What can my middle aged mother do besides retail?

 

Termination due to time card violation - advice on future interviews?

I got terminated a month ago for time card violation. In a summary, I had many times when I had punched in, but not returned from my break until around 15 minutes after. I got terminated immediately without a warning. I didn't understand the seriousness of it before and now after reading about it I realise it is a big deal and I regret it and make sure to never do it again.

I am extremely stressed out about job search - will anyone hire me with this in the background? How do I frame it in interviews? I worry I am completely doomed and unhireable anywhere. I beat myself for this a lot and feel hopeless about future. Can someone tell me without sugar coating how future looks like for me?

Jobadvisor

This is stressful, and I can hear how much you're beating yourself up over it. Let me give you a straight, honest answer — not sugar-coated, but not catastrophized either.

The realistic picture:

You are not unhireable. A termination for time card issues is a real ding, but it's a common, understandable one — not a fraud conviction, not violence, not theft of money. Employers see this kind of thing regularly. It's a problem to manage in your job search, not a permanent mark against you.

A few honest truths:

• Most employers won't find out unless they ask, or unless a background check specifically includes employment verification with reason for leaving. Many background checks confirm dates of employment and title only — not reason for termination. Some companies' HR policies restrict what past employers can even legally disclose (many will only confirm dates/title). This varies by state and company, so don't assume either way.
• If asked directly "why did you leave," lying is the actual dangerous move, not the termination itself. Getting caught in a lie during a background check or reference call is far more damaging than the original issue. So the real skill to build here isn't hiding it — it's framing it well.
• A strong framing exists, and it's honest, because your situation genuinely has the elements of a good answer: a specific, understandable mistake (repeated minor lateness after breaks, not something malicious), clear acknowledgment, and a real behavior change already in place.

A framing that tends to work in interviews, if directly asked: "I was let go from my last position for a time card issue — I was consistently a few minutes late returning from breaks, and I didn't take it seriously enough at the time. I understand now why timekeeping accuracy matters, and it's something I'm careful about now. It was a wake-up call."

Short, factual, no excuses, no over-apologizing, no rambling. Then stop talking — resist the urge to over-explain or spiral into self-flagellation in the interview itself.

Practical steps that actually move the needle:

• Don't list that job's manager as a reference if you have others to use instead.
• Have 1-2 other references ready (coworkers, earlier employers) who can speak positively.
• If it comes up on a gap in dates, address it briefly and move on — don't dwell.
• Consider whether you even need to volunteer it unprompted (usually you don't, unless asked directly or it's on a formal application).

One month out, a job search naturally feels slower and scarier than it will look in six months. This is a setback, not a life sentence. The regret you're carrying is actually a sign you've already done the internal work that matters — you just have to trust that showing up honestly, calmly, and consistently will do the rest.

Pivot for a washed up pro athlete?

Had a professional athletic career from the time I was 15 to 21, I have a BA from an ivy in ‘Literature, Culture & Theology’ that I did mostly online. Now 23 and spent the last two years, and my savings, traveling, volunteering, and living in the city to complete said degree. I have no idea what to do next, ideally where I can use my degree and get paid enough to be stable (I’m frugal, I would be thrilled with $40-50k annual) and travel sometimes. Has to be a full pivot from my sport, I’ve exhausted all work opportunities in that industry. It used to be my dream life and all I ever saw myself doing. I’m a gifted writer, and used to think about Journalism but seems so hard to break into. So I never thought I would be in this position wondering what on Earth do I do?? All my role models or mentors were in that sport and it’s just not the case anymore, I feel like I have no one I can go to for guidance but I never considered any other options and I was avoiding this while traveling. I don’t have the option to do anything unpaid, I finish my retail job in 2 months and I need to have a real next step after.

Jobadvisor

First — the identity part deserves a beat before the practical part. You spent your entire adolescence and early twenties inside a single, all-consuming dream. Losing that isn't just a career change, it's losing a self-concept and a community in one go. That grief is real and separate from the "what job do I get" question. It's okay to feel unmoored; it doesn't mean you're behind or broken, it means you're recalibrating from something most people never even experience.

Now, the practical part — and there's genuinely more here than you might think.

