How do people get into jobs that don’t match their degrees?
So I’ve been doing some LinkedIn stalking, and I see how some people who have degrees in stuff like… History or Government… are starting careers in fields unrelated (like Finance). And these are jobs just starting out vs working in a job for ten years and then pivoting horizontally. And while comparison is the theft of joy, I can’t even really find a job in my degree field.
Does this boil down to networking? Name of school?
Jobadvisor
It's a mix of things, but networking and pedigree are usually smaller factors than they look from the outside. A few things are probably doing more work than you'd guess from a LinkedIn profile:
Transferable skill framing. History and government majors often get hired into finance, consulting, or ops roles because those degrees train you to read dense material, build an argument, and write clearly under a deadline — skills that translate to research, client-facing, or analyst roles. The people getting these jobs usually didn't wait for a job titled "for History majors." They looked at the skills a role wanted and mapped their coursework, thesis work, or campus activities onto that language in their resume and cover letter.
Internships and entry-level "in" roles. A lot of unrelated-field pivots straight out of school happen because the person did an internship, part-time job, or campus org (student government, a finance club, a research assistantship) that gave them a credible story and a foot in the door — often before they even graduated. The internship matters more than the major.
Referrals, but not in the way people assume. It's less "my dad knows someone" and more "I reached out to alumni, went to a career fair, or asked a professor for an intro, and that got me a first conversation." Cold applications alone have a brutal hit rate almost everywhere; a warm intro just gets a human to actually read the resume.
Willingness to start lower or lateral in. Some of what looks like "starting a career in Finance" is actually an entry-level analyst or coordinator role that's more about grinding through applications and interviews than prestige — those roles often care more about GPA, case/technical interview prep, and demonstrated interest than the major itself.
School name helps at the margins, not as the core mechanism. It matters more for a small number of employers (top-tier consulting, banking, big tech) that recruit heavily on-campus at specific schools. Outside that narrow band, it's a much smaller factor than people assume.
If you're struggling to find something even in your own field, the pivot-friendly playbook is usually: pick a target function (not industry) that values the skills you already have, get one or two projects/internships/certs that make the story credible, and treat networking as "have 10 short conversations with people doing the job," not "know the right person."
Want to tell me what your degree is and what field you're eyeing? I can help you figure out what skills to lead with and where the gaps actually are.
I (44F) want to have a meaningful career but have no idea where to start— how do I find what’s right for me?
I’ve basically been working office jobs for most of my life. Right now I work remotely for a tech company. It’s insanely easy work and I get paid an okay amount, but I am miserable. I am completely unfulfilled and I’ve never been able to just be okay working a meaningless job and finding meaning in other areas of life.
The problem is I just never figured out exactly what I want to do. Now I’m 44, and I feel like I’ve def run out of a lot of options. I want to help people and I want to make an impact on the world. I don’t want to work in healthcare and I’ve already tried being a teacher.
Is there anything that might point me in the right direction to know how to get started finding what’s right for me? A test I can take? Something else I should do? Any help would be much appreciated.
Jobadvisor
- Avoid standard "personality quizzes": Most online career tests (like Myers-Briggs or generic career quizzes) tell you who you are, not what to do. Instead, look into the Designing Your Life framework (by Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans) or Designing Your Work Life. Their core exercise is building a "Good Time Journal" where you track daily tasks to log exact moments of engagement and energy vs. drain.
- Audit your "Impact Vectors": Helping people doesn't just mean teaching or bedside care. Impact usually falls into four distinct buckets:
- Direct Human Service: Counseling, social work, life coaching, career advisory, community organizing.
- Systemic & Non-Profit Work: Program management or operations for mission-driven non-profits, foundations, or advocacy groups.
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) & ESG: Helping companies execute ethical, environmental, or community initiatives using your existing tech/office background.
- User/Customer Enablement: Customer Success, UX research, or accessibility roles within mission-driven tech products (e.g., edtech, climate tech, non-profit software).
- Leverage your existing springboard: Since your current remote tech job is "insanely easy," do not quit yet. Use that low-stress bandwidth as a funded runway to experiment and explore without financial panic.
- Conduct 15-minute Informational Interviews: Don't guess what a job feels like. Find 3–5 people on LinkedIn in adjacent impact fields (e.g., Non-Profit Operations, Climate Tech Program Management, High School Counselor) and ask: "I'm evaluating a career pivot—would you be open to a 15-minute chat about what your daily work actually looks like?"
- Audit the "Mission-Driven" Job Boards: Browse boards like Idealist.org, Climatebase.co, or Work on Climate. See which role descriptions instantly spark curiosity or frustration.
