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- I've been unemployed for seven months, and I'm debating if getting a master's degree would help.
- I know that a master's doesn't protect you from unemployment, but maybe I should expand my skills.
- I'm not sure if I will go back to school, but it would relieve some of my anxiety.
A few years back, when ChatGPT first became available, the hype got loud, and one of my freelance clients was shouting the loudest. He called me one afternoon and declared that paying writers was a thing of the past, as this new technology could do in five minutes what all his freelance writers could do in a month.
"You should have picked a different profession," he said. He fired me a few months later.
I've been thinking about that interaction a lot lately, especially after seven months of unsuccessful job hunting. Countless hours of filling out applications have led to 10 interviews and zero job offers.
It's got me wondering if, at age 45, I've somehow bottomed out of the job market. And if my skills have become irrelevant, I may go back to school.
How I got to this questioning place
A few months back, I had an interview for an administrative job at a state college. In addition to the pay and benefits, the prospective employers noted the job would include the ability to take six credit hours of college courses per semester once the probation period had ended. So, at six credit hours per semester over three semesters, I'd be able to complete a 36-credit-hour master's program in two years. It didn't seem like a bad path forward, assuming I got accepted to a program.
But my post-undergraduate plan never included a master's. I wanted to get a job as a writer, and I did that with only a BA. For 20-plus years, my BA worked for both my primary and side-hustle careers.
I dismissed graduate school as another long-term financial burden that would never pay for itself.
Still, the idea of a master's always had merit. Many of my friends and colleagues have at least a master's degree in something, and for years, none of them seemed to be hurting for work or opportunities. My wife went back to night school in her 30s for two years to become a teacher, so maybe a similar path would be best for me, too.
I doubt another degree would help
To be honest, the desire to go back to school has less to do with being Step 1 in my mid-life career reinvigoration plan and more with the need for anything that will address my anxieties and uncertainties about the current job market.
Maybe going back to school would help me twofold: relieve my anxiety and help expand my skills.
But as has been shown over the last two years, higher education degrees and job-specific training do not make anyone immune to downsizing or job loss in the current economy. I know this because too many of my own friends and colleagues have been negatively impacted by the current economy. DOGE came for some of them, tariffs came for others, and their education and experience didn't seem to count for much.
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 the person has a plan or wants to expand their existing skill set. I'm not sure I'm that person.
Going back to school for a master's probably won't solve my long-term unemployment problem.
But I'm still thinking about it. I should probably make a decision soon, though, because now I'm getting ads to join the Peace Corps in my feed. That's going to make it hard to pick up the kids from school.