Looking for some advice here!
I completed a PhD in English Lit about two years ago. I've been working in university admin ever since. Not getting anywhere applying for academic work, and to be honest, my heart isn't really in it. I'm 35, so feeling the pressure to be 'earning'.
Recently been made redundant and now thinking - what next? Looking at the job market, I think the best thing for me to do would be to retrain in some capacity, but I'm scared of being the perpetual student. I also don't feel I can afford at this stage to do another degree in something that won't pay off.
I'd ideally like a career in policy or research, for the public sector/civil service. I worked for a few years as a 'researcher' after my undergrad but in reality I did very little research - mostly low level policy work. I'm considering going back to uni and doing a masters in qualitative research methods (feel my lack of formal training in this regard is hindering me from getting interviews for research related jobs). I'm wondering if this sounds ridiculous and whether anyone else with a degree like that has found it useful for securing work? Are there any particular social policy areas (e.g. public health, medical sociology etc) that are valued by employers?
My other alternative is to go down a totally different route - retrain as a teacher, or even one of the allied health professions such as radiography or audiology. I have some (University level) teaching experience and have worked as a health care assistant in the past.
Generally just feeling a bit panicked about the future and my career - 35 isn't old but not young either and I need to weight up what I'm interested in/ideals with job market prospects...