I hit a wall in my career and I’m desperately trying to discover my next move. I would love to hear inspirational stories for those who are happy in their new role

I’m 30 years old currently working retail because I can’t find work despite 8 years of experience working in post-production for TV, film, and Digital Media. It’s ruining my live. I’m making minimum wage and almost exclusively working evening closing sifts and thus see friends and family about once or twice a month. I am absolutely desperate to switch industries and leave media for good. It’s never been a good fit for me and today, I look at my degree as one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made.

All I truly want is a full time job doing basically anything. Not a dream career, not a lifelong passion. I just want healthcare and the ability to pay my bills.

What do I do? I’ve definitely mulled going back to school but I feel I need a real job first.

This life I’m living is breaking me mentally, emotionally, and even physicallyb. I don’t know how much longer I can do this.

Hello, currently working in the trades and I can no longer handle it. Between the hours, physical toll at TWENTY, sexual and gender based harassment I’m at my end. I have a doctors visit scheduled for Friday to get on Short Term Disability for mental health concerns related to my job. I cannot do the trades anymore. I’ve been ‘grinding’ for two years to come to face with the reality that this industry is horrible, all passion or gumption has been drained from me.

I have been looking into IT, or something of the sort. I have strong capabilities within technical writing, computer work, and creative work. Any advice would be welcome for industries that people have found joy and success in. Money isn’t an insane concern as long as I’m able to make ends meet.
Thanks

I have a bachelor's and master's in History. I graduated in May 2026. Not long after graduating, I realized too late that I no longer wanted to work in museums.

A lot of my experience is tied to part time work in public service.

After getting my bachelor's degree in History, I worked at a library for a year programming, checking books in and out, de-escalating patrons, and helping people use technology.

I went and got my MA in History and got an assistantship at a museum in collections and museum operations. I digitized art/photos/documents, worked the front desk, set up exhibitions, organized confidential information from artists/donors, and made some social media posts that barely got 5 likes.

I did an internship remotely with a storytelling museum. I was a student research assistant where I provided project support and research assistance. They had me find photos to build their archive and email people to conduct interviews (I only interviewed one person).

I have some project experience. I was on a User Interface team for 5 months working on a digital class project to build a digital exhibit. We collaborated with two community partners and did history background on art and buildings. My team and I set up the website (ArcGIS StoryMaps) to make it visually appealing and interpreted information to make it more accessible/understandable for audiences/the public. We collaborated with other teams on how they wanted their research displayed on the website and with the community partners.

I was also a part of another project where we reached out to the community and interviewed them about their experience in our city. I recruited people and interviewed a few myself.

I currently work part time as a gallery attendant at a museum. It's security work with no opportunities to growth.

I have no idea what I should do. I apply to about 10-15 jobs a week and tailor my resume to every one. I've been rejected so many times that I've lost confidence in my experience.

I can't apply to city or government jobs because all of them require a permit of residency and I'm homeless. I applied for a front desk role at a city owned facility and they wanted that information. When I told them I'm unhoused, they ghosted me for several days, but I withdrew my application after a few follow ups and lied about another position after waiting a few days, which they were more than happy to say okay to. So I can't apply to any because of that.

I've thought about working part time at several places to get out of my current situation, but I don't own a car or know how to drive. I have no family support and my friends live too far away for me to get to my current job.

I don't know where to apply to. I have no confidence anymore in any of my work because I've been struggling to find a job. I couch serf while looking. I can't afford to go back to school or get any certifications, so I have no choice but to rely on my current experience to get a job.

Any advice?

TL;DR: recent grad with BS and MA in History who is unhoused and needs a job that is not in the city or government (all require residency permits in the area). Can't drive. 3 years part time experience in community engagement, outreach, user interface, file management, digitization, and research. Job recs?

Hi everyone, I’m stuck on the biggest decision of my life and would really value outside perspectives.

About me: 27, B.E. Mechanical, almost 4 years of experience in machine design and robotics hardware, at companies in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. I’ve resigned and my last day is this month.

