I’ve been job hunting for 7 months with no success, so I’m at a loss. I’m wondering if going back to school at 45 would help.

• I’ve been unemployed for seven months and am debating whether getting a master’s degree will pay off.

• I know getting a master’s degree doesn’t protect you from unemployment, but maybe I should improve my skills.

• I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go back to school, but it might alleviate some of my anxiety.

A few years ago, when ChatGPT first launched, excitement built up and my freelance clients he was shouting the loudest. He called me one afternoon and told me that paying writers was a thing of the past because this new technology could do in five minutes what all freelance writers took a month to do.

“You should have chosen another career,” he said. He fired me after a few months.

I’ve been thinking about this interaction a lot lately, especially after seven months of failure. looking for a job. Countless hours of filling out applications resulted in 10 interviews and zero job offers.

This makes me wonder if, at 45, I have somehow hit rock bottom in the job market. And if my skills become obsolete, I can go back to school.

How did I come to this place of questioning?

A few months ago, I interviewed for an administrative job at a state university. In addition salary and benefitspotential employers noted that after the probationary period ends, the job will include the opportunity to take six credit hours of college courses per semester. So, with six credit hours per semester over three semesters, I could complete a 36-credit-hour master’s program in two years. Assuming I was accepted into a program, it didn’t seem like a bad path forward.

However, my post-graduate plan never included a master’s degree. I wanted to find work as a writer, and I did so with only a bachelor’s degree. For over 20 years, my undergraduate degree has worked in both my primary and side careers.

I rejected graduate school as someone else long term financial burden This will never pay off.

Still, the idea of ​​being a master always had some merit. Many of my friends and colleagues have at least one Degree somehow, and for years, none of them seemed to be suffering in terms of jobs or opportunities. My wife went back to night school for two years in her 30s to become a teacher, so maybe a similar path would be best for me.

I doubt another degree would help

Honestly, the desire to go back to school has less to do with it being Step 1 of my mid-life career revitalization plan and more to do with needing something, anything, to ease my anxieties and uncertainties about the current job market.

Maybe going back to school will do two things: ease my anxiety and improve my skills.

However, as seen in the last two years, higher education degrees and job specific training Don’t make anyone immune to downsizing or job loss in the current economy. I know this because so many of my friends and colleagues have been negatively affected by the current economy. For some, DOGE came, for others, tariffs came, and their education and experience didn’t seem to matter much.

It turns out my old client was wrong; We all should have chosen a different profession.

I’m moving forward

Ultimately, I think the decision to pursue higher education works best when one has a plan or wants to improve existing skills. I’m not sure if that person is me.

Going back to school for grad school probably won’t solve my long-term unemployment problem.

But I still think about it. I should probably make a decision soon because now I’m seeing ads in my feed to join the Peace Corps. This will make it difficult to pick up children from school.

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