To retrain or start a business

[ilikepinknblue]

I have a long break from work. I left my job to move to another country with dh.
We had a family crisis, for which I spent substantial time with the family.

Eventually, I started a business, which didn't work out.

As a child, I was raised to be a perfectionist, so I get frustrated easily if things are not going perfectly and then give up. I have had a lot of family responsibilities from a young age, as F is an alcoholic.

So the last few years, I have helped families on both sides, especially dm, project managed a major renovation job.

Last 2 years I was quite depressed, I am feeling better now with the help of therapy.

dh earns ok, so not a great deal of financial pressure but indirectly it adds financial pressure on him. We have moved to a new country for his job. There is a language barrier and it makes things more difficult. We don't have kids, which is not out of choice but I don't want to talk about it here as it just leads to more pain. I feel lonely and purposeless.

dh is supportive of me starting a business or studying. But I am so worried about taking the wrong decision and wasting money and time.

If anyone likes to know my background. I have a master's degree and in the past worked in a technology company in a non-technical role. I recently started an online coding course, but it is too early and I am finding it a bit too easy and boring. I know I am too impatient but I just worry about making a mistake.
I was told I was good at project management but I won't find similar roles due to a long gap and not knowing the native language. Bigger and international companies have more English-speaking roles but they tend to be more competitive.

Other activities which make me happy are cooking, trying different recipes, travelling, teaching (I tutored some kids when I was in colleague), exercising and arts & craft. I am in my early 40s.
Please can some of you lovely people help me brainstorm?

if you find coding easy & rewarding, stick with it. it will get harder but can lead to all sorts of interesting jobs. are you doing Python or something else?

some questions to ask yourself

• do you want a role outside the home where you meet new people? That might be good if you want new connections in the country you now live in.
• do you enjoy chatting to lots of new people or a few familiar ones?
• do you imagine a job that has the same structure every week, or one with special events, or one with travel / lots of new stuff?
• are you the kind of person who enjoys putting 100s of posts on social media or are you more private?

Also, are you & DH going to be in this country for the long term, and are you trying to learn the language?

would you consider volunteering with a local charity? you could probably help with admin / website building / applying for funding (especially if they need applications in English). working with a charity can be a great way to meet nice people / make connections / build something meaningful in your life.

@parietal Thank you so much for your reply.

To answer some of your questions-

• I would prefer to have job with some level of interaction, ideally with different sets of people

• I am neither private, nor overly public

• I am doing python and finding it boring but maybe it will get better

• Yes, we may stay here for a bit long term and I would start language course soon, though language is pretty hard to be peoficient in a couple of years, so I need to have some expertise in an area to attract employers, which I dont have now.

I have peoject managed web development in past and found it not very challenging, though I did well.
I like doing analytical work. I was always praised for my problem solving skills and ablility to think of new ideas. In my early career, I had worked with a boutique management consultancy. But that was long long back. I am really not sure what I can do now.

if you enjoy the coding and analytical work, you could do an online course in Machine Learning or Data Science. Once qualified, you can earn very well, either full time or part time and wfh. There is an enormous demand for people with good data science skills and a lot of scope to do fun and interesting things.

Coursera do online courses that are good. Or look for an online Masters from a sensible university.

In parallel, you could build local connections and work on the language.

if you want to connect to people in the 'data science community', look on twitter and mastodon, and also for MeetUps.