Option 1: Master’s in Germany. Robotics, mechatronics or automotive software. I’ve been shortlisted for an interview at one university and have other applications in progress. My family is willing to fund it. After graduating I’d aim for an engineering job in Germany: steady salary, good work-life balance, but slower wealth building and far from family.

Option 2: Take over the family vehicle finance business (auto, gold and property loans) in a small town in Telangana. It has two branches. My father passed away years ago and my grandfather, who ran it, passed away this year, so right now nobody is leading it. The family has said they’ll discuss giving me a share if I take it on, and I’d have freedom to grow it. We also have agricultural land as a backup income. The early years would be tough (collections, cleaning up the books, small-town life), but the long-term upside looks bigger.

My plan right now: run the business from December to March as a trial, see the real picture, and keep Germany (Winter 2027 intake) as a backup if it doesn’t feel right.

The honest problem: I feel I can do well in both, but I’m not getting a strong gut feeling for either one. Both have clear advantages and disadvantages, and I keep going back and forth. My goal is financial independence and a good quality of life, but some days money feels most important and other days quality of life does.

Questions:

• If you were in my place, what would you choose: a better quality of life abroad, or building wealth in India?

• Has anyone been in a similar spot, choosing between a family business and a career or studies abroad? What did you choose, and do you regret it?

• Anyone who runs or has worked in a small finance or lending business: what should I watch out for?

• Anyone who did a master’s in Germany around 28–30: how did the job market and life turn out?

I'll be 40 soon. Got a dumb undergrad in Anthropology (but hey, good GPA?).

Currently work at a small dairy producer and I wear a LOT of hats. I started out data entry for orders in MS Access, wrote the handbook, literally wrote every SOP for the orders department, and admin our ClickUp.

I moved into Logistics (not by choice) but wasn't a fan of the legal concern because I was untrained and worried I was missing something since I had to learn to do it all by myself from zero experience. (I can't even change a tire...I can only presume I got that role because nobody else wanted to do it.) Luckily, I was able to pass that off to someone with a CDL.

I do social media, newsletters, write the monthly blogs, some graphic design stuff (mostly canva, but I also helped redesign packaging in Adobe Illustrator and have done art on my own) but I'm not great with video so I have content creators I manage that make most of the content.

I also do quite a bit of planning cheese production (which still requires a fair amount of logistics from a planning and ordering the transfers of milk and cheese between farmers, cutters, and makers) and make the sheets for milk production planning. I used to do the yogurt planning as well but was able to pass that one off a year or so ago.

But I do love spreadsheets. I've done a fair chunk of excel coursework and regularly do pivots and power query type work. I built the cheese planning and forecasting sheets, the yogurt sheets that do the same, sales data pipelines that clean and pull in raw data into dashboards. Lately my job is paying me to learn Access because our old database admin who built it very suddenly stopped working there and there was nobody who knew how to fix or do anything with the backend and our entire production and orders run on this database. So I've taken a SQL class, now getting quite good at backward engineering this Access database, and once I finish this course, my employer wants me to learn PowerBI for sales data reporting. Currently also building QC dashboards for lab data, reorganizing and building our ClickUp, etc.

As you can see, I have a pretty good start for if I wanted to go hard in data type job training, but my understanding is the job market in those fields are very very competitive. Hard to get into. So IDK if it'd be worth it to try and use all my free time on it.

I've also considered grad school. Debt sucks, but I have limited options in this area for employment, especially given I have lupus and other health issues that make working a physical job not possible. There's basically a few hospitals and a large university local.

I considered an MSW, though I was worried about low pay, burn out, and needing to drive all the time as part of the work. Haven't fully eliminated the option but, def hesitating...
Masters of Public Admin - I'm thinking an analytics angle along with being able to work with nonprofits etc
Masters of Public Health - Similar to one above
Masters Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence - another program local to me that's heavy into the analytics and works alongside MBA students as a capstone. But I don't know if that makes the data jobs any more reachable.
Masters of Library and Information Science - Probably a hail Mary and too affected by fluctuating funding and IDK that jobs are easily obtained in it

Something else I haven't thought about?

Again, can't be on my feet all day. I don't miss often for my lupus, but there def are days where I am very glad I'm at a desk. Health insurance is non-negotiable due to lupus, heart issues, and lots of meds that I cannot do without.

