Turn Any Teen Job Into a Real Advantage (Here's How) (The Hannah Maruyama Show #11)

Hannah Maruyama [00:00:00]:
I just recently went on the Future of Education podcast, which is the podcast for the Alpha School. So I was talking to Mackenzie Price, who's the founder of the Alpha School and also the podcast host, and she asked me a question that I thought was so interesting I wanted to make an entire episode about it. So if your child's thinking about skipping college, there's one fear that a lot of parents really struggle with, and that's if they don't go, then your child may get stuck in a dead-end job. And it's a fair worry, or at least it sounds like one, but it's the wrong worry. And that's not because dead-end jobs don't exist or that's not a real risk. They do, and it is. But whether a job is a dead-end job isn't actually about the job. It's actually about the fit between the job and then where your child is trying to go.

Hannah Maruyama [00:00:37]:
And it's important here to remember the reality of college. According to the Federal Reserve, 41% of recent grads are underemployed, working in jobs that don't require the degree. And for most of them, 10 years out, that's still going to be true. This is important because half of college students aren't even going to graduate. So the ones that do, half of them, just about, are underemployed. It's not great. And then for recent grads, the unemployment rate is still really high also, and it's higher than the national average, 5.7%. And again, this is according to the Federal Reserve 2026.

Hannah Maruyama [00:01:05]:
Strada and then the Burning Glass Institute did a study and they found that 73% of grads who start in an underemployed job are still underemployed 10 years later. We're talking about a very narrow group of people who are actually going to get positive ROI out of this. There are a lot of jobs that if your child starts strategically when they're younger are much less of a dead end than buying a degree and then trying to get an entry-level role. Now, a little bit of context. I worked in enterprise-level AI and machine learning software for years without buying a college degree. Then I founded Degree Free, and then I wrote a book called The Degree Free Way: How to Help Your 16 to 20 Year Old Build the Life They Want. And it's helped over 18,000 families nationwide guide their kids to the right careers. I wanna talk about what parents are actually worried about.

Hannah Maruyama [00:01:40]:
Like, they're worried about this dead-end job because in their head it's a job with no future to it. They're stocking shelves, they're working the counter, they're answering phones, and the fear is that their child takes one of those jobs and then never gets out of it. But here's what the data on careers actually shows. There's no such thing as a job that is inherently a dead end. There are jobs that strategically fit into a child's career trajectory and then jobs that don't. And a job that doesn't fit is a dead end no matter how prestigious it is. Plenty of law school graduates are sitting in jobs that go nowhere they wanted to be. 45% of grads are still unemployed a full decade out, as I mentioned, from Strada.

Hannah Maruyama [00:02:13]:
And then a job that does fit is strategic no matter how humble it may look. So the real question isn't, will my kid get stuck in a dead-end job? It's, does the work that they're doing serve the goal that they're trying to reach? And so here's how to figure that out. So if your child is trying to decide what comes after high school and you want to help them navigate that, but you want the real math on what's going on instead of just what colleges are selling you, subscribe, because the show exists to give you a real clear picture of what's actually happening in the job market so that you can help guide your child to make a better call for their future than a default. Let's use a scenario to talk about it's the fit, not the job, and what that looks like with 2 real kids. So like you've got 2 18-year-olds hired in the same week at the same grocery store chain, both of them stocking shelves, like identical starting point. 5 years later, Kid A may still be stocking shelves because he never really picked a direction. That job was just a job that he took and it's just a holding pattern. But Kid B is an assistant manager.

Hannah Maruyama [00:03:06]:
She figured out at 19 that retail operations interested her, and so she started learning the store's P&L. Mm-hmm. And she watched what the store manager actually did all day. She got promoted to lead and then supervisor and then assistant manager. And that same ladder runs up through store manager and then district manager to a regional VP. So the dead-end job for Kid A is actually the strategic entry-level role for Kid B. Same chain, same role, same shift. The only difference is whether the work served a larger goal.

Hannah Maruyama [00:03:32]:
So it's really not that the job is a dead end, it's that the goal is not clear and not best served by that career. And here's the part that most parents are missing, and it changes this whole conversation. The 18-year-old who goes degree-free and then goes straight to work has to find what we call SEW, strategic entry-level work. And the 23-year-old who finishes college also has to find strategic entry-level work. The difference is that it's way more difficult to get strategic entry-level work when you are 23 years old because employers believe that it's very risky to hire college graduates for entry-level work because they will leave. And that's true. But the problem is that college graduates are really only qualified for entry-level work. And that's really why so many college graduates are struggling to get work, because every career is going to start at the same place and the degree does not change that.

