Jobs without a degree

No such thing as a free lunch, unless you're well connected and know the right person who'll give you a handy number.

Most employers want productivity and value from their employees.

Sales would be my suggestion, something that has commission.

Given your current situation, walking into a job with a gross wage of €50k per year will be almost impossible.

If you where willing give yourself 5 years to work towards that I woukd suggest civil service if you didn't want to get a degree.

Would have to be for yourself (no one walks into a landscape job for 50k especially with zero experience) but that being said it's going to be difficult. You'll need to be good and possibly have to subsidise building your portfolio as no one will hire a landscaper without asking for pictures of previous work. Also it's a manual labour job and needs to be taken seriously, one injury/pulled muscle you could be right back to square one.

Also I feel like you're looking for somewhat of a unicorn; if there was plentiful jobs around paying 50k with no experience/degree required majority of them would be snapped up already.

Painter,

No degree needed,little bit of practice and youtube vids.

You'll always have work and be able to chose your hours to a certain extent.

Plus a lot of them probably get paid cash in hand.

Not so long go, insurance was lucrative without a degree.

Particularly Commercial Insurance (sales and/or service), if I had to choose one division.

Without a degree, I don't think you'll get beyond 40-ish k per year in the civil service.

I've not met a single EO appointed within the last 10 years who doesn't actually have a degree.

Sure, it's not technically needed in the job-spec. But in reality, it's very hard to get now, as they have deliberately tried to raise the workforce quality.

I know HEOs without a degree and a few APs. HEO should certainly be attainable without one.

The problem with not having a degree is that no matter what job you get you will only progress so far without it.

Let's say you get a job in a factory on a production line, you do well and are promoted to supervisor, then team lead or whatever the next level up is

Then the job for higher than team lead comes up.

But now you are in bother because Mary who is also a team lead is also going for it, and she has a degree and is just as good as you at the job.

You will miss out.

So no matter what job you find OP, also try find time to get a degree, or at least some further education, it will do you no harm.

Painting, tiling, decorating.

Low setup costs, decent pay right out of the gate, cash jobs, work to suit your lifestyle. Start out with friends and family in the evenings and weekends to get the hang of it, then use them to advertise locally for you.

Work hard, get a good reputation, hire a few young lads to help you out.

Long service Gardai and Prison service being an example. Your example dosen't hold water there. They aren't looking just for people who talk the talk and your qualifications are relevant how?

Most people will take anybody who's available as has been the case for the last few years and will be for the next few.

Experience is easy to get. Just paint your own house and your family and friends. All the tutorials are on Youtube. Paint and tools are cheap enough. Then take a few pictures, snazzy them up for an Instagram profile and there you go!

We got quotes to paint our house, 120sqm, nothing fancy and it was 900 in labour alone.

Think of your choice here as a path into a long term career, not just a job with decent pay.

What do you have natural aptitude for? What area are you interested in? Finance, Logistics, Engineering, Manufacturing, Tourism, Marketing, Logistics, a Trade, Car Sales, Government, Teaching, Tech?

For a country with relatively cheap Third Level education, Ireland tends to overvalue (IMO) college degrees. I work in engineering, and despite some of my colleagues having a ton of experience, their lack of a Level 8 degree holds them back career wise, so many have gone back to study at night.

A better option would be to avail of the educational supports available to get a degree while working, or a similarly valuable professional qualification, law, accounting, banking- dependent on what area you are working in.

You can't just decide to become a Painter over night by practicing painting your own house or family , for one thing he'd be much slower than an experienced painter so even if he charges the same as what professionals are charging he will be only be earning half what they earn if he's taking twice as long .

If the OP could afford to do it by getting a job with a painter to learn the trade and then sticking that job for a year he would then have the experience to get his own van and advertise for work. The same could be done with a tiler also , tiling is probably better paid than painting .

As for jobs with no degree that are well paid , chimney sweeps seem to earn a decent wage from what l can see , the guys who come out to unblock a drain are charging €120 nowadays per job .

Depending on where he's based becoming a Taxi Driver is another option .

Politics.

You don't even need a qualification. Even having a criminal record related for drug use and littering is no barrier! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_%27Ming%27_Flanagan

Littering 🤣 you make it sound like he was caught dumping a lorry load of old tires down a country lane.