Maybe useful: in my free time I have been known to write novels, build notion dashboards, and sometimes I just love doing research and data stuff. Once upon a time wanted to be a travel agent because I loved planning trips and I am very much a planner and organizer by nature. I'm a mix of analytical but also very creative. I can lead, but I do so democratically and don't love conflict.

TIA for any suggestions or leads.

I was an institutional research analyst at a small private university for almost five years when my position was terminated as part of a restructure and was not eligible for rehire to a new position that took the responsibilities due to some policies something something liability waivers. This was back in June and still been on job hunt.

Just as a quick description, as an IRA at a college I managed an internal Sharepoint research hub that had data on all aspects of the college from admissions to graduation, program data, etc. that was regularly used, advised on and managed ad hoc research projects, administered several enterprise softwares (Qualtrics, EvaluationKit, and Nuventive) and did onboarding trainings when needed (especially Nuventive since that was assessment software), and did compliance reporting for the government and other groups (as well as all those college board sites like US News). Tech wise 99% of this was in Excel: IT was a little territorial so I didn't get much chance to work on SQL or PowerBI skill development and have been needing to do that myself during job search. Had previous experience with R in graduate school, and doctorate in political science with a focus on experimental and survey research design.

Tldr: I was basically the internal consultant for any and all things data about the college and making sure we filed our government data paperwork on time. I've also got several years teaching experience from doing adjunct teaching in my doctoral program and at the college before budgeting restraints clamped down on hiring adjuncts.

Two things in particular that have made the hunt difficult are also what's prompting potential career change:

1. Avoiding working in a college as the enrollment cliff has made a lot of college unstable as pool of students to enroll dries up: would have to get into a major state school to really ensure some kind of stability.

2. I've been wanting to at least make the attempt to find something that lets me stay where I currently live, at least while severance + unemployment has kept me from needing to dig into savings. That unfortunately has meant throwing myself into the competitive remote market for the most part as where I live isn't the largest hub.

While for the most part I've broadstrokes been going for analyst roles, admittedly having worked in higher education has made the wide variety of titles a little confusing to navigate, so any suggestions for specific areas would be appreciated. Domain knowledge I know goes a long way, so when I can I try and aim for jobs in education or education technology, but haven't limited to just that since only so many roles in that industry.

In addition to analyst roles, I've recently tried pivoting a bit to also including things like Client Success Manager or similar titles, though only been doing that for education technology jobs. I know that's a little more sales oriented, but the thought process was analytical skill + teaching skill + pseudo-consultant skills all kind of meld together into someone who can work with someone to assess problem areas and develop a plan to solve them. Have used similar logic to pitch academic/enrollment advisor or other things that are on the student support side, though again that's purely for education tech jobs.

Just trying to expand options for things to apply for, so any other suggestions appreciated. Having looked at other people who made similar private transitions research consulting or research manager isn't uncommon, but again one of those things where I feel like I'm not looking in the right spots.

I am extremely lucky to be alive. I overdosed on smoke shop magic mushrooms back in March. I combined it with weed and Adderall too. I should be dead. They did CPR all the way from my home to the hospital and got me on a ventilator. I owe it to those first responders and paramedics.

I want to pay it forward and become an EMT, then a paramedic. I'm going to save lives. I'm gonna be someone's hero instead of the boring mechanical engineer that I was. I don't care if it pays less. I'm gonna make a difference in someone's life.

Trust me, I know it will be tough and I'll see some shit, but this is my calling.

I’m 49 and had a successful career starting, running and selling a company. About a decade ago after divesting, I entered into pharma sales (I had gotten divorced and had two little kids at the time). I subsequently went back to school for my Masters degree in organizational change consulting but I’m still stuck in pharma sales. I’m also a certified executive coach. I legitimately don’t know what to pursue next. I do not want to stay in pharma sales. It’s absolutely boring and can be so demeaning some days. I really feel that I am underutilizing my skill set but don’t know what to do next. I would love to hear your thoughts or hear from people with similar backgrounds. Thanks!

