Career-switching in your 50s: Please share your experiences

December 12, 2013 1:50 PM

I'm 52 and thinking about investing in a Masters Degree to learn computer forensics. I'd be interested to hear from people to attempted a career left-turn that late, and also from people in this field re: the feasibility of my goals.

My career to date has been (early on) offline marketing/advertising, and then internet marketing since about 1995 or so. For me this has meant managing corporate websites, digital branding, content management, etc in a corporate setting.

Being 52, I look ahead at the next 10 or 15 years and feel like I will probably have to, and will probably want to, keep working. But it's unlikely I would/could retain my current role as a midlevel manager in a corporate marketing department that entire time, and I have even less enthusiasm for trying to build a consultancy in my profession in my late 50s.

I'm very interested in the profession of computer forensics, analyzing hardware and network activity to detect crime or fraud, and providing litigation support therefrom. (More interested in investigating criminal activity than in hardening defenses against it) I have no background in law, accounting or computer science, other than having picked up enough tech theory over the years to be able to manage developers in getting work done for web development. I'm pretty technically minded, super curious, a quick learner and a great communicator.

So I'm thinking I could do this two year online Masters program, come out of it with a degree in Economic Crime Forensics (technology track), and hopefully land a position as an analyst or similar somewhere. From there I build enough experience and contacts to be able to go out on my own after a few years and earn similar or close to the same comp, and then wind down as I got older. My questions are:

How hard will it be to get a job with this degree (fully accredited program from a respected university in my region, which is SE Pennsylvania), given I will be 55 with no professional or academic experience (other than thru this program) in comp sci, accounting, law or law enforcement?

If I was able to work in this field, what would be my likely best-case peak comp in this scenario? 50s? 80s? 100s? I'm currently making about $90K and would like to get close to that. Crazy?

Am I leaving myself enough time to build the professional experience (and the network) required to successfully consult in the field?

Would the private sector (financial services, law firms) be the better bet for me, or should I be thinking in terms of government employment?

What other questions should be asking myself and others? What's the hardest part of switching careers when you're this old?

Thanks!

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (10 answers total)

It's hard to get a tech job as an old(er) person. Which is why I switched from a tech career to become a psychotherapist. There's lots of age discrimination out there.
posted by Obscure Reference at 2:45 PM on December 12, 2013

I work at a leading Silicon Valley software company. Our information security and IT people do have specific professional degrees, but they also have years of hands-on experience with industry-standard tools and a deep understanding of networking. They know what typical attack patterns look like, how they evolve over time, and what kind of remediation methods are appropriate in different organizational contexts. I don't know if you can reasonably strike out into consulting on computer forensics without a similar sort of ongoing practical experience.
posted by Nomyte at 3:03 PM on December 12, 2013

At your age, I would think long and hard, then think a couple more times before investing in a masters program in any field. I'm 55 and have found it pretty impossible to even get an interview for a job at my age. Plus, once you have the degree, you start the real education...on the job.

I'm afraid, at your age, it's doubtful anyone is going to give you a chance. There are simply far too many younger people out there, with a lot more real-world experience. And, employers look at people our age as 1. More expensive, and 2. Not a long-term hire.

I'm sorry to be so negative about your dream, but reality simply sucks for people our age. You're currently pulling-down $90k. Ride that train.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:10 PM on December 12, 2013 [6 favorites]

Instead of a degree why don't you just get the experience? Can you join a lab/team as a volunteer? Or maybe get some experience in a law/security setting that might build up your resume to a point where you can easily switch? Use your online skills to turn them into your next career move
posted by ladoo at 3:21 PM on December 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Is there any way you can arrange an informational interview somewhere you'd consider working? It would be interesting to get some first hand feedback and start making contacts. I'd also consider talking to the careers dept of any schools you're interested in.
posted by cestmoi15 at 4:02 PM on December 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

I started grad school in psychology 5 years ago, and now I'm 52 and finally getting licensed (it's a long process). Prior to that I was a commercial photographer for 25yrs, taught photography for 15yrs and ran a web site design firm for 6yrs and spent a lot of time being an artist as well. This has been the right change at the right time for me, but psychology is a profession where my "maturity" comes in handy. I haven't found any real problems in switching careers at this stage in my life, but this is my third or fourth career so it kinda comes naturally to me. Though I will say I have more financial worries at this time.
posted by johngumbo at 4:34 PM on December 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

My mom went to grad school in her 50's and is a licensed ABA therapist - she works with kids behavioral issues in their home or at school. Studying was harder, and she didn't have the energy she did in her 20's in undergrad. Her age has been a plus, since many parents are more receptive to a grandmotherly type with grown children teaching them parenting skills rather than some smart-ass 22 yr old with no kids of their own.

I have a friend who finished a computer forensics masters in the Chicago area a few years ago, and did really well (he's in his early 30's). He has the same job he had when he'd temporarily dropped out of undergrad: he works for his uncle's surveying company. Anecdata, of course.
posted by jrobin276 at 5:44 PM on December 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I wish you the best of luck whatever you do, but please don't spend money on education (or anything) where you'd need to rely on the "charity" of businesses to "give you a chance."

The world has changed. It's dog eat dog as it's always been, but now the big dogs are enormously larger, more powerful, and even more vicious. I wish I had a better answer. Personally, I'm in the same position, and I have no idea how I will survive. Again, I wish you well.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 6:22 PM on December 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

NO. Entry level jobs in SE PA do not make 90k or even close to that. What you would get in teh field after graduating would be an entry level job.
posted by WeekendJen at 4:46 AM on December 13, 2013

From my very limited view I think this isn't a great idea. You need to do the math and logistics on this one, namely the cost involved in going back to school for two years (I presume you wouldn't be working during that time). Get a very honest "worst case" idea of how much debt you would have at the end of this. Then get a realistic idea of how much an entry level person in that field makes, as well as a realistic idea of how likely it would be for you to get hired. A lot of people WILL think twice about hiring you because at that point you'd be almost 55. They aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you'd be able to perform your job as well as a younger person in that role. Plus, there is an element of "He is 55, he doesn't have a huge number of quality working years left, lets not invest our time and money and training on someone who may want to retire in 6 years."

I think you'd be running a huge risk of accumulating a lot of debt that you won't be able to pay off.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 9:21 AM on December 13, 2013