I'm grown... so what should I be now?

January 2, 2016 12:27 PM

I'm mid-thirties, no debt or major commitments. In what career should I retrain?

Having done government policy and R&D work in govt the last five years, I probably don't want to spend my life doing this. Employment forecasting articles I've read are confusing, so I wanted to consult the green.

Goals:
-retrain for an in-demand profession
-make as much $ as expediently as possible (with the ambitious goal of early retirement)

Otherwise I am really flexible, both in terms of job and location. I learn quickly and have a good aptitude for a lot of things. I love learning and working hard, and am open to having to start from scratch.

Other: ambivert, loads of research experience, like working with my hands, math & science were always my best subjects but ended up doing half a PhD in philosophy (no regrets!). Like focusing on difficult challenges, connecting others, helping, solving problems.

posted by crawfo to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Best answer: What about computer programming? I know of some people who went to coding bootcamp to switch careers and are very happy with the outcome so far.
posted by smorgasbord at 1:08 PM on January 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

Anything in the medical profession is in very high demand - and transferable, so you can live where you are happiest. I'd say it's far more important to pursue retraining in a career doing something you are passionate about. That way you won't want to retire early - you'll continue to have meaning and purpose in your life and your life's work. Retire and do what? Whatever that "what" is, maybe you could make a career and $$ doing that! The next 20 - 25 years will fly by as fast as the past decade has for you - and then you have the REST of your life. Sounds like medical may be a good fit for you - math, science are critical, plus you like helping people... follow your passion and you'll never work a day in your life : )
posted by HDoubleM-J at 1:30 PM on January 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Hey, I'm one of those people who went to a coding bootcamp to switch careers (in my mid-thirties) and is very happy with the outcome so far (2 years in). I am also interested in saving lots of money and retiring early (if I could find someone willing to pay me living wages to knit and hike and bake and travel and read and hang out with my family, maybe I'd go for it, but so far there are no takers). I might end up transitioning into more of a project/product management role before I retire - I have more conventional people skills than a lot of the people I work with and although I enjoy my work I like the "figuring out what it should do" part at least as much as I like the "figuring out how to make it do that" part.

I made this switch after about ten years working in health sciences education - I have seen a lot of people spend a lot of time and money pursuing allied health degrees (mostly pharmacy, also MD, dental, nursing, PA, rad tech etc.) with varying results. These are not "work to live" careers (although some of them can be very flexible if you're interested in working part-time or nonstandard hours). Given the amount of debt you have to take on and the opportunity cost of 2-6 years of full-time school, it takes a long time to even break even, much less come out ahead. Health sciences careers are for people with a passion for the work.
posted by mskyle at 2:07 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: [doing what you enjoy is not the same as doing it for a living. i am a software engineer, semi-retired (i work half time). in my time off, i write software. but heck, it's much more pleasant writing what i want, how i want, than it is doing the "same" for pay.]
posted by andrewcooke at 2:34 PM on January 2, 2016

I learned Salesforce and I'm a consultant for a national firm. I travel and work for a variety of different projects. The skills are transferable, so I can learn another program in the future if I need to.

Cloud based systems are in demand now, SAP, Oracle, Workforce, etc.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:36 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It sounds like you might want to be a programmer. The best part is, it's really easy to figure out if that's what you want to do or not, perhaps more so than any other career. Got I codecademy.com, sign up for a free account, and give the JavaScript course a shot. If you like it, there's tons more you can do, either at Codecademy or elsewhere. If you don't, you're only out a couple of hours.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:03 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I agree that coding sounds like a good starting point for right now. For trying it out, there's also freecodecamp.
posted by aniola at 4:41 PM on January 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you so much everyone! I will try out some of the stuff on these links and see how it goes. I really appreciate your help :)
posted by crawfo at 2:15 AM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Whoa, are you me? Anyway, if you're looking into coding you might like the CodeNewbie podcast and the Systers or DevChix forums. MeMail me if you need direct links.
posted by jrobin276 at 1:40 PM on January 3, 2016