You have more transferable capital than you're giving yourself credit for:

• Elite-level discipline, coachability, and performance under pressure — this is a specific, provable trait employers pay for, especially outside your sport
• A finished degree from a strong school, even more unusual given you did it while sustaining a pro career
• Actual writing talent
• International travel and volunteer experience, which shows adaptability and initiative

Given your constraints (writing-adjacent, $40-50k+, some travel flexibility, need something real in 2 months), here's where I'd point you rather than journalism first:

1. Grant writing — This is probably your best-kept-secret option. Nonprofits and universities constantly need people who can write clearly and persuasively to win funding. Entry-level pay often lands right in your $40-50k range, many roles are remote or hybrid (so travel stays possible), and your volunteer background actually helps you here. It's real writing work, just aimed at outcomes instead of bylines.

2. Content writing / copywriting for companies — Not journalism, but writing. Companies need blog posts, email campaigns, website copy, etc. Much lower barrier to entry than journalism, remote-friendly, and skill matters more than credentials or connections.

3. Corporate roles that specifically recruit former athletes — This is a real, established pipeline. Sales (especially medical device, SaaS, financial services) and account management often actively seek out former competitive athletes because of the coachability/resilience/competitiveness profile. Pay is often base + commission, frequently exceeding your $40-50k floor within the first year, and many roles offer real advancement. It's a full pivot from your sport but not a pivot from the mindset that made you good at it.

4. Nonprofit program or communications coordinator roles — Combines your writing and your travel/volunteer experience. Salary is modest but usually meets your range, and many roles have real mission alignment, which might matter to you after years of chasing a single-minded goal.

On journalism specifically: you're right that staff journalism jobs are brutal to break into right now — that's not you being defeatist, that's accurate. But if the itch doesn't go away, freelance or contract writing (sports-adjacent even) can be a side door later, once you have income stability. Doesn't have to be now.

For the next two months concretely:

• Start applying to grant writing and content writing roles today — these move fast and don't require a portfolio you don't have yet (you can build 2-3 writing samples this week if needed)
• Look into former-athlete-to-business pipeline programs (several exist specifically for this transition — search "athlete career transition sales programs")
• Lean on any alumni network from your university — Ivy alumni networks are often more responsive than people expect, even for a 23-year-old with an unconventional path

Want me to help draft a resume framing that translates your athletic career into business language, or look at how to position the degree for grant writing / content roles specifically?

Single married mother; what should I go to school for to make the most in the least amount of time?

Hi. I am in a marriage that is crumbling. No help in any way. Not only financially, but emotionally and physically. But that’s probably a post for a different subreddit.

I am preparing myself to leave. However, in this economy I can’t manage it myself. He brings in enough to barely cover bills before things get shut off. I digress. I am going to community college in the greater Detroit area starting this fall, just working on my Associates first. I’m 36, and feeling insanely old to be starting now, but here we are. I’ll be doing online schooling, since I have three young kids.

My issue is; I don’t know what the hell to finish with. Right now I work in the sped department of the elementary school my kids attend. It works out great because we’re on the same schedule. However, the pay is ass. I love kids, and have given lots of thought to becoming a teacher. However they don’t get paid enough for me to make it on my own with three growing kids. Most of my work experience is in mental health, and some medical. Everyone I talk to is telling me to just be a nurse. But I fear that the long work hours as a single mother would be hard to navigate. I don’t have much of a support system near by to help with child care.

Help! Single mothers, fathers. Married mothers and fathers! Anyone! What the heck do I do that won’t be replaced with AI or just dissolve in the next 10-20 years?

Jobadvisor

First — I hear the "physically" in there, and even though you said that's a conversation for elsewhere, I don't want to just skate past it. If things ever start to feel physically unsafe, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233, or text "START" to 88788) can help you think through safety planning quietly, on your own timeline, no pressure to do anything. Keep that in your back pocket. Now, to your actual question.

You're not "insanely old" to start this — you're 36 with real work experience, a clear head about money, and three reasons to get this right. That's a strong starting position, not a weak one.

Here's my honest read on your options, weighed against what you actually need: decent pay, reasonably fast, workable hours as a solo parent with no nearby backup, and durability against automation.

