I'm 34 and going back to college

[IrishDunner]

I have a degree and masters in very specialist areas with little employment opportunities, in my country I can do a degree for free or very low cost if I need to be reskilled, what area in it should I be looking into as in to have fun, make money

[Boinbo]

3 minutes ago, IrishDunner said:

I have a degree and masters in very specialist areas with little employment opportunities, in my country I can do a degree for free or very low cost if I need to be reskilled, what area in it should I be looking into as in to have fun, make money

I think this should be in off topic imo. But I want to say computer science, so you can become a hardware engineer, and design/make hardware items, ranging from CPUs to Keyboards.

[Gmoneyinthebank]

I guess it depends on what you think is fun and how much money you're looking to make.

If it's nearly free, I'd write a PHD thesis.

[Teddy07]

1 hour ago, IrishDunner said:

I have a degree and masters in very specialist areas with little employment opportunities, in my country I can do a degree for free or very low cost if I need to be reskilled, what area in it should I be looking into as in to have fun, make money

Awesome!

 

Thought I share a few experiences:

I went to college at age 33 to study computer science. I expected to be amongst the only older guy there but I met a few 28+ year old as well. Once is even 42.

My age didn´t even come up one single time so far. I am just another student but you have to feel comfortable studying beside other fresh from high school.

 

What is your skill? I don´t think I would start with a new degree considerung you already got one.

 

[Boinbo]

Just now, comander said:

Computer science doesn't do any of that. That's some mix of electrical engineering and computer engineering. 

 

Computer science studies the nature of how code runs. 

Oh I'm sorry I must have heard misinformation. Thank you for correcting me.

[Boinbo]

2 minutes ago, comander said:

Also be aware that my response was an oversimplification. 

 

Intel, for example, likely has a place for people with many different backgrounds, it's just that designing a CPU (or rather a small part of one) usually involves things learned in EE, CE, EECS, etc. the most while writing code most directly draws from CS and Software Engineering. 

 

Note that an individual's experience usually matters more than their degree. I've run into software engineers who dropped out of social sciences PhD programs and CPU designers who studied applied math... They all did things to develop relevant skills. 

Okay then.

[Uttamattamakin]

Id say a STEM topic that you think is interesting.  There will always be some kind of work available in STEM.  May not always pay top dollar but you will have some kind of work. 

[MadDuke]

The choice is yours and is nice to have one. 

 

If you are frustrated about not being able to find work now and you really don't have any real "wish" to work in somewhere specific. I would say. Stick to development. Coding. 

 

Those jobs are fine paying and you are not locked in to a specific branch of the industry.  Especially in your country there is a deficit of those workers and Ireland is relying heavily in importing skill labor. As such. As a local. You will have an advantage. 

 

Other possibility is going the system admin route. I have a ton of friends who went that route and in (depending on a person) 2-3 years of working at the first company. got them from a bit of a country below average salary (here in Croatia) to above average salary.  But most importantly. After that first work experience they literally can almost pick and choose where to work next for an even better salary. (not to mention benefits). 

 

Now, you will make money on both approaches. Fun? Depends on what is your definition of fun as I have people working in both areas in a wide variety of companies who are either miserable or happy as f***s    But they all make money. 

 

Also. As a person who is working as a Project Manager (IT) with only a high school education (but a ton of experience). I simply had to stop my college education and go to work.  I can tell you that I do know how hard it can be to hustle and pursue what you wish to do. At  times I was desperate as to why I didn't go the sys admin route or as a developer (I'm a talent for both).  But looks like it's payed of for me (but it took time).  As my interests in IT are so wide ranging that I would be really depressed if I had to work in a single field and as a PM I can work with people who are specialists in many different areas which interest me also.   

 

At the end of the day. Just make sure you have a roof over your head and enough money to eat and supplement at least a personal hobby or two and focus on what you wish to do from there. 

Good luck

 

[circeseye]

i tried that about the same age to get a computer science degree (forget which one)...didnt make it a year because of all the other classes...math and such...i had been out of school for so long i couldnt do the work. really stressed me out
if you can handle it..do it..just dont get in debt over it...more degrees and education can always be a good thing if it pans out

[Sauron]

this may be relevant

 

 

[Oalei]

How about farm and stuff maybe fish? I think agricultural is nice for like a lifetime. 

[TommyTwoPockets]

On 6/27/2019 at 11:44 AM, IrishDunner said:

I have a degree and masters in very specialist areas with little employment opportunities, in my country I can do a degree for free or very low cost if I need to be reskilled, what area in it should I be looking into as in to have fun, make money

 

It's never too late to finish up school! I myself started out in Criminal Justice, which when I got to about 3/4's of the degree being completed and around the same time I had an internship at a Police Station, I knew it wasn't for me. Luckily, I had started to take computer classes on the side of my CJ degree as I liked to build PC's and do well you know geeky things. Unfortunately, and fortunately for me, my mom had lost her job, and she needed to go back to school. She was 52 at the time. She chose to go back to school for IT, and ever since she graduated and got an amazing job. I was inspired more than ever. I finished my IT/Networking degree and now have a position in an entry level IT position. I'm 27. It is really never too late. If you like hardware/networking that would be the degree for you, if not and you wanted to do programmer or even Computer Science, those are both fun as well. I would try to dabble in them before deciding if you can. 

[Inversion]

If you're looking for a career area which will have plenty of job prospects at the end of a degree then I'd say your best bets are Physics, Computer Science, and as much as it pains me to say it as an Astrophysics major, Engineering. 

 

Physics is a field that although there doesn't appear to be a massive number of directly related jobs outside of academia, it's a field that gives you so many transferrable skills that you can go into a wide variety of fields from aeroplane engine design (which my uncle went into after a degree in Laser Physics), to finance, to even patent law. The options with a Physics degree are pretty endless. It's also true that with quantum computing becoming more and more important, physicists with an understanding of quantum physics will be in demand.

 

With the world going more digital every day and the internet offering so many opportunities, it's also true that the world will need more Computer Scientists for everything from self driving cars, to moon and mars missions to automated Amazon delivery drones. Computer Science is only going to get more important as time goes on and more and more work relies on computers to work more effieciently.

 

Finally, engineering. As a physicist I'm slightly predisposed to look down on engineers but I cannot deny there's a lot of money to be made there. I'm not expert on what makes the most money but there are so many fields of engineering I'm sure you could find something that interests you and pays well. A few types I can thing of although this likely doesn't scratch the surface include: Civil, mechanical, electrical, aerospace, automotive, computer, aeronautical, chemical, optical and more I haven't thought of.

 

Of course these are only my opinions as a 2nd year Astrophysics undergrad (which if that is at all interesting to you I would encourage you to look into because it gives you many of the same options as straight Physics and I'm loving it) so please do your own research. I expect given the demographic of these forums you're going to get a lot of people suggesting the same things as I am so maybe also look elsewhere but if I can be of any more assistance please don't hesitate to ask.

[wasab]

You need to use a retainer token to respec. Maybe do a class change ritual if you want to follow a totally different career path. 

 

You wanna be paladin, mage, priests, or the glamorous hero? 

 

You wanna change your aliment as well?