Earning a high school diploma, or an assessment of general educational development (a GED, also known as a general equivalency diploma) is the minimum entry point for most careers. While it is certainly possible to obtain employment with less education (as current high school students with jobs prove), advancing to any sort of responsible or managerial position usually requires at least a high school degree, as do most forms of higher education. Students should research their specific fields of interest in order to determine whether a high school diploma is sufficient or whether a higher degree might be necessary. That said, a high school degree or its equivalent helps people earn, on average, about $200,000 more over the course of a lifetime than those without a high school degree, according to U.S. Census figures.