laconic1

I've dug myself quite a hole in my career. I'm 28 years old, I turn 29 next month. I currently work for an automotive warranty call center and I hate every second of it. I got into the automotive industry almost by accident since I liked racing and cars, and I had drifted aimlessly through high school with no ambition of going to college. For the first few years after high school I worked as a mechanic, while I also got an associate degree during that time in automotive service technology. I found liking cars and working on them for a living proved to be incompatible for me. When I made the decision to go to college to get my Bachelors Degree in Automotive Industry Management seven years ago it was to get a better job in the auto industry since I still wanted to work in the industry. Unfortunately after graduating in the fall of '03 I found out the career prospects for such a specialized fluff degree aren't that good.

But now I don't want to work in the automotive industry anymore. I don't like that the job prospects don't seem to be that great, and the industry as a whole does not seem to be particularly healthy. I don't like that every customer I've ever dealt with in this industry feels like I am screwing them over at every opportunity. I don't know of any other job in this industry I would find fulfilling either.

I'm thinking about perhaps going back to school, to get a different Bachelors Degree but what would I go to school for? I know I'm smart, yet I have not been able to harness my brain power due to my lack of quality education. My poor education is a result of both not going to particularly good schools and a lack of effort on my part. This has left me in a position where if I tried to get any sort of technically challenging degree or career that requires a lot of math and science I would probably need to start all over with basic 8th grade Algebra and work my way up. That would take such a long time to basically redo 9 years worth of schooling just to get back to having a second Bachelors Degree. I'd have to support myself during this whole time, most likely working part time and living off ramen again. I don't know if I could do that again, since I wouldn't be receiving support from my parents, and I'd be living in a higher rent area than the last time I went to college. And getting another degree wouldn't necessarily guarantee a job that I would enjoy. Although I think if I can find something, anything that I am good at, and pays reasonably well, and doesn't involve dealing with the general public as part of my normal duties I could be satisfied.

I guess my question is how do I find what I'm looking for? When I was in high school my teachers would always give learning style inventory tests which told me I'm a hands on learner. But how does that translate into finding what I really want to do and am good at too? Would going to school even be a good idea? How do people pay for school? I never had financial aid my first time through college, other than the HOPE tax credit and Lifelong Learning Credit on my taxes. How do you get aid? Do colleges even admit people that already have one Bachelors Degree that need to start from scratch and get a different unrelated degree? And what degrees are good as far as having good solid job prospects that aren't necessarily confined to one industry? I just feel like the clock is running out if I am ever going to do anything other than work in one shitty dead end job after another, but I don't know how to make my situation better.