Career change and uni in late 20’s

No point taking the dull road to hell. If you have at least 5 years left in you, you can change path. Ageism and other forms of discrimination do come into play later in life, but none are insurmountable obstacles.

The trick I found when junking my first degree and associated career was clawing back time. For you it may be taking that student loan and going to uni; for me it was moving to a job which allowed me to concentrate on things after work, pay for my nightly moonshots and make progress.

Likewise, you'll never commit to anything different unless you try new things.
 
I'm 36 and coming to the end of the third year of a chemical engineering degree. I would say that the experience has been positive but it's taken a very long time (1 year access course, 3 years degree, 1 year out due to ill health) and I have another year to go before I have an MEng.

Finances have been a struggle as I've earnt very little and been supported by my wife. The course itself monopolises a tremendous amount time (6 days a week) if you want to achieve top mark and it seems to me that a large percentage of the students have been made miserable by the workload/stress.

I hope that in the next few years I'll look back and feel that it's worth it, just make sure that if you do into education that it's do something interesting and a degree that can take you to where you want to go.
 
I'm in similar position as you OP, been at uni this year, it's dicey as heck though, very SJW'ed, careful what you say and do. 2/3's of students on my course have dropped out though, uni just offer no support to anyone struggling what so ever, happy to take our money though :X
 
LeMson said:
I'm in similar position as you OP, been at uni this year, it's dicey as heck though, very SJW'ed, careful what you say and do. 2/3's of students on my course have dropped out though, uni just offer no support to anyone struggling what so ever, happy to take our money though :X
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Probably the reason why Open Uni is becoming more popular.
 
Was in a similar position not too long ago, albeit making the decision to study as a mature student in order to 'qualify' rather than a complete career move. My recommendation would be to have a look at the RICS pathways to becoming a Surveyor.

Re: Design/Engineering - Building Information Modelling (BIM) may interest you, experience with CAD/Revit will be a major advantage.
 
In your late 20s you have 40 years worth of work left in you.
It is absolutely not too late nor silly to want to change things to pursue something more rewarding with better pay. If anything it shows ambition and bravery as 'doing nothing' is the easy route.
 
I left the catering trade at 24 to go back to uni - I completed a 2 year Foundation Degree at a local college, then completed the final year at the university itself to upgrade to the full degree - this was a BSc Mechanical Design and Manufacture course. The main disadvantage I had when I started the first year was that most of the other students on the course had just come off a National Diploma course, so had more base knowledge than me. I did have one A level which helped me get into the course. However it was mentioned at the time that I may be able to take the Access to HE course alongside the first year - perhaps something worth investigating?

With regards to funding, I was eligible for a student loan - being a mature student (over 25) also makes you eligible for other grants and bursaries, too.

If you're interested in Project Management there are other ways you can get there than uni, though. Prince2 and (to an extent) Six Sigma training are worth looking at. The latter is held in fairly high regard IMO.
 
tres said:
I too felt like I was stuck in a rut, lived in the most beautiful of places but felt life with slipping by without challenging myself.
Also didn't have a 'dream' job, more something I thought my skillset would do well in, and would forever push me.
Went back to uni at 28. Had to do an Access course to get myself the grades to get into uni.
Uni mostly covered by student loans - yeah, massive debt now but the only way I could do it.
Now I've been a doctor for a couple of years.
Best decision I ever made. Yeah, I see student loan deductions leaving my payslip until I retire, but I'm in a career that pushes me (good and band) rather than just lead a sedentary boring life. I feel privileged doing this job.
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Thread bump I know but I've been thinking of doing what you did. Did you already have a previous degree?
 
It really is never too late to make the switch, I work in IT and work with many others that joined the industry in their 30s, most of which made a career change by going to college or university in their 30s.
 
I interviewed a lad for my software analyst position recently, he had an interesting story.

Disabled Mrs, couple of kids, joined the army for a steady income and was discharged due to injury during basic training. Couldn't get into a job and went to Uni instead in his late 20's. Did his BSC and then straight into a PHD. Massive passion for data.

I turned him down for my role as I felt he was a better fit for our data science team. He's been working with them for 2-3 months now and is loving it :)

It's never too late until your dead.
 
zophiel said:
Thats pretty cool thing to do @AHarvey, most people would have just fobbed them off and told them they didnt have a position, not redirected them to a better suited one in the company.
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I don't really care what qualifications he had, for me, it's the person. The lad had a real passion and I'm not stupid when it comes to most things tech-related, I know the basics of several languages, a bit about security, networking etc but I felt rather stupid when he started talking in-depth about AI and data algorithms. I understood him but couldn't have had an equal conversation with him.

He'd have done great on my team fix things, but you just know if someone is meant for better things and as someone with passion and had no experience myself, I knew he'd do well and he's smashing it.

Our postcode algorithm went from the centre of each postcode area to the centre of the other one to measure distance. That could leave a bit of distance between each one but he's got that down to 0.5 of a mile and saved time in doing so.
 
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