Dental Hygienist — probably my top pick for your situation

• 2-3 year associate degree (community college programs exist, though clinical hours are in-person — check your CC's program structure before committing to fully online)
• Median pay is strong for the time invested — often $75-85k in Michigan
• Typically Monday-Friday, daytime hours, no nights/weekends/on-call — this is the big one for a parent without backup childcare
• Hands-on physical work, not something AI replaces
• Downside: admission is often competitive (prerequisites, sometimes a waitlist), and the clinical component isn't remote

Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA)

• 2 year associate
• ~$60-65k typically, good demand (aging population, healthcare expansion)
• Uses your mental health/medical background directly — a lot of OTA work is with kids, stroke patients, and people with disabilities, which sounds close to what you already do and enjoy in the sped department
• Schedules are often more humane than RN — outpatient clinics, schools, and pediatric settings frequently run standard daytime hours
• Physical, relationship-based work — low AI risk

RN (the option everyone keeps pushing)

• Highest ceiling — $70-85k+ starting in Michigan, strong job security, portable anywhere
• But you're right to be wary: hospital RN jobs often mean rotating shifts, nights, weekends, holidays — genuinely brutal for a parent with no support system nearby
• If you want to keep this door open: consider LPN first (as short as 12-18 months), work while bridging to RN later, and specifically target outpatient clinics, schools, or doctor's offices for daytime-only RN work once licensed — those exist, they're just more competitive to land than hospital shifts

One more worth naming: Diagnostic Medical Sonographer

• 2 year associate, ~$75-80k, mostly outpatient/clinic hours, physical skilled work, hard to automate, and less brutal scheduling than hospital nursing

Given what you've told me — mental health background, love of working with kids, need for stable daytime hours, no backup childcare — OTA or Dental Hygiene are where I'd start looking seriously, with LPN-to-RN as a solid backup path if you want the higher ceiling and are willing to grind through some rough scheduling years to get there.

Would it help if I looked into which specific programs near Detroit (Henry Ford College, Macomb, Wayne County CC, Oakland CC) offer these and what their online/hybrid structure actually looks like?

Has anyone out there actually found their passion? Or is it a myth?

Does anyone here have a job that you're passionate about, or at least sometimes excited to go to and interested in? One that gets you into flow state and that you genuinely want to do for the feeling it gives you?

If so, how did you find it?

I've been looking for ages for this but I'm not finding it. Am I being overly romantic about this? Do I just need to find a comfortable enough job, even if it is slightly boring, and accept that that is reality?

Or maybe there's nuance I'm missing.

I'd love to hear your experiences.

Jobadvisor

Honest answer: it's not a myth, but the way it's usually marketed to you is.

The "find your one true passion and everything clicks" story is mostly a story. What actually seems to happen for people who love their work is messier and less romantic, and I think that messiness is exactly the nuance you're missing.

A few things that tend to be true:

Passion is usually a result, not a starting point. Most people who are genuinely excited about their work didn't discover it lying dormant inside them — they got competent at something, competence turned into a sense of mastery, and mastery turned into enjoyment. The flow state you're describing tends to show up after skill develops, not before. This is basically the opposite of "follow your passion" — it's closer to "follow your effort and see what grows." Cal Newport's whole "So Good They Can't Ignore You" argument is built on this, and it maps onto a lot of real accounts from people who love their jobs — very few of them knew in advance.

Passion is often domain-specific in a narrow, unglamorous way. It's rarely "I love marketing." It's "I love the 45 minutes where I'm debugging a weird data discrepancy and everything else disappears." People who feel like they found it usually found one specific activity inside a job, not the job as a branded whole. So the question "what am I passionate about" is often the wrong grain size — the better question is "what specific tasks put me in flow," and then you go hunt for the job title that's 60% made of that task.

A lot of "passionate about my job" people are also just... temperamentally okay with normal jobs, and interested in life outside work. Selection bias runs heavy on this topic. The loudest voices online are either the lucky minority who found flow-state work, or people selling courses about finding it. The quiet majority have jobs that are fine, sometimes engaging, sometimes boring, and they get their meaning elsewhere — relationships, hobbies, kids, craft on the side. That's not a consolation prize, it's just... how most adult lives are actually built, and it's a completely legitimate way to live.