I accidentally saw an HR meeting in the calendar that looks like it might be about eliminating my role. How should I prepare?
I was looking for an open meeting room yesterday and noticed a private calendar invite on my manager's schedule for next week. The title was something like "HR - Role Consolidation / [my department]" and the only attendees I could see were my manager, someone from HR, and our director.
Normally I wouldn't read much into a vague meeting title, but over the last couple months my workload has been getting redistributed in small ways. One recurring report I owned was moved to another team, a newer coworker has been trained on two things that used to be mostly mine, and my manager recently asked me to document several of my processes "so we have coverage."
None of those things seemed alarming individually. Seeing that meeting suddenly made them feel very different.
I have not been told that my performance is a problem. My last review was good, I've never been put on a PIP, and my manager has actually been pretty positive with me lately.
The company isn't doing terribly either, but leadership has talked a lot about "efficiency" and reducing duplicated work this year. My role is also a little unusual because some of what I do overlaps with another department.
So now my brain is bouncing between "this is probably nothing" and "they are literally discussing whether my job should exist."
I don't want to confront my manager based on a calendar title and make myself look paranoid, especially if the meeting has nothing to do with me specifically. But I also don't want to sit here for a week doing nothing if there are obvious things I should be doing now.
If you were in my position, what would you quietly prepare before that meeting happens?
I'm updating my resume and saving copies of my performance reviews and any non-confidential examples of my work. I'm also checking what benefits/PTO I have in case I suddenly lose access.
Is there anything else people usually wish they had done before an unexpected layoff? And would you start applying immediately based on this, or wait until there is actual confirmation?
I know I might be reading way too much into one calendar invite, but I'd rather feel a little stupid for preparing than get caught completely off guard.
Jobadvisor
You're doing the right things already. Here's what else is worth quietly handling before that meeting, roughly in order of importance:
Get your professional network warm again, now. This is the single biggest thing people wish they'd started sooner. Not "asking for a job" — just reconnecting. Message a few former colleagues or industry contacts, comment on posts, have a coffee chat "just to catch up." If you wait until you're actually laid off to start networking, you're networking from a position of urgency, which is harder and slower. Doing it now costs you nothing and doesn't require you to say anything about your situation.
Quietly inventory your accomplishments, not just your resume. Go beyond bullet points — write down specific numbers, projects, and outcomes while they're fresh (metrics, dollar amounts, before/after comparisons). This is much harder to reconstruct three months from now, and it's gold for both interviews and, if it comes to it, negotiating severance.
Know your state's unemployment insurance rules and your company's severance policy (if there's an employee handbook or you can find one without asking HR directly). Some states have waiting periods; knowing this now means you're not scrambling to figure it out during an already stressful week.
Check if a WARN Act notice would apply. If this is a larger layoff (not just you), companies with 100+ employees are often required to give 60 days' notice for mass layoffs under federal law (and some states have stricter versions). This matters mostly if it turns out to be bigger than just your role.
Quietly reduce anything that would be hard to walk away from mid-task. If you have personal files, photos, contacts you'd want, on a work computer or work-linked accounts, move copies to personal storage now — not as some Ocean's Eleven data grab, just normal stuff you'd hate to lose access to on short notice.
Keep performing normally. I know this one's obvious, but it's worth saying: don't let this tank your output or make you visibly anxious in a way that draws attention. If this turns out to be unrelated to you, you don't want to have spent the week acting like someone who's checked out.
On your actual question — yes, start passively applying now, not "wait for confirmation." A few reasons:
- Applying and interviewing costs you nothing and burns no bridges. Nobody finds out unless you tell them.
- Job searches take time. If this does happen, having some interviews already in motion puts you months ahead of starting cold.
- If it turns out to be nothing, you've lost nothing — worst case you turn down an offer or two, or just stop applying.
The only reason to not start now would be if applying required you to do something visible (like asking your current manager for a reference) — so keep it quiet and don't loop in your manager or ask your current company for anything yet.
One honest caveat: a calendar title alone is genuinely ambiguous — "role consolidation" could be about merging two other people's positions, restructuring reporting lines, or eliminating a totally different position that overlaps with yours in the org chart. The pattern of tasks being redistributed is a stronger signal than the meeting itself. So prepare seriously, but don't treat this as confirmed — you're hedging, not panicking.
Best career path to transfer to in your 40s?
I’m looking to change career paths and I keep running into people saying basically every field is oversaturated. Should I just pick a career and start down the path? Hope for the best? Current ideas I have floating around are Notary, Medical Coding, SAP SD, and Cybersecurity. Am I on to anything? I would prefer not to work in medicine other than the coding mentioned. Not looking to be rich. I just want to live as comfortably as I can. Thanks in advance.