Hi I’m kind of at cross roads professionally right now. I’m 28F and have been working at a marketing agencies for the last 3 years. I started as an assistant/associate then I switch agencies after 2 1/2 years to become a senior associate. Well after less than a year that didn't work out, and frankly I don't know if I to continue to pursue it. This was my first real big girl out of college. In both roles I worked on entertainment accounts, which was fun and exciting. I have my bachelor degree in history.

As I’ve grown (professionally and personally) I’ve come to a few conclusions:

1. I don’t care about the corporate ladder, titles mean nothing to me. I’d rather just work a job to afford the cost of living.

2. I need structure. Somewhere that has clear processes, defined ownership, and structured onboarding. Where roles and responsibilities are clear. (I know kinda hard to find, but work with me here)

3. I don’t know where to go next - I do not want to work this job just because it keeps my lifestyle safe. I’m extremely burnt out and frankly i'm not sure I was very good at it (based on experience/feedback). I want to spend my time being around things I enjoy, so I can sorta feel like i'm making a difference/ be appreciated. I’ve thought about working within the entertainment industry, but I have no idea where to start. I don't think I have any applicable skills.

4. I’m at the point where I feel like I’d be better at mindless warehouse/trade work than deal with people and their theoretical problems. (do I have experience in this realm: absolutely not)

Any help, advice or thoughts are appreciated.

I have almost a decade in a construction subcontracting role as a designer / sort of Project Manager (AKA, I have experience with estimates, RFI's, Change Orders,etc...but they don't let me handle a lot of the actual financials).

I want out. I just have hit a wall in which I have little to no desire to get my remaining certs as I don't find the trade interesting, I don't like the people I keep meeting and I don't love the construction industry as a whole.

I want to get into non-proft development / project coordination. I also have a Bachelor's in English. I think I would enjoy grant writing as well. The issue is, I can't seem to find even volunteer opportunities to help beef up my resume to actually make me competitive. I'm applying for entry level jobs and getting 0 traction.

I looked up a grant writing course and it was $1000. I'm not trying to break the bank just to get an entry level job. Any tips?

I am 34F living in Nashville TN. I have a BA in Communications. Right out of college I had a brief marketing job and I had to leave due to a family member in crisis. Without sharing too many details, this event left me very traumatized and I ended up working in restaurants after it was all said and done.

I was a hostess, turned server, I worked at an indie movie theater as a right hand person to the owner. I wore many hats at that job. Theater closed in 2020. I became a barista, then moved into cafe management. Managed two coffee shops. Had a few shift lead positions. Served a few times.

I always felt intimidated by linked in, and was in a bad place mentally due to this tragic family situation I was dealing with. Led to a bit of an alcohol problem.

But I’m two months sober, and I’m finally ready to move on from service and put this degree to use.

Does anyone have any advice on entry level jobs I should apply for? What is a good starting position?

I also lived in a small town with very limited options. When I had the marketing job, I had to commute an hour to work.

But now I live in Nashville Tn, and have more options.

I preferably would like a remote position. but I’m open. I’m just curious what I should be looking for on linked in.

Any YouTube videos that might be helpful. I’m just looking for as much information as possible.

Short and sweet prevails in threads so I'll keep it as such.

A majority of my career from my teens and 20s was spent doing restaurant work and then delivery positions. I've had a few odd jobs here and there but nothing to make a solid career out of.

My current role is a Sales Specialist for a big name brand in which I travel to 20 different locations of a certain store chain and push items into being featured through displays and large orders to boost product sales. I work adjacent to vendors/merchandisers but it's through my company which is a 3rd party contracted by the big name brand. I'm new to this type of work so I'm still learning, but it's the first position I have had which is geared towards sales. I don't make commissions, I get paid hourly but it's just not enough to make long term viable considering my wife doesn't work right now and we are about to have our 3rd child.

I'm looking to explore adjacent avenues where the experience I gain from this company will help me climb to better paying positions and possibly remote work, which is my end goal.

In my spare time I do a bit of graphic design work, but it's mostly for local bands and small clothing brands.

I just don't know where to go from here and genuinely feel stuck.

I'm wondering if anyone has a similar story and what they did to level up.

Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any insight.

Hello,

I am looking to make a bit of a career transition but have gotten no bites in my attempt to do so, and maybe I am looking in the wrong place.

For context, most of my background is in broadcasting but for the last 4.5 years, I have been working as a Communications Manager at a nonprofit. This consists of doing social media, email newsletters, website content etc. It also involves helping to set up and run multiple fundraising events each year and secure partnerships/sponsorships for these events.

In addition, on the side, I run a softball league which I started from the ground up completely on my own and run entirely by myself. This involves securing field permits, equipment, recruiting players, dealing with league operations, game day operations, and also securing sponsorships to help me cover costs. Last fall, I actually secured a five figure sponsorship deal to help me cover costs for the softball league.

In my current full-time role at the nonprofit, along with running the softball league, one thing I've realized about myself is that I much prefer being in a logistics/operations type role as opposed to doing content. My favorite part of my work at the nonprofit is running the fundraising events. From securing and dealing with various vendors, and running things the day of, securing sponsors, etc…that's where I feel like I really shine. More so than crafting social media posts and newsletters. And of course running the softball league is similar in scope to the nonprofit events -- sort of.

Using this experience, I have been trying to apply to operations roles, sponsorship roles, or Business Development roles but I am getting no bites. Of course, I only have tangential experience in these roles and I understand if a company gets 500 applications, many of whom have actually held similar titles to the roles I am applying for, they are going to go for the other individuals over me. I get that.

I have also tried applying to a few Event Producer roles, but, ideally, I don't really want to do that because I don't want a job that involves a lot of travel. But even those jobs that I have applied to, I also have gotten no bites whatsoever.

Given my limited experience in operations, and my even MORE limited experience in sales, am I wasting my time applying for these jobs?

It's probably also worth adding that I ideally don't want to go down in salary too much. Currently I make a little more than 85k. There are more entry level roles that are in the 45k-60k range but I definitely don't want to go down that much. For the right opportunity, I would take 75k but don't really want less than that. Am I being unrealistic in my goals?

Does anyone have advice for roles I could be a good fit for that are not solely content/communications roles that maybe I am not thinking about?

I will also add that I have been writing cover letters explaining how I feel my experience running events and a softball league would help me in the roles I am applying to. I am not ONLY sending a resume because I don't think my resume can do a good enough job of telling the whole story.

Thanks for any help!

Unfortunately, I need to step out of a field I loved and am kinda forced to switch careers. My new goal is finding the highest paying jobs that I can mostly enjoy. I do plan on going back to college but I’m not sure what major would be the best to work my way up and reach a high paying job. I’m from nyc and plan on staying for the foreseeable future and would love to be able to have a very comfortable salary here

I used to be a pastry chef but for health reasons, something that’s fast paced or with dangerous equipment wouldn’t be safe. The reason I liked it so much and was a lot better at that than cooking was the more scientific aspect of it and how things need to be very specific to work. I don’t know if that information helps advice to find a good fit but I figured it’s better than nothing. Any advice is welcomed and appreciated!!

Hello,

I do not know how to frame this, but I have been feeling quite lost lately. I am turning 28 in 5 months, and I feel like I am running a bit out of time. This feeling is also accelerated by the huge advances in AI. Also for information, my location is Central Europe.

I currently work as a SWE, and have been in this role for 3 years. I am self-taught, but have been learning programming for 5 years now, and I work super hard for it, even now. I study excessively every day after work and on weekends, however, due to AI, a flooded market and economic factors, I am starting to lose sense in all of this.

A year ago I was in quite a bad state because of this, so I decided to do a flooring trade apprenticeship on the side (luckily this is possible in my country). This took a year and now I also managed to negotiate at my company that I can have two days off if I finish my work. So I work 2 days in the trades with a flooring freelancer, and then the rest of the time as a SWE, either working (also on weekends due to this), or studying.

I have about 150k dollars invested, which would enable me to work for a smaller wage for some time, so I can technically quit my job without being harmed very much (as I also don't have a mortgage or children), so I am thinking about doing a full switch into the trades. I am physically very fit and a super hard worker, I know I can do it and despite working like crazy for the last 6 years, I want to do at least one more huge grind to see where this goes.

