Looking for advice on choosing a degree for a career change

[Duneranger]

I wouldn't recommend a degree because the name of it sounded interesting, that alone is not a reason - nor is it an indicator that there is a job market for it. I'm not saying it isn't a good match, I'm saying the reasons given here aren't solid enough. Now, if UX design sounds interesting to her I'd recommend she complete the Google UX certificate before committing to a degree program that you feel is aimed at that type of work. At the very least it could be worth some elective ACE credits should she decides that is not of long term career interest. There are a number of low cost 'test the waters' certificates/MOOCs to test the lonf term interest. You mentioned her goal isn't just to 'check the box', but if the degree doesn't end up being in a field where there is professional interest, necessary income, or worse - no jobs to be filled, then the degree will end up just to be used to 'check the box' (and, as you know, there are many low cost/quick ways of doing that)

Thanks! Yeah I'll definitely make sure she does a few free courses and get some ACE credits before committing to any school/program.

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@frankc, My wife wanted to do something very similar to this as well, after our talk, she decided to get the bulk of the ACE credits to reach a max of 80-90 credits that can transfer to the usual recommended institutions, such as UMPI and TESU.  What I told her to do was also look at the Cousera/EdX Bachelors to see which ones interest her as these are partners of some better known or recognized institutions, we wanted to see which ones may accept up to 75% transfer.  

Basically, she's doing the recommended balanced mix/match trifecta of certs, degree, experience, as she's going for the Pierpont BOG AAS to house all the ACE technical credit, Coursera Certs, and has years experience in several fields (hospitality & tourism, pharmacy, sales, etc).  She's going to see which of the subjects in the Coursera certs interest her most as it ranges from Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, IT, PM, UX Design.  We may decide on UMPI BAS and then another BA.

Thanks, yeah, I'll definitely make sure she get a bunch of ACE credits before committing to any schools or programs.

Definitely have her do ACE credits or certs to get her feet wet but MOST well-known schools (big state schools) don't accept ACE credits. Penn World and a few others are an exception.

[frankc]

what state are you in? the UC system or UT systems have great schools. Without details in what she is interested in it's hard to tell... My husband is doing Georgetown BLS for the reputation of the school.

We live in Nevada, which unfortunately has the worst education system in the US. 
She wants to do a degree to change careers, but she's unsure of what she really wants to do  the only thing I'd say she cares about right now is the name of the school (Not Ivy, but needs to be a regular state or private school), and if she can get a job from the degree. I know it might not sound too ideal, but I’m really hoping that once she starts learning again, she’ll find something that interest her. It's like being an undecided freshman in college, I hope she might just need to explore different subjects to find what she really want to do.

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> No interest in CS or SWE degrees: Although a CS or SWE degree would be great (and something I could definitely help her with), she’s just not interested. I've tried teaching her programming over the past few years, but it's not her thing. And also, she hates Math lol.

What about IT related? It does not require a lot of programming, if at all. And math is usually not required as well.

Previously, I have done a Level 5 Diploma in IT related stuff, and use that to top-up to an UK university IT related Bachelor (honours) program. The time commitment and difficulty of subject required is low, compared to computer science field. The time and money required is also quite minimal, if you take that into account as well.

Yeah I work as a software developer and have spent the last four years trying to teach her programming/IT. She tried to learn programming through platforms like The Odin Project, Codecademy, and CS50, and tried some IT and cloud computing by learning AWS. However, she just doesn't seem to enjoy anything related to programming or IT.
Honestly, I'd really prefer if she has interedst in something related to software, IT, or cloud computing because I could actually help her.

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Seconding the opinion of many people in this thread to say that she needs to decide what she wants to do before pursuing the degree. If the goal is a job, any job, with minimal effort and no programming, I would absolutely NOT do the digital multimedia degree. You gotta hustle to get those UI/UX jobs and it helps to be able to program at least enough to whip up a web app.

She doesn't want to go to WGU, but strictly for the purposes of picking a career path, I would strongly recommend that she browse WGU's degree selection as a sort of "menu" for careers that can reasonably be switched into later in life. WGU only offers career oriented degrees, so basically any subject they offer except for Finance is a subject that will set her up in a new career regardless of what school she goes to.

Excluding math heavy subjects (notably accounting, any degree in "operations" which would require technical analysis, all IT subfields), this leaves her with:

• Education. Boy, if she wants a job in education, they're there for the taking. Especially Math and Science teachers, but we're ruling math out. Has all the problems you'd expect. If you're in a major city with a strong teacher's union, Special Ed can be shockingly lucrative, but the job is tough. If she goes this route she should consider getting a master's as well, lots of "University of [State] in [City]" schools offer programs for working professionals.
  
• Nursing. You've already talked over this with her. I will say, fear of failure is real, but if she works hard she can absolutely make it, and if she's a dancer she already knows what hard work is like.
  
