Associates in Computer ... something?

[sanantone]

It's that catch-22. You need to be able to work for a pittance or even unpaid to be able to get experience. But how does someone who wants to switch career fields do that? Any hiring manager looks at a 40-yr old and thinks "no way is this guy going to stay here in this job for this pay!"

And, some of the best certs require years of experience just to sit for them. For a CISSP, you need 5 years of experience in 2 areas of the cert. A 4-yr degree will only knock 1 year off of that! You need this cert to get a great job, but you can't sit for the cert because you don't have the experience.

I think that even with the explosion in the IT field of jobs, it's harder than ever to get into the field. You kind of either have to start young and at the bottom, or you're kind of screwed.

Being in my early 30s, there is probably no way I could change fields. Many of the truly entry-level jobs pay less than what I make in social/protective services. As you said, they would probably assume that I wouldn't stay long at those wages. Plus, I would probably have to leave my advanced degrees off my application and resume.

But, I haven't really tried hard to switch to IT. I've tried to switch to other fields, but I've been pigeon-holed to everything criminal justice because I've been working in that field for the past 10 years.

Someone asked my why I was getting my PhD in CJ if I had more interest in public health. Well, that was the program that accepted me.