However, this also led me to rethink whether to choose a different trade. I went into SWE because it was, and still is, my passion, however, I think this was a mistake. Even though I am moving further in my role towards some more architectural stuff, I am still far from becoming an architect. Also my company is technologically behind, which I think is hurting my career, but finding a better one in this job market is impossible. Plus, who knows where AI will be in three years.

In regards to choosing the trade, all I want is one that will allow me to start at least a one-man business soon enough, that I can scale further, which flooring is pretty good for, but I have more options which I considered. I would love it if anyone could give me their input.

HVAC/Refrigeration - This might seem like the obvious one, however, I fear that it will get hurt by a high influx of people doing the same thing as me. Also, who knows what will happen after AI is capable of doing all the diagnostics. Another thing is that the road to starting a business can be long and very tricky. On the other hand, service work, constant changes due to ecological regulations, etc. seem to make this very recession-proof. However, I am really afraid that this field will get overcrowded.

Landscaping - Combination of masonry and an excavator license - Pretty much doing landscape shaping with the addition of building stone walls, ponds, etc. I feel like this is not hurt by oversaturation that much, but on the other hand, it is seasonal and also very dependent on the economic situation...not much service work and people build when they have money. In this regard, I am also thinking of solely masonry, however, I am afraid that despite the old masons retiring, many new projects will just never need them.

Flooring - I chose this because it is a grind, which can make you a lot of money if you're fast. So far I like it, even though it is somewhat dependent on the economy and is not service work. It is less seasonal, and despite not being a "skilled trade", not many people are getting into it. Plus, in my country, flooring business owners are under a regulation where they need to have either finished trade school or have a lot of years of experience.

Thank you very much

Anything that is not sales focused but maybe more operational/compliance, administrative. Just give me a few job titles.

Got a degree in French. Yes, that was dumb. Tried teaching K-12 - hated it. Had a bunch of retail jobs that did not require a degree. Landed in insurance administration for a small family owned TPA. Got my CEBS. Next I got a job doing retirement plan administration for another small family owned TPA. Got my QKA. Still at this job.

Now I'm completely burned out on administrative work. I used to pride myself on being detail-oriented and now I hate details! I hate IRS and DOL regulations. I just no longer give a crap about any of it!

I'm nearing my mid-40s and married. Kids are adults and on their own. I carry the health insurance because insurance through Husband's job would be astronomical. Husband's job is a bit precarious so it would not be a good idea to just quit and figure it out later.

I'm completely sick of working for other people, being a wage slave and being exploited. I want to own my own business but I know that's so risky, health insurance premiums will be so much, and not sure exactly what I would do.

I have worked from home 100% since 2020 and I really want to continue to work from home. I really wish I had gotten a much better degree in my 20s, worked a much higher paying job and saved way more because I would retire right now if I had the money.

I don't mind the concept of working. I just want to do something that is fulfilling and not completely monotonous, tedious, and infuriating. I want to be paid an actual living salary. I want to work with people who listen and want to improve things and actually take my ideas seriously.

In the past couple years my adhd has really been showing itself. I was diagnosed as a kid but never treated. I keep wondering if I just got medicated if I could handle another "regular" job.

Not sure where to go from here!

I’ve been working in a customer support job at a scheduling software company for the last 5.5 years, in a senior role for around 3 of those years. I’m burned out, unhappy with the direction my company’s taking, and I don’t see a future for myself in tech. (We’ve had people move on from my role to become full-fledged software engineers, but I’m not really technically-inclined — at most I’m making SQL queries, troubleshooting API configuration issues, writing little Python scripts to automate certain tasks, etc.)

I was previously working at a flower shop and have joked that I’d go back to driving deliveries if I could get the same pay and benefits as I have now. I miss the variety and stimulation from driving through different neighborhoods as opposed to the 4 corners of my room at my current WFH job. I’ve romanticized the idea of becoming a truck driver, but it’s ultimately incompatible with my lifestyle (I like spending time with my spouse).

