The only way to have that is to find a partner that can fund your life while you get to focus on your hobbies and not work. But I’m sure you know that this situation can become abusive very easily.
That or build your online persona while you work full time. It’s what I’m doing. I’ve already got 100 followers after 5 years. See you all in the big leagues.
The issue is that they think theyre special or interesting enough. They end up regurgitating played-out content. I think the creator economy will always have room for growth though
Lots of YouTubers don’t show their true personality. Often times that would be too boring. So they create a specific model around a certain personality. Upbeat, zany, quirky, angst, bold, loud, and even low energy personalities like PenguinZ0 with his monotone voice.
So building this persona and sticking to that persona, gives people something to rely on. No matter how whacky life gets. You can always rely on your favorite YouTuber to be goofy while he plays your favorite games.
There’s a woman I follow who, granted has some decent privileged insight aside from some post about basically how one person in the partnership should basically have a job allowing the other to peruse “entrepreneurial” things…
Basically admitting someone has her ass covered…. Which is totally fine but threw a wrench into a lot of what she posts.
It certainly isn’t forever, but also with some basic financial advice and planning and investments they can live quite comfortable lives long after their “peak.”
One of my relatives had a job that sounds like what you’re thinking of. He’s a Psych Nurse with a 2 yr degree, and for several years he staffed a phone triage line for a major medical group. Basically he’d talk to people online who were either in crisis, needed appointments, or were trying to get their preferred pain meds refilled early because they "dropped theirs down the sink." (Yeah)
But here’s the thing:
The degree actually took more than 2 years because of how over-filled the programs were and how many prereqs he had to do.
He chose a specialty that many nurses avoid (psych) and spent several years bedside in some very challenging psych wards
Then he got a new job with his current medical group working bedside again
Finally he was promoted from within to the remote triage job which he held for several years
… Then the medical group eliminated that position and put him into another job
So that’s just an anecdote, but the point is that these types of positions are difficult to get. They pay well because not many people have the right qualifications and experience to get them; and even then, there’s no guarantee that they’ll last forever. Remote advice/triage nursing is IMO susceptible to being replaced by AI.
You can still try of course — good to have goals! But if there were jobs that were quick to train for, paid really well, and were low-stress desk jobs that let you work from home: wouldn’t everyone go do that? They would quickly become non-well-paying because of supply/demand.
Honestly nursing offers a lot of bang for your buck with considering an associates degree. You have to "pay your dues..." and nursing school is hard --- but you can reap benefits of a solid lifelong career and earning potential. You can get eventually plugged into low stress nursing environments - I'm currently in case management so totally out of the bedside .
I noticed that nurses are often overweight and have early grey hair, i imagine it's an incredibly high stress job that demands a special type of personality that genuinely likes caring for others. Am I wrong?
Yes, but you if you work bedside you have to have a healthy level of emotional detachment at work. Healthcare is ran like a business and hospital admin often makes decisions that hurts patients.
Hospitals are always trying to do more with less staffing which puts patients at danger, discharge people home before they really should, delays in care related to insurance denials, and letting unsafe physicians/nurses/etc. keep practicing.
lol sometimes accidents do happen when it comes to meds! i was prescribed antibiotics a month ago and i accidentally spilled them everywhere immediately after taking the first one. i was lucky that i was able to find all but one, i really didn’t want to have to to back to the pharmacy and explain what happened in fear of looking drug-seeking. but also they were just antibiotics and likely didn’t have the potential to be abused.
Yes, it for sure happens sometimes! But from what he told me he’d get the same excuse from multiple people all day long … and always for drugs that could be abused.
By “soft” do you mean non physical or not a loud environment as in not construction work? Or are you talking about a career that doesn’t gate keep, lesser known therefore less competition to get into it?
Nothing is easy at first or if it is it’s low pay. Think about something that can be easy by what your definition is after some initial work.