So is "accept a comfortable, slightly boring job" the answer? Not quite either. I'd reframe it: look for a job with a few real threads of engagement (some tasks that pull you in, reasonable autonomy, people you respect) rather than holding out for total passion or fully resigning to boredom. Both extremes — "it must set my soul on fire" and "it's just a paycheck, expect nothing" — tend to make people miserable in different ways.

A useful exercise: instead of asking "what am I passionate about," look back at any time — job, hobby, school project, volunteering — when you lost track of time. What were you actually doing in that moment? Not the title of the activity, the verb. Organizing something? Persuading someone? Building something with your hands? Solving a puzzle? That verb is more useful than any passion quiz.

What's your work background so far — is there any activity, even a small one, that's ever pulled you into that flow state, even briefly?

What can my middle aged mother do besides retail?

We are in the northeast US. I’m writing this for my mother. She has mostly worked retail and daycare jobs her whole life but she’s been telling me her body feels like it’s shutting down from how hard the work is on her. She has a lot of pain in her feet from the work and the doctor has warned her of long term never damage. My mom is bilingual and can read write and speak in Spanish. She is completely fluent in English and doesn’t have an accent in either language as she grew up in the US after moving away from Nicaragua. Her typing skills are okay but she struggles with computer and online based skills. Is there something she could focus on or course you would recommend she take to help her transition her career in a different direction. What jobs could she possibly do that are less physically intensive than retail work? I wish o could retire my mom but I don’t have the money and I’m going into grad school this fall. I’m also her only child left as my brother died 6 years ago so besides for herself I’m her only safety net. She has her associates in early childhood education as well. What can she do?

Jobadvisor

That's a lot on your shoulders — supporting your mom's transition, heading into grad school, and being her only safety net. It's clear how much you care about getting this right for her.

Here's the good news: her actual profile is much stronger than "just retail and daycare" makes it sound. Native-level bilingual fluency in both directions (no accent in either language) is a real, monetizable asset that a lot of people don't have — and it opens doors specifically because she's not accent-marked in Spanish either, which matters for interpreter work where clarity in both languages is tested.

A few directions that fit her situation well — off her feet, uses what she already has, doesn't require starting from zero:

Medical interpreter — This is probably the strongest fit. Hospitals, clinics, and insurance companies are actively short on qualified bilingual medical interpreters, especially Spanish. It draws directly on her fluency, pays meaningfully better than retail, and the work is seated/mobile rather than physically grinding. She'd want a certificate program (CCHI or NBCMI-recognized) — many community colleges in the Northeast offer these in a matter of months, and some hospital systems will even sponsor training for hires. Not exam-heavy in the way a nursing degree would be, and doesn't require strong computer skills.

Bilingual customer service (remote or call center) — Companies in healthcare, insurance, and banking are hungry for bilingual reps right now, and many of these roles are now remote or hybrid, seated, and pay noticeably better than retail floor work. This is a good "get income moving soon" option while she builds toward something like interpreting. Her weaker computer skills would need a boost here — see below.

Bilingual paraprofessional / instructional aide in schools — Her associate's in early childhood education isn't wasted; school districts constantly need bilingual aides for ESL and special education support. It's less physically demanding than daycare (no lifting toddlers all day), often follows a school calendar (built-in breaks), and many districts offer tuition support if she ever wants to go further into education.

Community health worker / patient navigator — Bilingual community health worker roles are growing fast, especially in immigrant-serving healthcare systems in the Northeast. These roles use her people skills and Spanish fluency to help patients navigate care, and are usually reachable through a short certificate (sometimes just weeks) rather than a full degree.

On the computer skills gap: this is worth addressing head-on before she applies anywhere, since several of these paths (especially remote customer service) will assume basic proficiency. Local libraries and adult education centers in most Northeast cities run free or very low-cost basic computer literacy courses — typing, email, Word/Google Docs, video calls. A few weeks of that would meaningfully widen what she can apply to.

If I were prioritizing for her specifically: medical interpreter certificate as the main target (best pay ceiling, most physically sustainable, plays to her strongest asset), with bilingual customer service as the bridge job to get income flowing while she trains.

Want me to look into specific interpreter certificate programs or adult ed computer courses near where she lives in the Northeast?