especially the fact that I ended up in that job without any college degree, working alongside colleagues who had multiple advanced degrees. I started as a research assistant and was promoted by my department director three months later to research analyst, a job I then did for years. I think it would be very hard to do that anymore in today’s work world without a degree. I was just lucky that my boss quickly saw something in me and promoted and mentored me. A lot of my work was investigative research supporting various social justice campaigns. I’m a prime example of a self-educated person.
At any rate, I’m recently retired now with a good defined pension from 20 years with that employer. Any work I do now will be freelance. I’m done with the full-time job phase of my life and love having the time to do whatever I want.