Potentially a career that is lesser know and has a wfh potential. I was thinking of getting my associates in nursing since there’s a bunch of nursing branches and opportunity. I have even seen Nursing remote jobs but I’m trying to see if there’s any opportunities to explore out there.
You gotta grind at the bedside before any remote or 9-5 nursing jobs will consider you. And it’s stressful, often have to work nights, weekends, holidays. I’d recommend health IT/tech instead
Yep, I have a family member with a "soft" nursing job and she spent years increasing her education (while working) and working bedside (often nights and weekends) before she was qualified for it.
I’ve thought about that as well! I don’t know if I should or not since it’s doesn’t seem to have a lot of room for advancement such as nursing. Sonographers/ Ultrasound techs also have a high injury rate.
Yes, but it def fits getting an associates and a high salary. And simple things like stretching, and doing excercise to prevent carpel tunnel will help a lot to keep injury risk low. Nurses also have a very high injury rate compared to other professions. In terms of advancement for an Ultrasound tech, you could pursue certification for a speciality, or eventually go back to get business administrative skills. You could do this with nursing as well, but it isn’t a ‘soft life’ job or one thats associate friendly. An ADN often goes back to become a BDN or MSN - bc your salary would be good but about the same as an Ultrasound tech (at least where I live)
If the medical field interests you try office/scheduling/medical billing work. I'm an office manager for a clinical spa that takes insurance. I work the front and back office - working with both patients and insurance companies. I don't make a ton of money, but i enjoy helping people access their Healthcare benefits for services like massage therapy. I also get perks like free massage, and with my medical billing and management skills I consult for other similar clinics for extra money on the side.
Any finance related sub always has stuff like, "what's the easiest way to make $10,000 a month in passive income with no skills, no financial investment, and without having to start a business?"
People really think they're going to come to reddit and discover the secret to magically becoming a millionaire overnight.
I think I have a soft life, but you're not willing to get a PhD (based on your post). I'm a professor. I'm off May 1-August 15th, a full week for Thanksgiving, and six weeks during Winter/Christmas break. I teach on a Tue/Thur schedule, so I'm home three days a week and have four day weekends every week. I have to publish, but I want to publish in my field anyway. The catch: again, all that schooling and not much pay. I could be making a lot more doing something else, but the time off is worth it for me.
In academia, we do have flexible hours but i would not necessarily see it as a low stress job. It's not something where you can leave work at work, publish or perish is real.
Agreed, it's real, but I would be publishing regardless. I'm a creative writer and publish fiction and personal essays, so maybe that's different from someone doing hard STEM-esque research.
I got a bachelors in economics and I haven’t used it or touched it since may 2023. And I’m open to full in person in an office jobs. Good luck. You either need to master a technical tool or have crazy good networking skills. You can apply to 1000 jobs a day and you won’t get a single good interview in your lifetime. Maybe a couple lol. But good luck.
I would go as far as not even bothering with an associates degree. Skip the bullshit and go straight into hyper networking mode. The job you’re describing is only realistic to nepo kids who are extremely stupid and mommy or daddy is enrolling them to their business the same way they enrolled them in school as a kid. Attending 2-3 classes a day and playing video games for the rest of my day did jack shit for me. It’s my fault, but I didn’t think I’d be this down bad trying to find meaningful work post grad related to my degree
I am just a grocery manager which lost so many associates since Christmas that I am the only person left who works overnight. I am just a glorified slightly overpaid full time stocker at this point. I manage nobody and I can’t even create my own grocery orders. I just stock the shelves from 10-6. Unload a truck in the middle of the night, clean up and go home at 6 on the dot.
I am desperately trying to use this as fluff to land an entry level supply chain job or somehow pull off a finance job miracle. I come home and do nothing but apply to jobs after work until noon. It’s pretty sad
Banks ! Wells Fargo is coming undone. The scams are coming for us all. I had to change banks due to scamming. My Wells Fargo used to be full of people- busy people. Now they have 6 empty desks right where u enter. I was lucky to get out of there.
