Twitter Users Share How to Make $5,000 after High School without Marketable Skills

Founder of Baremetrics and Laser Tweets, Josh Pigford, shared a Twitter thread recently asking users what they would do to earn $5,000 right out of high school with zero marketable skills. Users weighed in on what approaches they would take to earn a realistic income with no experience to back them up.  

Get a Traditional Job

For some users, getting a traditional job seemed the best way to go about earning a tidy $5,000 each month. But this can be much more difficult without any marketable skills or a college degree behind you. Options for obtaining a job without a honed skillset included: 

• Recruiting
• Sales job with a higher commission rate
• Bartending
• Landscaping

Also mentioned was the possibility of taking a full-time job — any job, really — and spending those six months working on a marketable skill. Perhaps the most highly recommended skill to learn related to coding, a field that could pay huge dividends with average salaries starting around $50,000 and increasing from there. 

You can find plenty of freelance jobs that will build up your coding portfolio through sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or FlexJobs. 

That same full-time job could fuel your passion. One recommendation was to take the first six months after your graduation date and work full-time while building up your digital audience on platforms like YouTube or TikTok.

If you have a little income to spend on education, you could also get your CDL.  

Start a Business

If you want to create an income that can scale, users couldn't recommend starting your own business enough. The common thread seemed to relate to household services. These range from lawn care to washing the dog to cleaning the bathrooms. Of course, it takes quite a bit of hustle to get a business of any kind off the ground. 

It was recommended that high school graduates research homes that have recently sold or those with some discretionary income ($100,000 to $300,000 annually). Head door to door, offering up your services or barter with them for payment for tasks that they dislike doing themselves. Take your first few months of income and reinvest it into your business.

By the time six months rolls around, users are confident that someone with a little hustle could be making a generous $5,000 per month. 

Pitch Yourself to Companies

If the freelance gig economy doesn't suit you, take your talents directly to the marketplace to get your dream job. One user recommends building up a list of series A startups and the email contacts for their founders. The key here is to ask for an introduction to their marketing department. Here, you can pitch yourself as an excellent candidate for a brand development representative (BDR). 

Make sure that you have a compelling reason why you are interested in working for the company. This allows you to pitch the founders and their marketing department in lieu of marketable experience. 

Put Yourself Out There

The general consensus among Pigford's responses is that you will need to put yourself out there more if you lack marketable skills. Even right out of high school, there are plenty of career options you can pursue. Put your head down and get to work with some of these suggestions. Whether you plan to pursue traditional employment, learn a new skill, or start your own business, here's where you start.