Learning something new

[Roadrunner53]

Have any of you taken some kind of short course to learn a new occupation? There is a culinary school in my area that I think you go for 3 months and then you do internship. They teach basic skills of a short order cook and working in a professional, industrial kitchen. It is mostly for unemployed people to give them a skill and is free to most. Not sure if I would qualify for free and not sure I want to be a short order cook either. But was wondering what other things people have done to get some skills quickly and get a job. I was interested in paralegal but typically it is studied in college. Oh, that is another issue, I have no college degree. I had a great career in Research and Development for 22 years and just fell into that and did very well. Now, I am retired but would like to learn something new and apply my new skills. I was also looking at Ed2go and there are courses on Grant Writing which would be of interest to me but then where would I work and I would have no experience.

[deek]

I just bought two bootcamp style courses on Udemy for $10 each. A Web Development course and a UX Design course. After doing an aptitude test online.. these areas were on the list of good fits for me so I thought why not learn more about it. Maybe I could start by freelancing and building a portfolio.

Maybe sit down with local professionals in areas you are interested in and have some coffee. Talk about what they do and what they enjoy about it. Also talk about what they don't like about it. And see if they have tips on gaining knowledge or book recommendations.

[Kl285528]

I never tire of posting a link to this article: https://tim.blog/2011/09/29/8-steps-to-getting-what-you-want-without-formal-credentials/

Just some food for thought for your exploration - I reread this quite regularly - be sure and read through the entire article, so that you can actually get to the 8 steps - best of success to you

[mozar]

I would go to a regular culinary academy and take classes. I'm assuming you're not a Hispanic male under the age of 35 and short order cooks jobs usually go to that demographic (at least in my area). If you really want to cook you can start catering for friends and family and expand through word of mouth.