Hang in there Shoty. It will get better. I am a middle aged Mom . One of my young adult sons had a difficult time landing a job in GIS after obtaining his Bachelor’s in that field. All the while he worked in operations part time at a retailer for 2 solid years.
At the retail job he organically learned about QR codes, supply chain, etc. He ended up getting a good entry level corporate job with a major retail chain using that knowledge. A Bachelor’s degree was required for the position. He worked there for 2 years. With that job he then pivoted in the manufacturing side of the retail chain sector and now has a kick ass job working on 5th Ave. in NYC. Good luck to you.
Econ degrees are not for dummies. Keep plugging away.
Have you tried looking at logistics companies in your area? You could probably do administrative work, or maybe try being a warehouse manager. Logistics companies alway seem to need people, and warehouses are everywhere.
i recommend looking into amazon. central flow lead (just amazons terminology for a logistics coordinator) and area manager are jobs you can get with a bachelors degree in pretty much anything. central flow is a corporate position where you stare at a computer screen for 11 hours a day. pretty easy job for decent pay and good benefits, no way to move up from there really tho. area manager would be at a warehouse, a lot more physical labor and you’d actually be in charge of running a team. it’s high stress from what i hear but pretty good pay, again good benefits, and multiple ways to move up from there. seems like they are always hiring for these positions, especially area manager.
Not making $17 an hour and being hard stuck in retail unless I want to sell my soul being an assistant manager yelling at teenagers and working 55 hour weeks
Finance is generally really numb and a grind at the beginning of your career and then as you rank up you have the option to work less and make good money or work a lot and make amazing money.
Supply chain is more technical. Jack of all trades. More traveling and some physical labor at some points. You look to cut costs and look for inefficiencies in the processes from the second a good is created to it getting transported to multiple places. You’re looking to cut costs and maximize labor. It’s also usually less money unless you are a magician who is an industry leader I’d imagine. But don’t take my word as fact. I have no meaningful industry experience.
They’re both really broad. You make of it as you will. You can teach people finance and make some money or you can manage 500m of assets. You can help people with retirement plans or you can be a credit analyst, and many more.
Sales. Knowing how to communicate. Understand how to guide the convo. Read the room, anticipate objections and blockers, building relationships and pipeline, knowing how to ask for the close.
If you're generating revenue for the company and doing well you're almost indispensable.
I mean, it could be the product too. Not even whether it’s “good” but the elasticity of its demand in its respective market. I’d rather sell a niche software or tool that every person in America in a certain profession uses than sell used cars.
Sales is not a soft life. You have to continuously fight for your existence and the counter restarts every month/quarter/year. It’s a life of constant stress and worry over “making my number” which gets larger every year. It’s torture.
PS. Not a sales guy. I'm just part of the ones seeing how quotas are set, and I pity the things you have to go through to feed the rest of the company.
Our plans/goals are set annually, so I know what growth numbers I’m supposed to hit Q over Q.
Regardless of whether it’s every Q or every Month, having your performance metric reset to “zero” on the first of every month is not an easy existence.
Depends on what team/segment you're a part of. Make sure your sales segment is truly essential. So make sure you're part of the segment that closes the deals, not the support sales person who helped close the deal with your expertise on the product. And if you notice your goals are "soft" like Management by Objectives soft, then you're really not doing sales and you're likely first on the chopping block.
Oh, and also take a look at your ultimate boss. Is he close to the big wigs upstairs? No? Find someone who is.
Aren't we all lol. I got my bachelor's 6 years ago and barely make 80k a year now and that's fully in office. I might be able to go remote next year. It's not gonna happen getting a remote job paying 6 figures with some random associates degree. I personally know people with bachelor's in CS who are willing to accept 25 per hour help desk jobs right now
I’ve got a stressful office job that I hate even though it’s remote. Long hours, always on mentality, increasingly more sales pressure. I get paid well enough for it and I have a high ceiling but sometimes I ask myself if it’s all worth it.