Hannah Maruyama [00:04:14]:
It doesn't change the structural fact that the grad has no clear skills and has to start at the bottom of an actual career ladder and then climb. And that's really difficult for them to stomach when they are 23 years old and have student debt. And it's difficult for employers to take that risk when they know they're not willing to do that work. So the kid who finds his strategic entry-level role at 18 has roughly 5 years of paid experience and money in the bank by the time the college kid is walking across the graduation stage. The college kid who will then arrive at the same starting line at 23, but they have debt, higher expectations, and no work experience or clear skills. And it's a lot more pressure because the college student spent 4 to 6 years and $108,000 to $156,000. So the first job now carries this like, this had better be right and it better make enough money for me, but they still have to start at the same place that the 18-year-old started. 5 years ago.

Hannah Maruyama [00:05:01]:
But for a long time, that wait, just get the degree and then start, it felt like the safer thing to do. But in 2026, it's the riskiest version. And when I explain it, it's probably going to make a lot of sense. It may seem kind of paradoxical, but employers now want 2 to 5 years of experience even for entry-level roles. But the odd thing is, and you wouldn't expect this, it's much easier— and our company does this, we help young adults find the right entry-level role— it's much easier to get 18, 19, and 20-year-olds into those roles than it is For college graduates. It's very difficult to do that because employers know that they're likely to leave and they're just not going to have the right expectations for the entry-level roles that are really the only thing they're qualified for. It's kind of hard not to feel bad for grads because it's really college that ruined their expectations and then didn't equip them with anything useful for the market. And you may say, oh well, how is an 18-year-old supposed to get entry-level roles? It's much easier to get employers to take that risk on an entry-level hire that's 18 or 19 or 20 years old.

Hannah Maruyama [00:05:50]:
It just is. And I think a lot of it's just because they've been burned by the college grad demographic, and so they're just less willing to take those risks now. And you can see this in bigger companies. IBM has a new collar apprenticeship program. They retain those apprentices at a 90% rate. SpaceX is actually now going around local colleges around where they are, and they're just going straight to high schools to pull and train people because they found that they just stay longer. And that's a huge thing for companies, churn. They're just trying to minimize churn.

Hannah Maruyama [00:06:14]:
But the core of this is that the young adult who starts early doesn't just save money, but they build actual experience so that when they are applying for the same jobs that college graduates are applying for when they get out of college, The college graduates have a degree and no experience, and the 18-year-olds have experience and they don't actually need the degree because only 10% of jobs in our whole country need college degrees. And I think that's what really people are missing and having a hard time understanding, but that's what's going on. But because of the way a lot of parents grew up, they picture the entry-level job market as a locked door that only a degree can open, but the actual market is telling people the opposite. So a lot of parents are worried about this dead-end job because they're assuming that their child will be locked out of all of the good career ladders unless they buy paper, but they're not because nearly all of the jobs in our country, 90% of the jobs in our country are open to them at 18. They just have to find the right strategic entry point for them where they're trying to do it. And let's just talk about jobs that parents will think, oh, well, surely you need a degree for this. But like, take engineering, which is a job that most parents are positive requires a degree. It's a locked door.

Hannah Maruyama [00:07:12]:
You can only open it with a degree. But only about 20% of working engineers in our country hold a PE license, which is the one credential that legally gates engineering work. The other 80%— software, hardware, manufacturing, field service— all start on a ladder that doesn't require paper to step onto. In fact, it makes it more difficult if you try to get entry-level technician work with a degree. But if you're 18, 19, 20 years old, companies are way more likely to give you a shot and then train you. And in fact, if your child is interested in engineering roles, a great place to start would be a couple episodes ago, I did an entire show about if your child wants to be an engineer, what are the entry-level roles? And then how does that work when you're looking at objectively what they need to do to get into them? Very useful if they fall into this camp. And again, out of every 100 jobs, fewer than 10 legally require a degree. The other 90 are open to anyone who can do the work.

Hannah Maruyama [00:07:57]:
And the entry-level rungs of almost every real career ladder are reachable at 18. So you've got help desk, shop floor operations, inside sales, lab techs, and field service. The reason to start searching for strategic entry-level work for your child isn't just money. The stakes are the lowest for your child to try things when they are the most free to take a risk. When a child is 18, they have the maximum flexibility. They have few obligations, they have no debt, and the cheapest living situation they'll ever have. Like, they're able to take risks on a role and then hate it after 6 months. And move on without it costing them anything.

