I'm an artificial intelligence research analyst and I can't find work.
So, I go back to school, get another undergrad degree and add a graduate degree to boot. I'm looking at anywhere from 15K to 50K for in-state tuition for both degrees.
And then I start at the bottom in my new career, making a recent grad's salary at age 37 (presently).
Makes me wants to start a business instead.
Now you're talking. After 20 years doing AI research and other things in big high-tech companies, I dabbled in start-ups and then joined a dot-com company. Two years later, I was dot-commed out, started up another company and took a related teaching position to pay the rent. That company failed, but the teaching position was a great opportunity to re-tool myself ("The best way to learn something is to teach it"). Another start-up began to take shape about 9 months ago, and this one looks like it's got legs.
At 50, I'm out of money, but my intellectual capital continues to increase. Owning part of a business is the best way to sure that I actually benefit from that intellectual capital. It hasn't been easy -- and I don't expect the next few years to be easy either -- but I'm still hopeful.