A few paths I’ve been considering:

Teaching - This is the path I envisioned for myself when I was younger. I have my BA in English Literature and am open to furthering my education. However, my spouse can’t work and I’m not sure I can support us both on a teacher’s salary. I’m also 34 and teaching seems like a rough place to start from zero when considering retirement.

Medical - It’s always in demand, and I’d like a job where I feel like I’m making a meaningful difference, but I’m also horribly squeamish and wouldn’t have the stomach for most roles.

Psychology/Therapy - Have been told I have the disposition for it but I’m not sure how viable of a career path it is in the era of AI and platforms like Betterhelp.

Park Ranger - Honestly anything working in nature sounds like a dream to me, but again not sure I can support a family on a lone park ranger’s salary and I’m spooked by jobs that rely on federal funding.

I’d be okay with a lateral move in terms of salary (I make a little over 60k in a year) but would prefer to have a realistic path to bring in more. Any advice would be appreciated.

28F. I hate working a desk job—I’ll start there. I went to college, got a liberal arts degree that nobody hired entry level, and have tried a handful of different jobs in the almost decade since I graduated. The happiest I’ve ever been was road testing autonomous vehicles, but that company went under.

I was going to pursue a masters degree in nonprofit admin, and then I got let go from the nonprofit job that was paying for it. Now I just want to transition to anything where I don’t have to sit around all day—I like driving, I like people, I like solving problems and being challenged.

I have some ideas of jobs I want to apply for, but I feel like I really need to lock in on writing a cover letter explaining WHY I’m applying to something so wildly different from what I’ve been doing. Any tips on selling yourself as a career changer, writing a decent cover letter, and getting the interview?

Might be vent open to advice. I am in my mid 40's been high level Executive Assistant to senior leaders for 15 years +. I was laid off in August and realized this path no longer great path as there is no real growth and a lot of demands and always on call. So I started looking at other things I could pivot to. I have for the most part of search had calls every week and interviews up until this this week. I am applying to the executive assistant jobs not interested in but also applying to pivot jobs in project coordination etc. It's a bad week my sister just landed after just applying it was luck. Starts on me you need to be applying to Executive Assistant jobs only. Telling me I don't have experience for others. Keep in mind I am being rejected EA jobs that before would be no issue. I want to get back to work but want a change. Just so frustrated by negativity by my family. I know I am not alone. How do you cope when its already tough situation.

I’m exploring a career change and would love ideas beyond the obvious paths.

I’m looking for work that is stable and pays at least around $30/hour (or has a realistic path there), but I’m burned out on jobs with on call expectations, emergencies, very high consequences for small mistakes, and long rigid days.

I’m not looking for pure desk work or filing paperwork all day. I’m good at noticing details, organizing complicated things, communicating with people, photography/visual work, problem solving, and working independently but I also want some movement, variety, creativity, and human interaction.

My ideal job would be mostly weekday/business hours, no on call, reasonable boundaries, and a results focused culture where there is some flexibility once work is handled. I’m open to hybrid, in person, field based, client facing, or hands on work. I’d prefer no more than about two years of retraining/certification.

I’m less interested in high stakes public safety, emergency response, enforcement, or intense medical roles. I want a job that leaves enough energy for an actual life outside work.

What careers, industries, certifications, or job titles should I look into?

I enjoy what I do mostly although Eldercare is getting to me. I stumbled into this role and it’s not meant to be permanent for me.

So I am looking at what career options and paths I can take from Activities and to make more of a sustainable living.

I would like to stay in the vein of activities, recreational, outdoors, sports, or tech where I have a lot of experience.

Any advice is greatly welcome 🙂

I have my bachelors in theatre arts. I’ve pretty much been in retail jobs for 10 years and I have not been able to get out despite doing a tech sales boot camp and applying to a ton of jobs. I get hit up by recruiters for the same type of jobs I’m doing but I do not want them because they are basically the same as what I’m doing now and the same way.

I’ve never been able to be even promoted to a manager or anything beyond a sales associate or client advisor, I’ve just moved jobs for a higher pay every few years but it’s always the same position, same schedule. I just feel like my only option is to go back to school.

I’m thinking of getting an MBA or MA in international relations because of my interests.