Hannah Maruyama [00:08:26]:
But when a kid is 23 with 6 figures of debt and a degree they have to justify, every move is very expensive and public, and failure is terrifying. They don't feel like they can take the role that pays less now and then compounds later. They can't afford to try something and then hate it and then walk away from it because they've been told the only way to change careers is to buy more degrees. So that debt and that mindset really narrows the road for them. The right time to take these strategic risks are when the stakes are very low. And for your child, that's now, not 5 years from now when they have student debt and they've burned a ton of time. In fact, I think this is a lot of why Gen Z feels so stuck. Now, nearly half of Gen Z workers say their current role isn't even in the field they want.

Hannah Maruyama [00:09:03]:
That's according to Deloitte 2026 Gen Z survey. And 63% say their job is just a stepping stone, but not actually the career they want. And that's a CPA Practice Advisor exam from April of 2026. Like, a stepping stone is fine, but if it's a stepping stone not in the desired career or industry, that's a problem. Quick word from our sponsor, and there's no sponsor, it's just me. But if your child needs help figuring out their larger goal so they can find strategic entry-level work that ramps onto it, that's exactly what we do in the Launch program. We do the research for them, help them build a 12-month plan for what career is going to fit their needs, how they're going to learn it, the order to learn things in, and then how they're going to move forward and then find entry-level roles that work for them. It's an intense custom one-on-one service that takes weeks to do.

Hannah Maruyama [00:09:43]:
If you want that kind of support for your child, degreefree.com/launch, apply, and then we'll get on a call and see if it's a good fit for them. And if it is, we'll talk about how they can enroll. Okay, so here's the part that's actually useful to you. What will stop your child from taking a dead-end job is Really simple. They must figure out the larger goal first, and then they only take jobs that actually help them get there. It sounds simple, but that's the framework. So we're basically just reverse engineering. So the start of this is what life does your child actually want? And if that's difficult, then talk about what they don't want, because sometimes it's easier for them to talk about what they don't want than what they do.

Hannah Maruyama [00:10:13]:
But then you're identifying work that actually will deliver that life, that schedule, that income, that location, or that work environment. And then you start by finding entry-level roles that they can start today. that will help them ramp into that industry. So, now you're finding those roles, and given this is difficult, it sounds easy when I explain it, but it takes a lot of work for our team to do this, but you prep them to interview, you make sure their resumes are right, and then you build skills, you build a track record, they get promotions, they get certificates, they get licenses. Employers will pay for degrees if they are necessary, which I'm a huge fan of, because that tells you what really is necessary. So, now what you need to do is sit down and work through these questions, like what life do they want? What work will deliver that life? What entry-level role will help them get there? And then once those answers become clear, now you have a description for what types of entry-level jobs that they should take that's not just rooting around trying to find something. It's an actual step. So if you want an actionable way to use this, then ask your child what job they'd take next month if they had to take one, and then ask what that job builds towards.

Hannah Maruyama [00:11:14]:
So if they can answer the second question, then the job is strategic, even if it doesn't sound like it's very glamorous. But if they can't answer What it's gonna build to or what career it's gonna help them get, it's a dead end. Even if it sounds impressive, that, that question of what does this help you get is the filter that you need to use. Kids who actually go through this process before they take an opportunity don't take dead-end jobs. They recognize that if they're trying to get something, it has to serve a larger goal because every role has to answer the same question. Does this build towards what I'm trying to do? So it's not about the job, it's about a clear goal. So if you're a parent and you're worried about like, you know, I'm just worried they're gonna take a dead-end job. I'm just worried they're gonna work in a place that's not gonna lead them anywhere.

Hannah Maruyama [00:11:52]:
And you think that the only way to protect them against that is to send them to college. It makes sense. That's what you were told to do. It's probably what your parents were even told to do. But the thing that actually protects your child from a dead end isn't a degree. It's not paper. It's a clear, larger goal that gets set before they ever start looking for jobs. Because without that, the most expensive degree in the world still will put them in a career that doesn't lead where they want.

Hannah Maruyama [00:12:15]:
But with it, even stocking shelves could become the first rung of her strategic career ladder. So instead of worrying about the job itself, you have to worry about the motivation first, figuring out what your child needs and then helping them to figure out what they must do in order to get to that point. And then if the current job they're taking helps them to gain some sort of skill or some sort of experience that will help them on that path. So it's picking the right job for the goal, no matter what it is, because that's what's going to help your kids build a life they actually want. Now, if this helped you, go ahead and subscribe and then share with another parent who's staring down the college cliff and worrying about their child and ending up in a dead-end job. If you do want one-on-one support, the application for the Launch program is in the show notes, or you can go to degreefree.com/launch.