Curriculum Map

Career Economics

The real economics of career paths — trades, healthcare, technology, military, entrepreneurship, and college — analyzed with actual earnings data, credential costs, and breakeven calculations. Not ranked options, but different equations.

14 Units

Early Units (Foundation)

Building Skills

Advanced Concepts

Capstone/Synthesis

The Education Premium — and Its Exceptions

What earnings data actually shows about degrees vs. credentials vs. experience — medians, distributions, and when college debt exceeds the lifetime return.

3-4 days

The Skilled Trades

Electricians, plumbers, welders, and HVAC technicians — apprenticeship pipelines, journeyman pathways, earnings trajectories, and the demographic opportunity ahead.

3-4 days

Healthcare Pathways

CNA to RN to NP, EMT to paramedic, dental hygienist, radiology tech — credential stacking in the largest employment sector, with and without a four-year degree.

3-4 days

Technology Without a CS Degree

Coding bootcamps, IT certifications (CompTIA, AWS, Cisco), cybersecurity, and data analytics — which credentials employers actually value and which are resume filler.

3-4 days

Military Service as an Economic Decision

Enlistment bonuses, GI Bill economics, MOS selection strategy, officer vs. enlisted pathways, VA benefits, and the transition gap — a clear-eyed analysis, not recruitment.

3-4 days

Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment

Sole proprietorship vs. LLC, freelancing economics, the gig economy's real numbers, small business survival rates, and the skills that determine whether self-employment builds or destroys wealth.

3-4 days

The Hidden Curriculum of Professional Work

Networking, informational interviews, mentorship, professional communication, and workplace norms — the unwritten rules that determine advancement in every field.

3-4 days

Credential Stacking and Nonlinear Careers

How combining certifications, associates degrees, and experience creates pathways that don't exist in any college brochure — portfolio careers and the death of the linear path.

3-4 days

The Real Cost of College

Tuition, room, board, opportunity cost, and loan amortization — calculating the breakeven year for specific degree-career combinations, not averages.

3-4 days

Geographic Arbitrage

How cost of living, remote work, state taxes, and housing markets change the math — $60K in Boise vs. $90K in San Francisco, and why location is a financial strategy.

3-4 days

Benefits, Not Just Salary

Health insurance, retirement matching, PTO, disability coverage, and equity — how to evaluate a total compensation package, not just a paycheck.

3-4 days

The Labor Market as a System

Supply and demand for skills, automation risk by occupation, Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, and how to read the signals the market sends.

3-4 days

Building Your Career Strategy

Aptitude assessment, values alignment, risk tolerance, and timeline — frameworks for making education and career decisions under genuine uncertainty.

3-4 days

The First Five Years

What actually matters between 18 and 23 — compounding advantages of early career moves, the cost of drift, and the recoverable vs. permanent consequences of early choices.

3-4 days

Learning Progression

This course is designed to be taken sequentially. Earlier units establish foundational concepts that later units build upon. While you can explore units in any order, following the numbered sequence provides the most coherent learning experience.