Jobadvisor
"Every field is oversaturated" is true and also kind of meaningless — it depends on the field, the region, and how you enter it. Let me go through your four options honestly, because they're not remotely comparable in terms of payoff or risk.
Notary Low barrier, low ceiling. On its own, being a notary is not a career — it's a side hustle or a small add-on to another job (real estate closings, loan signings). Loan signing agents can make decent money per appointment, but you're essentially running a tiny local business: marketing yourself, building relationships with title companies, dealing with inconsistent volume. Fine as a supplement, not something I'd bet a career transition on.
Medical Coding This one has gotten more saturated over the last several years, partly because it's heavily marketed as an easy work-from-home career (lots of for-profit "become a coder in 6 months" programs flooding the market with certified-but-inexperienced candidates). Entry-level remote coding jobs are competitive now, and many employers want 2+ years of experience even for "entry level" postings. It can still work, but go in knowing the on-ramp is more crowded than the ads suggest, and be ready to take an in-person or hospital-based role first to build experience before angling for remote.
SAP SD (Sales & Distribution) Interesting pick — SAP functional consulting is a legitimate mid-career pivot path, and it pays well. But it's also one of the harder ones to break into cold: most SD consultants come from an industry background (having worked in sales ops, supply chain, or order management) and then get trained on the SAP side, either through their employer or targeted certification. Landing your first SAP role with zero implementation experience is genuinely difficult — a lot of "SAP certified" people are stuck unable to get hired without prior project experience. If you have relevant domain background (logistics, sales ops, ERP-adjacent work), this gets much more realistic.
Cybersecurity Also genuinely in demand, but "cybersecurity" is a huge umbrella and the entry-level market is more saturated than people expect, largely because of the same bootcamp pipeline problem as coding. That said, the mid-and-senior tiers are still hurting for people, and if you have any transferable background (IT support, networking, compliance, risk, even law/finance if you're doing GRC-side security) that shortens the path a lot. Cold-entry via a cert alone (Security+, etc.) with no IT background is a much longer road than ads suggest.
The honest pattern across all four: the ones with real payoff (SAP, cybersecurity) reward you for having some adjacent experience, and the ones with low barriers (notary, and increasingly coding) have low payoff because everyone else took the low-barrier path too.
A more useful way to pick than "which field is least saturated" is to ask: what do I already have that most people entering this field don't have? That's usually your prior work experience, an industry you know, or a skill you already half-have. Cybersecurity and SAP both reward that kind of head start heavily; notary and medical coding don't really care either way.
What's your current field and background? That'll tell us a lot more about which of these (or something else entirely) actually gives you a shortcut instead of starting from zero.
Is an online degree worth it if you’re literally just trying to check an HR box for a promotion?
Okay I’m a teacher and in a really frustrating position with my current school. I could use some outside perspective. I’ll spare you the details but essentially I’ve been up for a formal promotion for a higher level “manager” type role for months and months. My immediate supervisor wants to give it to me like yesterday. But policies are blocking the pay grade adjustment because it’s strictly required to have X degree for any role at X or above. I hope this makes sense lol. I started a Master’s Degree program several years ago but left before I finished due to some personal stuff. It’s never been an issue until now. Initially I thought I could just find a school, transfer my old credits over, take a quick class or two and finally get this promotion. However, after looking into it more carefully, I may be starting further behind than I remember. It is what it is and I realized it’s turned into more of a rant than anything else. I’m on the fence whether to just not bother with the whole thing because it’s annoying, or actually find an online program that will allow me to, ya know, get paid more? Thoughts?
Jobadvisor
Honestly, this is a much easier call than it feels like right now.
If the only thing standing between you and a promotion you already have informal backing for is a credential — not new skills, not new competence, just the box — then finishing it is almost always worth it, even if the program itself is a slog. A few reasons this isn't as close a call as it feels:
The math tends to favor you. A pay grade bump usually compounds — it's not just this year's raise, it's every year after that being calculated off a higher base, plus better positioning for future roles that also gate on the degree. Even a mediocre online program is often cheap relative to that.
You already have the hard part: buy-in. A supervisor who wants to promote you "yesterday" and is just waiting on paperwork is a genuinely lucky position. That goodwill isn't infinite — people move on, budgets change, priorities shift. The annoying admin problem (finish a credential) is way easier to solve than the political problem (find someone who wants to promote you) would be if you had to start over somewhere else later.
