Granting certification seems to be a handy earner. A lad I know started it part time when he was teaching. He’s full time, a hard worker and absolutely coining it.
He’s giving electrical certs, there’s bound to be something covid related on the horizon…
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In one month I/we
Had a kid
Tour de Munster (2 days)
Finished a dissertation
Presented on the dissertation
Mobilised a new contract
2 hours a day TFKing
I don’t know how it was done
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You had a kid in one month? I don’t know how it was done either, but I’d be asking questions.
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Were you studying full time or part time while working? You’ve had a busy month either way.
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And you met Brady
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I’ve just finished a level 9 specialist diploma, its basically half the masters course. Tough going at times, with home life etc.
Check out what is being offered on Springboard and see if anything interests you. They are generally courses where there is already a demand in the economy for graduates with those qualifications. Try to pick something that is in some way relatable to your current role so that you wouldn’t need to be going back looking at entry level roles.
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Unless you do a course in something very specific, I would say this is unlikely - tech wise the course I did over a decade ago was C++, Java, MATLAB and Assembly, none of which I have used much since college, but the theory and logic is still very relevant.
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Going back to college is tough going.
I went back just shy of 30 to do postgraduate stuff. Technically I was full time there and got a bit of funding towards that, but it was peanuts so I went back to working for myself for the 4 years as well. I didn’t take much time off during the 4 years. Along with Chocco, I would regularly work til as late as I possibly could, get up and go again the next day. Trying to juggle this with my own work was tricky. We got married in the middle of it all. A three night honeymoon. Herself going into the last year told me to concentrate on getting the college work done and leave my self-employed stuff to the side. I did a few bits here and there that kept the wolf from the door. We got by on very little that year. If I knew why I was letting myself in for, I’m not entirely sure I’d do it again. Things worked out well in the end
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I got my teaching qualification while my missus worked full time* and we had 4 kids from 1-8, I’d have welcomed a full time job instead of that 
*it was shift work to be fair
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What were you at before teaching?
This thread is very inspiring. I won’t change career but I’m seriously considering a change of location at the moment and am examining possibilities.
Worked in sales and did some tiling on the side
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Coding and scripting languages don’t change hugely and tend to all have similar foundations. The nature of my job means I can find myself writing code in languages I’ve never worked much in before but if you have some examples of the syntax and what it does it won’t be that difficult to figure out how to make it work for you. You’ll also typically find examples of all kinds of everything online. That’s one of my main complaints of the style of interviewing that coders experience. It’s as if, based on the manner of the interview, that the expectation is for you to write code in a cave with no connection to anything. Coding isn’t like that. In fact, it’s usually quite the opposite. There’s dozens of solutions but many are various levels of hacky bullshit and the key is finding the best solution as opposed to any solution.
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I finished a post grad in school leadership last year. 18 months. Our youngest was born a week when we started. Tutorials every wednesday from 6pm to 9pm. Continous assessment. There was 6 modules in total. Probably did over 30k words in assignments. Definitely did at least 14 hours a week. There was lots of academic reading (not easy) to be done prior to tutorial.
It was pretty full on but I enjoyed it. Great to hear what was going on in other schools. I did not slave over assignments. Did not have time. Mindset was do it, be happy with it, then submit it.
I think there is no real good time to do something like a post grad. However, doing it in an area that interests you is hugely important.
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What language would ye learn guys?
Are the Germans really boring?
Was Harry right, are the french assholes?
Blended learning. Once a month up in Dublin at least and then when C-19 hot on line. I’d say around 10 hours a week at a minimum and double that when an assessment or project needed to be in. The summer was murder with the dissertation. I was part of a group of three who did a project together and who clicked so we kept a study group going over Zoom and tried to keep us in line and focused. One of them, she had a three yr old and had a baby in early Aug! She took a months grace on her dissertation but presented when asked to. The great thing is she’ll get a first I’d say. I’ll be happy with a 2.1.
It’s a big commitment but I liked it too (cc @fenwaypark) and when it was over I missed it. But now I’ve way more time for the kids and I’m just in from a run when I would have been hitting the books two months ago.
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I can confirm the run anyway, nice sprint finish there, the neighbours must have thought you were caught short 
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Nothing wrong with a 2.1👊
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