New career at 30 with low entrance

[tungu2]

Hello everyone,

This summer/fall I will be relocating to the US. I am currently half the globe away and in the field I desperately hate. I have a degree in law and no intention to become an attorney in the US (I also hate debt and paying for an LLM degree with questionable ROI is out of the question). I am considering becoming a paralegal but still have conflicting feelings about staying in the field. Also, most job openings in my area of law are in SF and Seattle, and I don’t understand how people afford rent there on the average paralegal salaries reported.

My saving will allow me to pay for a certificate, probably I can afford an associate’s as well. I am looking into those that may enable a career start in my early 30s with only unrelated experience.

I don’t mind any type of work, however, I am not physically strong. I am relatively good with numbers but failed at every attempt to learn coding. I am also a so-called highly sensitive person and I do not handle stress that well. An introvert. Heavy accent, but no problems understanding people.

Any suggestions for degrees/careers worth looking into at 30+ and good ROI would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

[LWYRUP]

If you are good at math, perhaps tax / accounting.  If you are good at verbal skills, something involving editing or writing policy papers.  I'd start out by freelancing and if you like something, think about how you can build on that.  Good luck!

[GreenQueen]

There are a lot of careers in back-end data management with Salesforce. Many opportunities that are not client-facing but very interesting. They have a massive online free training database and supportive community. Lots of remote work too for those who prefer to work from home! I moved into this several years ago and like the work and flexibility.

https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en

https://www.salesforceben.com/average-salesforce-salaries-2019/

[PrairieBeardstache]

There are a lot of careers in back-end data management with Salesforce. Many opportunities that are not client-facing but very interesting. They have a massive online free training database and supportive community. Lots of remote work too for those who prefer to work from home! I moved into this several years ago and like the work and flexibility.

https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en

https://www.salesforceben.com/average-salesforce-salaries-2019/

This is interesting to me - can this be done as a side-gig? I have not-insignificant experience with Salesforce and other CRMs, have experience in Sales and Sales Management, and can do full-stack programming. Can you tell me more about the client base and how you found work?

[BlueHouse]

I've commented a few times on how I think project planning and scheduling is one of the easiest fields to gain entry to and one of the quickest paths to 6 figures if you like it and get decent at it. 

To get the first job, you may have to be willing to travel, but after 6-12 months, you should be able to find a job anywhere as a scheduler.   So many people just don't like it though.  So you have to figure out if you're one of the people who would enjoy it. 

MS Project is ~$250 and you can get all the training you need online for free. 

[Tig_]

How do you feel about college students?  Folks who work on colleges with students who break rules (drink alcohol in the dorms, cheat on exams) are about 50/50 law and higher education in terms of their training. And a lottttt of jobs are being posted right now for Title IX coordinators (sexual assault cases) but this might be too close to law. Probably not a good option for an introvert, but thought I’d throw it out there as an option since you’d probably have an ok-ish time entering the field, and if you play your cards right, could end up at a school that provides free tuition to staff which would help in transitioning to a new field.

[Dancin'Dog]

I've commented a few times on how I think project planning and scheduling is one of the easiest fields to gain entry to and one of the quickest paths to 6 figures if you like it and get decent at it. 

To get the first job, you may have to be willing to travel, but after 6-12 months, you should be able to find a job anywhere as a scheduler.   So many people just don't like it though.  So you have to figure out if you're one of the people who would enjoy it. 

MS Project is ~$250 and you can get all the training you need online for free.

BlueHouse,  thanks for posting that.  DD is graduating this Spring so I forwarded your post.  She's graduating with honors, but is still nervous about finding a good job. Project planning & scheduling sounds like something that she'd be good at.   

[GreenQueen]

[/quote]


This is interesting to me - can this be done as a side-gig? I have not-insignificant experience with Salesforce and other CRMs, have experience in Sales and Sales Management, and can do full-stack programming. Can you tell me more about the client base and how you found work?
[/quote]

Salesforce work can definitely be done as a side gig. If you have experience as a full stack developer you could go back into that work directly (remotely/contract basis as well), or get some Salesforce training and move into Salesforce development work rather than admin work. Salesforce developers are in crazy high demand and the logic will be easy for you as it follows the same syntax as coding but with a "click not code" approach. Salesforce has all these cool tools to create workflows, visual flows, etc that remove the need to code almost entirely. Coding in SF takes place entirely in Apex which is like Java but much simpler. Do a little research and you'll see what I'm talking about.

For Salesforce dev work, there are some fantastic blogs: https://jenwlee.com/ is my favorite. These will give you a sense if you're interested.

If I knew you were a full-stack dev to begin with, I would have recommended you got that route directly, but Salesforce is a big complement to this. I can't emphasize how short-staffed companies are for tech people in Canada and US. I guarantee if you create a LinkedIn profile looking for remote work you will be bombarded by legit recruiters. Good luck!