• Psychology. The career this leads to is being a therapist or social worker. She would have to get a MSW for either career, at a minimum, and meet state licensing standards.
  
• Community Health and related fields. Mostly government jobs or for nonprofits. Not a lot of money in this one.
  
• Healthcare Administration. Would lead to a hospital back office career. Decent way to live.
  
• Marketing. It's what it sounds like. Realistically, from a part time online school, this would lead to work for a local or regional business. 
  
• Human Resources. Nobody wants to do HR so the job market is decent. Not the most fun job from my perspective, but some like it.
  

Yeah I completely agree that she needs to decide what she wants to do before starting a degree program. That's why I've spent so much time teaching her programming, but unfortunately, she just doesn't like it. I was thinking of treating her like an undecided freshman in college. Maybe she just needs to explore different topics to find what she truly wants to do. But looking back, I agree that pursuing a career in UX is too risky. I work in tech so I know UX jobs are even more saturated than developer jobs. 
Also, thanks for the job suggestions, she said Human resources actually sounds pretty interesting, and we wonder why we never talked about that before.

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UI/UX is a tough field and NOT a guaranteed job. She will be competing against the thousands of new college grads who all want to gobble up those sexy UX roles at "lazy girl" companies lol. Trying to get a lucrative degree in Digital Multimedia Design is not going from a frying pan (dance) and into the fire.

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Seconding the opinion of many people in this thread to say that she needs to decide what she wants to do before pursuing the degree. If the goal is a job, any job, with minimal effort and no programming, I would absolutely NOT do the digital multimedia degree. You gotta hustle to get those UI/UX jobs and it helps to be able to program at least enough to whip up a web app.

She doesn't want to go to WGU, but strictly for the purposes of picking a career path, I would strongly recommend that she browse WGU's degree selection as a sort of "menu" for careers that can reasonably be switched into later in life. WGU only offers career oriented degrees, so basically any subject they offer except for Finance is a subject that will set her up in a new career regardless of what school she goes to.

Excluding math heavy subjects (notably accounting, any degree in "operations" which would require technical analysis, all IT subfields), this leaves her with:

• Education. Boy, if she wants a job in education, they're there for the taking. Especially Math and Science teachers, but we're ruling math out. Has all the problems you'd expect. If you're in a major city with a strong teacher's union, Special Ed can be shockingly lucrative, but the job is tough. If she goes this route she should consider getting a master's as well, lots of "University of [State] in [City]" schools offer programs for working professionals.
  
• Nursing. You've already talked over this with her. I will say, fear of failure is real, but if she works hard she can absolutely make it, and if she's a dancer she already knows what hard work is like.
  
• Psychology. The career this leads to is being a therapist or social worker. She would have to get a MSW for either career, at a minimum, and meet state licensing standards.
  
• Community Health and related fields. Mostly government jobs or for nonprofits. Not a lot of money in this one.
  
• Healthcare Administration. Would lead to a hospital back office career. Decent way to live.
  
• Marketing. It's what it sounds like. Realistically, from a part time online school, this would lead to work for a local or regional business. 
  
• Human Resources. Nobody wants to do HR so the job market is decent. Not the most fun job from my perspective, but some like it.
  

Nursing-I have taught nursing over the years, it's not a degree you just decide to do. You have to WANT to do it or you will burn out fast. The job already has a massive attrition rate after a few years because you get treated like trash. Absolutely a guaranteed job though, hospitals are desperate because NO one stays.

Healthcare Administration- 1. The LAST thing we need is a non healthcare person getting into healthcare admin. 2. The other LAST thing we need in healthcare is MORE administrators. There is a reason why there is such a rift between the clinical grunts on the ground and admin in their towers. They are in general awful and have no idea how "healthcare" actually works.

Yeah, definitely. I know the UX field is super saturated. The only reason I even considered it was because she wasnt interested in any of the other degrees I've mentioned to her and she actually enjoys vlogging and using Final Cut Pro to edit her videos. I was really hoping that once she started doing schoolwork again, she might find something that interests her. But looking back, I agree with what everyone said in this post. It's really not a good idea.

[allvia]

Considering where you live, and her experience in the entertainment industry, she may be well served with a UMPI BABA-Marketing. I know it may not be the high end school she has in her mind, but it could be helpful getting into event planning or other tourist/convention marketing (just to name a few areas). Marketing also has more artistic career options than other business paths, and it sounds as though she is an artistic person (vs technical). She could then pursue a master at a more prestigious school (if she felt the need), goodness knows that the degrees we talk about here do not limit the schools for master programs. Maybe find a path to get the Pierpont BOS AAS in Art (or similar) to boost that side of the resume in route. The YourPace program may not be traditional, but UMPI certainly is.