After Albert Einstein graduated from college in 1900 he struggled to find work as a teacher and took a job at the patent office. (Even Einstein had to start somewhere.) He used that job, in time honored dues-paying tradition, to pay the bills while he published four groundbreaking scientific papers and earned his Ph.D. in 2006.
Image: Albert Einstein. (2022, December 15). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein