Unsure what to pursue

[TrailRunr]

One good tidbit from the HR person. The employers are motivated to meet a certain quota of employees from disadvantaged groups. I guess that's what I've been wondering about - how I could have any small chance of competing against someone with the years of work experience, when disability keeps me from getting that. I guess this quota thing gives me some chance. As you said, there is no skipping over the requirements. I still have to be reasonably similar to the competition.

I would not count on this. At my company, we have to give reasonable disability accommodations for interviews and jobs. That's it. Nothing more. You don't get bonus points for belonging to a particular ethnic group or because you have a disability. You compete against everyone else the same. Most companies are the same.

[dfrecore]

One good tidbit from the HR person. The employers are motivated to meet a certain quota of employees from disadvantaged groups.

I worked in HR for many years, and I don't think this is really true. Yes, they want to get some diversity in the company, but they aren't going to sacrifice experience for that. And, they get as much for getting a minority or woman in as they do for a disabled person - so they're probably going to go for the easiest person to accommodate. So a disabled person with no experience, or a woman (especially in IT) with no experience, I'm willing to bet the pick the woman every time. And if it's in IT, they have LOTS of minorities going for those jobs (Asian, Indian, etc.).

[Ideas]

In the homeschool space, there *are* folks offering online classes, as an example:

Thanks for the example links

I would probably go for a Health Education degree if The Big Three had one, but the other schools need too many resident credits, often don't take ACE and DSST, etc. It makes it take so long, and the Pell Grant really only covers up to $170/SH or so. Also, a Masters would be better, if I were going to spend over $3500. I think that a Masters in Public Health may be only $4800, although from Capella, which has some reputation issues. It seems like Health Education degrees have about the same job opportunities as Public Health, but of course Bachelor's is not the same. (I think you were saying BS Health Education + some other Masters.)

(You've mentioned IT previously - what does a home-based IT job "look like" to you? What, specifically, do you mean by IT degree?)

Well, the Instructional Design Masters is one example. It's one of the few cheap Masters that is specialized. I'm especially interested in the competency-based programs that can be done cheaply and quickly.

The only other competency based Masters I can find are in Data Analytics and graphics design, which I don't think I can do, and things like Cyber Security which I don't think I would get hired for remotely (unless a company first had me work in-office for a while). I'm not very interested in Security at this point, but I'll look at it. I just have a feeling I wouldn't like it, but honestly I also feel that I might not like the Instructional Design. ID seems like a mix of writing + graphics design + soft "programming".

Although, it depends on what I'm teaching I guess, and other things such as: am I doing it freelance, or do I have a nice and stable position? Freelancing in that area doesn't appeal to me as much, because I've looked at that area. Some of the work is already getting outsourced overseas, meaning the prices have dropped, and I fully expect that to continue.

I previously did an EMT program, and wish I had done LPN. But, as you say, the next step, to ADN/BSN could be quite a lot to handle anyway. And the good remote jobs really need MSN plus 3-5+ years of work experience. But I noticed one school had a Masters in Nursing Informatics, and it makes me wish I could do that. IT degrees like that seem to lead to in-person jobs only.

I have done freelancing at home full-time, and fear being stuck with it for the rest of my work life. It's a lot of inconsistency with sometimes being overwhelmed with work and rushing to meet deadlines, and sometimes not having enough. I've thought for a while that my lack of a specialty/degree is what made it more stressful, because of having to take many types of small jobs. There are many downsides to freelancing online in my experience. I do have an acquaintance who has it different - he has the "best" freelancing situation, because he has in-demand skills (coding).

Better freelancing looks more like a regular job, but more flexible: basically where you get to choose your hours every day, and have planned days off. And where there is not a lot of trying to find new clients, or dealing with new clients, because there are about a half dozen stable clients giving plenty of decent-paying work (and if a client dropped me, I could get another, due to having a good portfolio/degree/skillset).

