32F trying to find a career
I've seen many people helping others find their way in this community, so I wanted to give it a try myself.
I'm 32 years old, living in Mexico, and currently working online for different international platforms as a Data Collector and Annotator. I also make some money through surveys in Prolific, and overall, I'm not having such a hard time making ends meet and even making extra for other things, but there are three major downsides to the work I do:
- It's very unstable. I depend on these companies having enough projects, and if the projects finish or get canceled, that, of course, impacts my income.
- Because of the former point, my income varies widely from month to month, and sometimes I'm barely making enough for my necessities.
- I think most of the work I perform can fall into the "brain-dead" category. It's easy work, but my mind craves stimulation, so I've been finding myself resenting it more and more.
But right now I'm at a loss as to what type of career I could pursue with the skills I've developed over the years. I don't have a college degree (I started a Psychology major but lasted only 2 semesters when I realized it wasn't what I wanted to study after all), and I've been working different types of jobs, like:
- Receptionist / Secretary
- Administrative Assistant
- Data Collector and Annotator (these two for the last eight years)
- QA Analyst for some of the projects I made annotations for
As for my skills:
- I can use computers pretty well, although I don't have any type of programming background.
- I'm bilingual (C1 English / Native Spanish), and I'm currently learning Korean.
- I'm a very fast learner and thrive as a self-taught person.
- I have advanced reading comprehension in both languages.
- Because of the former point, I'm very good at following guidelines, which constantly puts me among the best workers wherever I go (this has been mentioned in my previous jobs, so it's not my imagination, lol).
- I'm very good at researching information (I have a very curious mind, and even started analytical reading as a hobby to expand my knowledge).
Topics that have caught my eye at one point:
- OSINT
- Data Analysis (I enjoy working with raw data.)
- Digital Forensics (When I went into Psychology, I was actually considering Forensic Psychology, so the "forensics" aspect seems to be a constant interest in my life.)
- Programming
Basically, I find interesting and brain-stimulating any type of problem-solving that requires a lot of investigation. I know getting into these types of careers without a degree might be harder, but I've heard it is not completely impossible. In any case, I'd love to hear different perspectives from people who have been in my shoes, or just have something novel to add that might help me get on the right track.
Thank you for reading!