Mid-life career change (credit, applying, real estate, degree)

[umropantelija]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some opinions on a life situation I am currently in. I decided to this here because I read some past topics and it appears the variety of perspectives greatly outnumbers those I can get in my daily life.
I live in Seattle area, in my mid-forties, happily married, no kids, living in stable environment, no criminal history and will need to make a career change in the near future. The conundrum is which direction to go.

Some history: After high school I attended a 2 year program in Marketing and Advertising in Europe. Before I graduated life circumstances led me to move to the US back in the 90’s. Here, together with my best friend at the time I started a small business designing, constructing and operating food carts in Seattle area. He invested money I did sweat equity and the business took off quickly. It turned successful but my business partner and his wife made some bad life choices which I didn’t want to be a part of so I was forced to leave and decided to go pursue something else.

I signed up for automotive/motorcycle technician AA program at the local college. Demand was high in late 90’s and I took a mechanic position 15 credits short of getting my AA degree. As the time passed I was pretty happy with my career except in two areas: 1) I couldn’t seem to earn more than $45k/yr and 2) technician jobs were increasingly harder on my body with age.

I solved the first problem by starting a small, low key garage operation at home and was able to generate another 15-20K a year but the consequence was I was working all the time…this compounded the second problem and with constant body aches and sprains time has come to stop and rethink.

I need a new career. It has to make $60k/year and preferably it would be something technical. It can’t be extremely demanding on the body. I excel at all things computer (other than programing) but my experience is limited to building computers and small networks at home. I tried applying for beginner jobs in networking but without experience or school I never got a chance anywhere. The competition appears too great.

I also tried applying at Boeing so far without luck but I am not ready to give up on them yet.
My income is slowly falling as the small business I work for is not doing so well and I am now at $38k/yr. My wife is at $55k/year and has a stable job with great future outlook. I have a family core that offers great support in case I decide to go to school. I don't have enough money to start my own business although I have some grand ideas.

What other carrier choices should one consider these days?
Any field you think has exceptional opportunities?
Any particular company I should consider?
Are any on-line schools worth attending?
I hear only state accredited colleges should be attended. Is anyone working with medical equipment – how do I get to work in that field? Are you in similar situation?
What difficulties are you facing?
What resources are you using?
Have you successfully changed careers and how did you go about it?

[Electrician4you]

Get a degree in IT. It's in demand. It may require you going to school again.


If you can make 20k a year working for yoursekf why dint you start your own garage. Hire a few mechanics and you won't be doing the heavy lifting you'll be managing. This will give you the time to expand and grow your business. If you are and hire goid techs the wird gets out in the motorcycle communities.

I used to work on jet skis when I was younger as a hobby. People started asking for my number and I made a bit of money rebuilding engines and servicing their jet skis.

[umropantelija]

I am considering Networking as next choice but I was a little discouraged by low projected income of $30K to start with. I have a friend who has been in that field over 20 years and he isn't very enthusiastic. My local community college has a great program but they take 8 weeks just to review credits from another college. That is how overcrowded they are right now.

I have looked into renting a place to start my own shop but without borrowing significant money it would be a slim start. Here in Seattle area setting up and renting an automotive shop cost a small fortune since real estate is booming.