OT: Any mid-life career changers here?

I may need to change careers because of bad business conditions and I wonder if there's anybody here who has made a radical career change in mid-life (I'm just over 50).  I've always thought I would enjoy law.  Anybody go to law school in middle age or make a similarly radical change?

Mick,
I was divorced when I was 38 and in the midst of raising a family.  In earlier years I was a secretary at the College of Law at the Univ. of Florida and that's what I thought I wanted to return to.  So I returned to college (University of San Francisco '89) and discovered something strange.  I fell asleep during the LSAT!  If there ever was a message that I didn't belong in law school, that was it!  I was a slow learner, and did a Paralegal Certificate but that wasn't as satisfying.  So after 11 years at Intel Corp., I started another career by attending the California Culinary Academy (it's now almost as expensive as law school, but not quite!). 

Marti in San Jose

Marti,

If I fell asleep during the LSAT, I would take that as an irrefutable sign from the universe that law isn't for me! 

Do you like your work after your culinary education?

SG,
Oh yes, I worked for 4 years running a Food & Nutrition Center for a Community Services Agency in suburban Santa Clara County setting up a 7-11 kind of store allowing our 300+ clients to come in daily to shop for groceries which our gleaners had obtained from local groceries and from Second Harvest Food Bank.  I ended up on disability when my wrists gave out from hauling heavy food crates.  [I previously had 4 carpal tunnel surgeries while at Intel and my wrists/hands just couldn't take all the lifting].

I later had a personal chef business for a year and a half until the economy killed that off.  Currently I still do some cooking on the side for friends.  I have adapted a number of my recipes to be "band friendly."

Marti in San Jose

SG,

I so totally understand.  I'm 55 and trying to get into education, but no luck so far.

A friend of mine has an uncle who was a teacher, then an educational administrator, for most of his career.  He decided to go to law school when he was about 50 yrs old - a long, long process.  He will graduate in June 2009.  I don't know what his chances of employment in this  area are.  One of the members of my church vestry (the committee that runs our church) is an attorney, and she complains a lot about how hard it is to survive in her profession (but she is a twit, in my estimation, and maybe opportunities are better in Chicago).

Another local citizen in his 40's (I can't call him a friend - my experiences with him have not been good) decided that the law was not for him, went to medical school, and then couldn't develop a medical practice.  Maybe because he's such a jerk, but anyway, it seemed like an expensive career change,

At one point in my life when I was very unhappy with my career, I looked into paralegal training.  I decided against it, but now I wish I had done it.

Jean

Jean,

Are there limited teaching opportunities where your are, or is it a credential thing?  Here, the Chicago school board is desperate for math, science, and special ed teachers.  They even have a recruitment program that will let non-credentialed people teach while they earn their teaching credentials in those areas.  Unfortunately, teaching doesn't seem like a good fit for me.

I've looked into law schools, and they're hideously expensive -- even the bad ones!  The paralegal thing would probably be difficult for me as I would bristle at lawyers pushing me around.  I think they'd have "issues" when I pushed back.

As for the twitness of lawyers, I've known several.  A couple were fun and interesting people.  A couple others scored very high on the twit-o-meter, however.

SG,

Tennessee is desperate for math and science teachers and even has an accelerated certification program available, but math and science are my worst subjects.  I signed up for substitute teaching, but no calls yet.  And I'm not sure enough about teaching as a career to go back to school for it - I had thought I could try it out with subbing.

When I looked into the paralegal thing, my father told me I wouldn't like it because I was too used to giving orders and wouldn't like to take orders from lawyers.  (A big corporation I used to work for that had its own legal department seemed to treat its paralegals pretty well, though.)  But my father was kind of a snob and since his father was an attorney, he wanted me to become an attorney.  Or a rocket scientist.

Jean

I went to grad school and became a therapist in my early 40's. It was fairly easy then, I wouldn't do it in this economy. Therapy is a luxury when you have no insurance and no job. I don't know what I would go in to if I were just over 50. Can you do computers?

Connie 

Actually, I do computers!  I'm self-employed, but if I walk into an interview, I will look mighty old compared to the other applicants.  That has me worried that I may not be able to stay in the field. Maybe I should just screw up my courage and try some interviews.

BTW, my closest friend got her Psy. D. in her 40s.  She loves the work, but now she's in her 50s, paying off student loans, and worried about retirement.  I think she'll be doing therapy well into her 60s, but she loves it, so it's not too high a price to pay.

I feel like I will be in that situation in a few years. I'm only 33, but I am not completely satisfied where I am. I also was looking into parallegal training. I work for an attorney right now, just very low on the totem poll.