However, even my described "best" freelancing situation doesn't seem ideal to me. It's still IT. I figure I could feel better about it if I hit upon a good specialty, but I've looked a lot at freelancing options. I guess that if I cared mostly about the money, I would get into coding. I don't think I would like it very much

[Ideas]

I worked in HR for many years, and I don't think this is really true. Yes, they want to get some diversity in the company, but they aren't going to sacrifice experience for that. And, they get as much for getting a minority or woman in as they do for a disabled person - so they're probably going to go for the easiest person to accommodate. So a disabled person with no experience, or a woman (especially in IT) with no experience, I'm willing to bet the pick the woman every time. And if it's in IT, they have LOTS of minorities going for those jobs (Asian, Indian, etc.).

Ok. That's like what TrailRunr said. Yeah, I did think I would need to be "reasonably similar" to the other applicants to have a chance.

But I am female too. And also a minority, so they can increase all three groups with 1 hire. But that's true, there's lots of minorities in IT and probably in many areas of healthcare. The only benefit I have over them, maybe, is if they graduated from a foreign school or aren't quite fluent in English. But, foreign schools might require more learning than we do, especially in IT or certain fields, so maybe it's no advantage?

Edit: I think I have a lot of disadvantages too. One may be lack of GPA (hopefully that's small). They can hire a different female minority who doesn't have disabilities and has great references.

[SolarKat]

I dunno if this is of any use: My Employment Options

Or this: Q-Centrix. They say they *prefer* RN/LPN experience, but that may just be for more familiarity with the medical vocab/lingo. Your EMT training will have provided some of this, and your own medical journey may have added familiarity with various medical specialties, so...might be something you could talk your way into.

[Ideas]

They say they *prefer* RN/LPN experience, but that may just be for more familiarity with the medical vocab/lingo.

That's an example of why I'm mad I never got the LPN, and feel I might be mad if I don't try for it soon. But, most opportunities will be wanting RN at least. Q-Centrix is very interesting. They do want "Direct abstraction experience that is current or within the last calendar year" which I don't think I can say. I read some of the reviews of their company. It seems like pay will be similar to medical coding rates. So I'm shooting for something way more than that, but it would be interesting if I could get in part-time. Edit: I could get a medical coding certification somewhat easily/quickly/cheaply, which may get me in with them, or some other job. I don't really want to do coding though.

I sometimes come across an online job that sounds good, but I feel like I can't "aim for" any field where I'm only seeing about 1 job per 3 months. Sometimes for weeks or months, I'll read every job listing with certain keywords.

Edit: You brought up research jobs the other day. It might be something I could aim for. I would guess many of them would need someone to sit at a computer, but not be as math related as analytics? I am hoping.

[SolarKat]

You brought up research jobs the other day. It might be something I could aim for. I would guess many of them would need someone to sit at a computer, but not be as math related as analytics? I am hoping.

Hm, that's a complex question...and I think you're likely to just "stumble into" that sort of job. I've seen lawyers looking for "researchers" to visit courthouses and go through legal files for them. I've seen small businesses looking for very part-time "analysts" to run numbers on their inventory/operations weekly (like 8 hours a week, just going in and running reports). Companies have social media/marketing people who do online research looking for competitors, or tracking mentions/buzz. Medical groups here use "researchers" to collect information from study participants, in hospitals working with files/data, with teams rummaging through literature (journals, etc) looking for possible new compounds to test for their own uses. Small businesses exist that track government/agency grants and recipients, such as award winners in the SBIR programs, where literally they research companies and create a database of participants/skills/projects which they then sell access to, for companies looking for partners. So online research is a huge thing...but something you're likely to hit upon by chance, or by scouting local involved companies/groups/sectors in your region, or by going to conferences.

Beyond that, you mention data and math. You don't necessarily need to be a math rock star, because software does most of the heavy lifting for a lot of analytics. Some parts of data science are heavy on the computer science - those are the folks creating the new algorithms to build better AI, for example. Other aspects are heavy on the data processing - database queries, structures, etc. And some are more functional - taking a data set and turning it into pretty visualizations that tell the story the company wants to tell its customers, partners, etc. Anything from analyzing a person's FB network as part of exploring communicable disease epidemiology, or perhaps running numbers on a company's prosthetic hip, or a manufacturer looking at how to optimize their production line - how much faster can they make something, or how fewer rejects, before the costs outweigh the benefits. How can UPS plan the drivers' routes for minimizing gas expenses as well as delivery times. All of these questions don't rely so heavily on knowing the math going on "under the hood" but on how to utilize software packages (and really, having a good sense of the industry/sector you're analyzing) to reveal meaningful relationships (as production time decreases, production volume increases, for example), and to create graphs/charts/reports that explain the info in a way the target audience understands. Software is letting us get super high tech with this - just in medicine, for example, they can examine survival rates in much more complexity...beyond a "this medicine vs that medicine" approach, to include all sorts of variables...and that's making better treatment protocols (healthcare) and survival predictions (actuary science) and cost estimates (insurance, HR finance, etc).

