Midlife Career Change

[studyingfortests]

If you are unsure what you want to do, you might consider the highly regarded book "What Color is your Parachute". They have a bunch of different editions, and I think there might be one for career changers. It's a book/workbook on identifying what you enjoy and what you should consider as a career. It's been a go-to source for many for decades.

[bjcheung77]

@hallowoptimism... Basically, I recommend grouping the certs in a specific order to ladder the knowledge from one to the other, such as this...
Essentially, when you get the certs, you're adding 'some experience' to hit the trifecta I mentioned earlier: certs, degree, experience.

1. Cybersecurity/IT related - Start with Coursera/TADA, IT Support Pro Cert, ladder that up to IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Pro Cert.
- You can do some freebies such as the TEEX Cybersecurity courses along with this or as prep for this track.

2. Coding/Development - Start with Coursera/TADA, UX Design Cert, ladder that up to IBM Full Stack Software Developer Pro Cert.
- You can take the Meta Front-End and Back-End developer certs (I think these are also free from TADA) for the Coding part.

3. Project Management - Start with Coursera/TADA, META Social Media Marketing, ladder up to Google Project Management Pro.
- Take Sophia.org Project Management and their other business/communication counterpart courses to get an idea of Business/Management.

4. Data Analytics - Again, Start with Coursera/TADA, Google Data Analytics and ladder up to all the IBM Data options combined...
Consider again taking as many cheapie/freebie options along with the Google offering, plus the various IBM Data Analytics/Science options.

You can take one or more routes, decide what your passion lies, then you can see if taking a degree (not another Bachelors, but a Masters) would do.
There are several Masters of Applied Computer Science or Data Science, etc offerings that do not require a prior Bachelors for entry all around 10-15K.

[allvia]

If you are unsure what you want to do, you might consider the highly regarded book "What Color is your Parachute".  They have a bunch of different editions, and I think there might be one for career changers.  It's a book/workbook on identifying what you enjoy and what you should consider as a career.  It's been a go-to source for many for decades.

An excellent book recommendation. A good read for anyone who has ever had a day and thought about what they should do when they 'grow up' (this time around, this decade, next job, what job won't I hate, what job could I love, etc)