For a while, Maruyama thought her career options without a college degree would be limited to low-wage jobs or becoming an entrepreneur. Cosmetic tattoo artists, who need to complete classes and acquire a license, tattoo permanent makeup and can camouflage bald patches and tattoo full scalps to create the appearance of hair. Maruyama obtained her cosmetic tattoo artist license in 2018 while living in Savannah. Most of the open jobs Maruyama saw online were in tech and required skills she had never heard of. At the same time, Maruyama started sharing her experience looking for — and landing — a job without a college degree on TikTok under the username @degreefree.

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Persons: Maruyama, Hannah Maruyama, Ryan, Hannah, furloughed Organizations: CNBC, Georgia Southern, Georgia Southern University, Yama Studios, Honolulu Fire Department, AWS Locations: Savannah, AskMakeIt@cnbc.com, Honolulu, Hawaii, Saudi Arabia