The "starting further behind than I remembered" part is worth pinning down before you decide anything, though. There's a real difference between "I'll lose a semester of transfer credits" and "I basically have to start over." I'd actually go verify that precisely — call the registrar or an advisor at 1-2 programs, get them to evaluate your specific transcript, before you decide this is or isn't worth it. People often overestimate how bad the credit loss will be because the first person they talk to (admissions, who wants your enrollment) gives a vague non-answer, or they never actually get a real transcript evaluation and just assume the worst.
One more thing worth doing before you commit: ask HR or your supervisor to confirm in writing (email is fine) exactly which degree/field qualifies, and whether there's any flexibility (like completing 80% of the degree, or a "in progress" allowance). Sometimes these policies have more give than they appear to, especially if your supervisor is motivated to help you find a workaround.
Want help figuring out how to evaluate programs, or drafting that question to HR/your supervisor?
What are some unique, yet calm jobs for those with shy, sensitive dispositions and trauma?
What would be examples of calm jobs for people who are very easily rattled and experience chronic pain? Especially those who are very shy with social anxiety? I have been trying to make a living as a janitor, yet it's soul-crushing and hard on my joints. I have had many different jobs and I job hop often because of toxic work cultures. Coworkers in the past jobs I've had have sexually harassed me and because I'm an at will employee, I'm not important enough for HR to take seriously. I used to want to make art, but it is hard to make money from that and bosses have laughed at my wanting to go back to school for graphic design. I worked in a healthcare job before and hated it, it was too stressful and demanding, that included caretaking which wasn't as rewarding as I'd hoped. Healthcare was never something I wanted to pursue anyway, and I'm way too shy for customer-facing positions. I actually almost passed out once as brief cashier at a pizza restaurant when I was lead up to the cash register to train on checking customers out. I feel like I'm high maintenance, but I'm just at a loss on a job I could not only perform well at, but actually enjoy. Just checking here to see if there was anyone who could recommend a type of job I haven't thought of yet, maybe something interesting that encourages creative or intellectually stimulating skills? I am thinking of going back to college soon when I get enough money. Any advice is welcome, thanks!
Jobadvisor
Creative & Visual Roles (Remote or Desk-Based)
- Digital Photo Retoucher / E-Commerce Image Editor
- What it is: Cleaning up lighting, removing backgrounds, and adjusting product photos for online catalogs, real estate listings, or portrait studios.
- Why it fits: It taps directly into visual/design sensibilities without needing a full graphic design degree to start. You work independently with Photoshop or Lightroom in complete solitude, delivering finished images against a checklist.
- Micro-Stock & Content Layout Specialist
- What it is: Creating vector icons, templates, digital planners, or formatting digital assets for digital publishing platforms.
- Why it fits: You can build self-taught skills via affordable online tutorials (like Figma or Illustrator) and work asynchronously as a contractor or remote employee without dealing with live clients.
Intellectually Stimulating & Research Roles
- Data Annotator / AI Model Trainer
- What it is: Labeling images, checking text for grammar/logic, and rating AI responses for accuracy and safety (companies like Outlier, DataAnnotation, or Appen hiring remote contractors).
- Why it fits: Fully remote and sitting down, with zero phone or face-to-face interaction.
It engages logic, reading comprehension, and critical thinking at your own pace without managers looking over your shoulder.
- Book or Document Indexer
- What it is: Reading manuscripts, non-fiction books, or manuals to create the detailed index at the back of the book.
- Why it fits: Highly intellectual, detail-oriented, and quiet. Indexing relies heavily on analytical thinking and categorizing concepts rather than speed or social interaction.
- Proofreader or Formatting Specialist
- What it is: Reviewing documents, self-published books, or corporate reports for typos, consistency, and layout formatting before publication.
- Why it fits: Minimal meeting requirements; the focus is entirely on language, precision, and order.
Quiet On-Site or Hybrid Niche Roles
- Digital Records Clerk or Archival Assistant
- What it is: Scanning, tagging metadata, and digitizing physical documents for municipal offices, legal firms, historical societies, or university libraries.
- Why it fits: Unlike public library desks, archive digitizers work behind closed doors in quiet rooms. The physical demands are light (handling paper/scanners sitting down), and social contact is virtually nonexistent.
Gentle Next Steps to Transition
- Prioritize Asynchronous Entry: Look for entry-level remote openings tagged as “Data Annotation,” “Quality Rater,” or “Digital Formatting” to establish an income stream that protects your joints and nervous system immediately.
- Explore Low-Cost Visual Learning: Before spending college tuition on graphic design, try free or cheap self-paced courses (like Photoshop/Figma basics on YouTube or Coursera) to build a small portfolio without academic pressure.
- Protect Your Physical Space: Ergonomic setups (a supportive chair, wrist rests, or heat pads for joint flare-ups) will make computer work far more sustainable long-term.