1

"Teaching in university/college. You have to do a PhD minimum, and consistently churn out new research materials. You'd have invested over a decade getting all the degrees but jobs are scarce so you end up being a temporary faculty for a few more years, doing the same or more amount of work for a fraction of the pay. At least, this is how it is in my country."

2

"Probably about any kind of artist, but in particular 3D (CG) artist. Tons of art schools popped up selling degrees to be a video game artist or a chance to be an animator at Disney or something. Ended up oversaturating the market with low quality portfolios that had no chance of ever getting into a major studio."

3

"Trap: veterinarian, debt of MD but fraction of the salary. Works if you don't have to pay for college and vet school, but not really logical if you do."

4

"Janitors make more money than you might think."

5

"A lot of non-profits rely on your desire to do meaningful work to get away with some pretty exploitative labor practices. I’m sure it depends though because that’s a really broad category."

6

"Nursing school has to literally lie to students about what being in the floor in a hospital is like so that they don't run away."

7

"Psychology- I have six years of school and I’ll need more to get to my end goal"

8

"Journalist. I started bartending in college to pay for the degree. Got it. I'm still a bartender. You don't make money writing until you die. Or unless you f@#k your boss. I had no interest in television news so that was out. Plus, I live in DC. I got tired of the grind real quick."

9

"Any video game career. I wouldn't say any specialized degree is a waste, but it's completely unnecessary. Jobs are super competitive so breaking in w/out experience is hard, and there's more and more candidates every year. One company I worked for said they rejected five thousand resumes for a position they posted. If you are talented to get a job you're talented enough to make 2x more outside gaming. Stress, burnout, and divorce are super common."

10

"The biggest scam is being a qualified librarian. For terrible pay, organizations want you to have a flipping Master's in Library Science. If the jobs paid more, it would make sense but it's absolutely ridiculous. Even worse because you can sneak your way into being a librarian other ways and still be paid what qualified people are paid (there are always exceptions)."

11

"According to what I've seen with a woman I dated, Architecture. Lots of hungry, driven kids coming out of architecture school ready to make their mark on the world. Reality is that Architects make little money while being pinched between developers, customers, and consultants. Everyone other than them makes the money, and they're expected to work crazy hours."

12

"Trap: stripper

Overlooked: strip club staff

I know you don't need a degree, but if I had a dollar for every girl that thought stripping was it... Wait, I do have a dollar for every girl. Cause I stayed on the staff side. You have more responsibility than dancing, but if you get some management or accounting or business training, you can move right up to mgmt quickly. Most people running a club do not have a formal education. They're just doing what seems best, which can turn into who knows what. If you are professional, sober, not trying to sleep with the girls, and competent in the actual work, you're a unicorn. The hours are crazy and people are crazy, but the money is great. And I feel like it's so much more honest than a lot of corporate b.s. I sat through in vanilla jobs. A really well run club is a beautiful thing.

Also the trades, and other service work like hairdressers and house cleaners. You can make right under six figures if you work for yourself and can handle people well. These are both hard on the lungs though over time if you don't mask and ventilate well when working with chemicals."