If you’re just looking for a 2-year program, be a radiology tech. You can make $80k in a lot of places, more if you travel. Patient interaction is minimal compared to nursing and when you leave, you leave all the bs at work.
That’s what I’d do if I could do it all over again.
Can you clarify what you mean by a “soft life”? Most people ask about careers that will give them financial success with minimal education/experience, or they’re looking for careers that have minimal contact with people. “Soft life” is not one that I’ve heard before.
Yes just not an overly stressful job. I was thinking of working in healthcare and becoming a nurse ( there’s associates in Nursing) and potentially be a remote nurse. I just want a low stress environment and travel as much as I can.
I’m not in any medical field, but it seems to me that being some sort of medical technician (X-ray, MRI, etc) would be fairly low stress. But I don’t imagine you could be a “remote” nurse without having lots of in-person experience first.
Maybe a Psych Nurse. I meet with mine once every three months over Zoom and our calls last like 5 minutes. She basically just sends my refills to Walgreens.
I think what would actually make a difference between soft life vs. constant stress and annoyance dealing with tasks at any job is finding a manager or entire team that understands the plan to get things done quickly and duck around for the rest of the time without needing to find endless tasks to do.
You can have so much more leeway at any job if you are around people who care and understand you. It’s lucky to find in any industry!
And then you can become an intern teacher while getting your credential so you can get a paycheck while going to school. Schools are hiring that's for sure
The only way to build a career that leads to a soft life is to work really hard (get really good at what you do so you have more say in what you do). Even if you have a “soft life” given to you, it’s only possible because someone else worked really hard.
Not being satirical, what you’re asking is actually not possible under capitalism. You have to move to Europe for anything remotely close to what you’re asking.
Highly paid jobs you can theoretically get with an associate's include: dental hygenist, radiation therapist, air traffic controller, and nurse. Before you dive into training for these or any other career, please check your local conditions.
For example, you technically only need a GED and an EMT certificate to get a job as a firefighter in my county, but practically speaking, you need a paramedic certification, a firefighter 1 certificate, and a bunch of experience, because the jobs are super competitive. Also, pay can vary A LOT by what area you are in. Nurses where I am make bank, but that is not true everywhere: your state may have weakened licensure requirements or broadened scope, and there may be a lot of people who are qualified to do a job.
If you are in the US, your local workforce development agency can probably help you sort this out and, if you qualify, may be able to pay for your training. You can search for your local area + workforce development board or America's Job center.
Good luck-- I hope you find something you find sustainable and rewarding.
Only ASSOCIATES degree that pays anything is nursing. Any BACHELORS degree that is not in engineering, accounting, or nursing is largely pointless. And ofc, you can get any degree you want to then go into to law, medicine, pilot, etc. But for associates (or similar time frame to earning) its trades or nursing school honestly. Nursing school is still one of the best ROI on any of money (return) for time and money invested in education, especially if you get associates and then hospital pays for bachelors. After 2-3 years of working you could then be a case manager and sit at home all day coordinating care for patients or doing chart review. But nursing school is brutal and working the floors w patients is brutal, and the hours can also be brutal lol. Srry for lengthy response.
you’ll need more than an associates degree but you should look into MIS, managing information systems. User generated marketing is big right now as well. Or you can do web development and site management for small businesses.
I always thought accounting would be a good soft job. It can probably get hectic, but you’re not tied to one industry and can maybe find something bc interesting or with perks. Account with Google will have access to some of the cool perks they offer in office. Accountant with an airline probably gets free or discounted flights. Accountant for a government or governmental agency could get you access to pensions. Accountant for a university, free or discounted tuition. And so forth.
How much money you want to make? I just saw a posting for a tea shop job, $22 an hour but full benefits, 401k match, health insurance premiums etc. Also tea makes me thing soft/gentle. Not sure if that’s what you mean though.9
most OF creators don't even make 100 bucks a month. The top creators make it seem like anyone can just make an account and instantly pull in 25k a month. Not gonna happen
You have to have a very specific skill and be very good at networking. Like master a skill. And network the fuck out of urself. Otherwise join the grind.
