Apologies in advance that this is long, I would really love some help and feedback.
I was a service manager at a very small charity for 8 years until spring 2019 and ended up quitting due to mental health reasons and a very long commute (I moved house further away after starting to work there). I thought at the time I could fairly easily pick up some freelance work as everyone always suggests becoming a virtual assistant or something when people ask... Ultimately I just felt so shit that I didn't think about it much but I had some savings as a back up plan.
I eventually found a part time online customer service job at a really lovely company (I get to work from home), the only problem is there just isn't enough work so I'm not earning enough, and any prospects to grow with them are also in the very long-term and not in the near future at all. It also doesn't pay well - in the region of £10 p/h... I enjoy the work itself though, but I just need to earn a lot more to be able to afford to live and save a bit too.
I'm in my 30s and have two degrees and friends are in well paid permanent roles, leading teams and earning up to £60k a year so I feel like I've completely fallen behind. I'm also seeing other freelancers pick up highly paid projects and regular work regardless of their field of work but somehow everyone has learnt all these skills I've completely missed out on.
I've applied for a few things that match my previous experience and either get no response at all or get told I don't have enough experience. I've been working since I was 18 so clearly I have lots of work experience but I'm finding these days everywhere is looking for specific skills and lots of it is very technical like must have experience using X software and A, B, C, D and E apps with lots of examples and references to prove it, or must have done this exact thing for 5+ years and managed a large team or X size budget, so there's very little chance to move sideways into anything slightly different when I don't have that experience. The charity I used to work for was small and I did a range of things but I was not an expert in anything to the extent that I could say it's my thing.
My degrees are in social sciences and psychology related fields but again, there is no specific skill as such - it's not like I'm a web designer and could create websites or an accountant and could do people's accounts. I'm good at working with people in different contexts, quick and accurate with admin-y type things (not numbers though!), quite creative - basically ideal for a smaller organisation like the one I worked at before, as I did everything from supervising volunteers to writing the newsletters. I also do enjoy the customer service role and have been looking into ways to level up but everyone else is from a corporate background and again, I don't know what the middle step is to bridge the gap from where I am to where I'd like to be.
I feel like I've completely messed up my career prospects by not trying to move forward much earlier, and for working for a small organisation that somehow didn't have the modern tools and ways of working that are needed now. For various reasons I wasn't in a position to do it then and I was also happy at the job I had at the charity. Now I've just fallen behind and don't seem to have any skills employers want. Even the smallest roles require a ton of experience and I never thought I'd be in this situation in my 30s. I have no idea what to do and how to ever get a career. Obviously it's even worse now in these covid times with more people looking for work (more competition) and I would also ideally prefer to work from home and/or manage my own schedule to some extent - that's what I had in mind when I went freelance and I see other freelancers manage it and still make £££ every month.
Has anyone been in this situation and found a new direction?
Or do you have any ideas for getting the experience I seem to lack? Are there maybe jobs or sectors I haven't considered? I feel so lost and scared all the time. 