So I wouldn't let a fear of math keep you from analytics, generally speaking.

[Ideas]

So online research is a huge thing...but something you're likely to hit upon by chance, or by scouting local involved companies/groups/sectors in your region, or by going to conferences.

Yeah, I feel a lot of those are freelance contract positions versus employment. Or, like you said, finding just the right offer through networking.

I'm thinking more of researching at a university, which may be unrealistic to get But I'd be ok with getting a PhD, although probably not ok with getting a $30K and up loan if it's not even my optimal type of career.

I'm thinking I better not go into a field without "plenty" of jobs. Now, I am thinking I will probably need to keep freelancing part-time, and just aim for part-time employment.

I guess the ideal situation is I choose a field I like a lot, get a reasonably cheap Masters for that field, and I work in-person part-time for a while if I can, then transition to online PT or FT. (Or, get lucky and go right to the online job.) I feel that in-person employment would be easier to get. And possibly pay more since, for online jobs, I would have to take whatever I could get. Too much competition. I figure the in-person employment would, after some time, allow me to compete better for the online jobs.

Then again, I'm worried if it's a field where the in-person employment is an almost necessary step. I'm not sure my health will allow me to do that for years, even part-time. I just don't want to have a useless degree.

So I wouldn't let a fear of math keep you from analytics, generally speaking.

Well, that makes sense. I fear doing design work and programming though! A little design work is fine, but I don't think I have the eye to be competing against artists. I also fear data processing if it's more tedious stuff. I do, however, think there may be areas in Data that could fit me.

[sanantone]

Capella doesn't have a Flexpath Public Health program.

[Ideas]

You don't necessarily need to be a math rock star, because software does most of the heavy lifting for a lot of analytics.

Thank you so much for helping me see that I may not need much math or CS, beyond what I already have I have been thinking hard and feel like there must be a computer specialty that works for me. Even though I already know that most don't work for me. I want to avoid programming, most design fields (a small amount of design would be fun), networking, security, marketing (unless it's more of an analysis of marketing), anything that has no chance of working from home, anything with low demand, anything with more inflexibility than most jobs, and anything lower paying like tech support.

So I am thinking of data science or other fields that are computer software based, especially if it's related to health sciences, psychology, or sociology. (Some kinds being a lot more interesting than others.) I also like some areas of marketing. Analytics that involves finance/economics worries me, because of all the math and numbers, but I have some interest in some areas of finance/economics. I could learn to like math again if had a career in mind. I am good at teaching myself new software.

I did a bit of searching about data analytics, but would love to get more info from you about the job prospects. If I only had BSBA-CIS and the Analytics grad cert, do you think that's enough to get a job? I'm sure I could get some bits of freelance experience, but it seems most entry-level jobs want 1 year of actual work experience. And do you think there are remote or flexible jobs in the industry? I know that it would be too hard to get one when I was starting out.

The statistics.com payment plan is only available for the Bachelor's? The 3 course deal is great, but may be too hard to manage, unless I delay my BSBA+ASNSM graduation. Do we have to spend much besides the tuition for textbooks, etc?

Do you know if the Data Analytics cert courses would be something I'd use in the Informatics field? I guess I have a lot more reading to do! When I had looked at Health Care Informatics degrees, it seemed like they were mostly Health Information Technology where you just learned stuff about medical record keeping. That is not interesting to me, but yet Bioinformatics seems more like Data Analytics plus health sciences. The problem with that is I fear I will need many more advanced courses to get farther in any of the health science related fields.