How This Former Bartender, 29 Years Old, Started A Six-Figure AI Career

Hannah Maruyama wasn’t suited for college life. She dabbled early, enrolling in classes at Georgia Southern while still in high school at a teacher’s recommendation, but she found it uninteresting. 

The 29-year-old Maruyama tells CNBC Make It, “She could tell I was bored in high school, but I didn’t find college much more stimulating, either.” “It was in my mind that I would incur debt for this.” After a few semesters, she departed Georgia Southern.

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Maruyama initially believed that her only options for a career without a college degree were working in low-paying jobs or starting her own business. She never made more than $30,000 a year working as a deckhand on a dolphin-watching boat, a lifeguard, or a bartender during her 20s.

About to turn 30, Maruyama makes over $100,000 working in AI without a bachelor’s degree and mentoring young people, ages 16 to 20, on creating professions without a degree. 

After moving from Savannah to Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2018, Maruyama and her spouse Ryan decided to follow their childhood dreams of becoming firefighters and cosmetic tattoo artists.

She remembers, “I always thought it was the most amazing thing when I saw a documentary in school about a woman in Saudi Arabia who did cosmetic tattoos for women who had been acid burned.” 

When Ms. Maruyama was residing in Savannah in 20018, she obtained her license as a cosmetic tattoo artist. At the close of 2018, the couple established Yama Studios, a tattoo parlour in Honolulu, which they managed alternately from their day jobs.

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Maruyama remembers, “It was a grind, but I loved it.” “I’d curl up under my desk at the call centre if I had time before my shift and take a quick nap because I was that tired.”

Following the global disruption caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, Ms. Maruyama was forced to close her tattoo parlours. According to CNBC Make It, she was placed on furlough from her position at the call centre with no indication of when she would return to work. 

“At that point, I knew it was time to look for a new job,” she recalls. “We had two rents to pay, on our house and the studio, and Hawaii isn’t cheap.”

She went out of her way to find a job that didn’t require a bachelor’s degree.

“Even if I didn’t meet the educational requirements, I applied and would note in my application or during the interview that I’ll learn anything I need to as quickly as I can,” she explains. “I think the exact phrase I used was, ‘I’m a shiny new penny!'” 

Simultaneously, she began posting on TikTok about her experiences searching for and getting a job without a college degree; each of her videos attracted over 500,000 views.

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“People loved the content, it just took off,” she claims. “I remember staring at my phone, watching the likes and comments roll in and thinking, ‘There’s something here.'”

She started Degree Free, an online platform that provides free educational resources and career advice to young people interested in occupations that don’t require a college degree, in October 2021.

She is now certified in project management, data analytics, and other fields.

According to financial records examined by CNBC Make It, Degree Free made over $128,000 in profit in 2023 from its teaching services and brand collaborations, which the Maruyamas split equally. 

“Growing up, I was often told that college was the end-all-be-all, that you couldn’t be successful without it,” she recalls. However, that is no longer the world in which we live. You may take a million different degree-free pathways, and I consider myself fortunate to have discovered one that brings me joy.”

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