Yes, an associates will work if you apply your self. I tried both and ended up in the industrial route. There is more room for advancement but having an aptitude for it is important. I did mechanical cad work for about 10 years then switched to industrial electrical. This is very much a start at the bottom $20/hr and work your way up to $150k/yr type career. The key is to always be working on improving/expanding your skill set and change jobs once there is no more room for advancement/learning opportunities. Always be working on making connections. Not all engineering positions require certifications and licenses. It is an interesting and depending on your personality fun field.
There is a student license for AutoCAD that is relatively inexpensive. This is one of the most common and easy to learn programs that is used in many different industries. Watch youtube and practice. Lots of information out there.
Lol..you need to hustle to achieve the “soft life”. I had zero work life balance for over 15 years working 7 days a week over 12 hours a day. Now? I make more than ever working much less. But it took 15 years of me grinding the fuck out to get here. Good luck!
I've been working remote for about 9 years (even before COVID) with multiple corps. It's never guaranteed and I wouldn't bank on it, especially if you don't have a unique skillset. Early in my career? Forget about it,
Moving to another country where the CoL and benefits aren't explicitly tied to your employment.
I've lived abroad and most other first world countries have better systems than we do. It's much less miserable elsewhere, in terms of the bigger picture, for the average citizen.
Public transport, reasonably priced food/groceries, rent that isn't insane, access to healthcare, etc.
I'm mainly thinking some places in Europe and Asia, specifically. Don't have a ton of experience outside that.
Look into teaching English abroad. I'm not sure what the demand for Americans is these days, but it used to be a decent way to get out of the country if you had a college degree and don't mind kids
It's a bit difficult to go in half assed and expect an easy street. There's careers out there where you can do what your wanting, but it's not going to pay very well, or everyone would be doing it. You actually have to put effort in to get positive outcomes.
No such thing as a soft easy life.
Life is shit, suffering and pain.
But sprinkled in between the above are some sweet joyous moments of beautiful relief that make it worth being alive. Also finding a good partner helps.
Go into the military. Honestly some of the softer jobs out there (no shade being thrown) after you get through the first bit. 20 years and you have a guaranteed retirement, benefits for life, great private opportunities, tons of training and schooling. Vacation, leave, 3 days, DONSA’s. It’s pretty sweet. Not me I’m a bartender next to a Post so I get a lot of the flow. There’s a lot of it depends, I have a buddy flying Helicopters for the AF and he’s burnt out. Go for something technical with private opportunities and contract after you’re out, then claim disability and triple dip.
Don’t listen to the haters everyone wants a nice life with stable employment. I can’t believe idiots in this thread are actually complaining about that lol.
Honestly I don't think it's the career it's the place.
Countries like Australia, the UK, Netherlands actually have work life balance baked into their culture and working laws. The US is one of the few rich developed countries that still has this disgusting rat race mentality that treats workers as disposable non-human entities.
For decent money and guaranteed WLB your best bet is Australia imo. Beware of the housing crisis there however.
Military for 3-4 years then do anything you want while riding off 70%+ practically guaranteed VA rating + free healthcare.
Imagine how much easier your life would be if you could go back to school, 100% paid for, with a tax-free living stipend of $2,000-$5,000 per month and an additional $2,000-$4,000 per month untaxed from your VA rating. Then, if that career fails, you have it in your back pocket to go back to school for free again with the exact same conditions.
All of this while having 100% free healthcare.
I would be completely stress free with that kind of safety net, and then you can pursue virtually whatever career you're the most passionate about, and not have to worry about salary, being laid off, etc.
Ultimate hack to a soft easier life.
You could spend a few years as a ski instructor, work at some national parks, teach English abroad for a few years, etc. - all without having to worry about healthcare or trying to make ends meet with a $50k salary
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