Hoping I can get some advice as I'm just feeling a bit lost at the moment. Sorry its a bit lengthy.
So this has been somewhat spurred on by the cost of living/ plans to have a second baby and crazy childcare costs etc. But my work have changed location while I've been on mat leave and it's over doubled my commute so it's making me consider my options. For us to afford the type of house we want (nothing crazy just need an extra bedroom and more space as we're very cramped where we are) we'd need to move even further away from my current office so I'd barely see ds in the evenings. I know lots of parents have to do that, I just want to see if there's a job with a better balance out there.
I'm currently employed as a youth worker, quite specialised working with very at risk young people. I do love it. Like really, really love it and if I could earn more I would stay. But at £32k pa I've reached the top of my pay scale and now I've realised I've nowhere else to go. I didn't overly mind before because I've enjoyed my job so much but now we really need to buy a bigger house ( also lots of asb in our area recently so don't want ds growing up around it so we need to move reasonably soon) and we'd love to have have another baby very soon due to my age so the lack of progression opportunities where I am now is concerning.
Because my role is specialised I'm on about 10k more than other similar youth work roles so a sideways more local role doesn't feel like an option as it would be a big paycut, unless I go for a senior management or ceo role which I don't feel I'm fully equipped for (although that might be imposter syndrome) I'd always envisaged myself working my way up to something like that having been in an organisation for a while and knowing he inner dynamics rather than going in somewhere new at that level and scrambling to figure out a completely new place. However even then I'd still probably be capped at an extra 10k at most. I currently work at a level comparable to social workers although I've a msc in youth work and would still need to do a social work degree to move in that direction which I'm not sure is the right direction for me for a few reasons.
I'm wondering if I should consider a career change. I'd love to work from home in something reasonably flexible but I do get bored easily and while I'm very strong in people skills, I wouldn't say I'm as strong with the admin side of things which is where the imposter syndrome comes from. I can do it and haven't got in trouble for admin yet, but I find it much more stressful and worry about forgetting things or making mistakes. Does anyone have any ideas of what type of career change would suit me?
I'm used to a huge amount of freedom in my work- I currently run a youth centre, coordinate a staff team and plan and deliver sessions, recruit participants, promote the programme, manage funding and work in a very trauma informed way plus all the admin for safeguarding and finance and funding etc etc. I plan my own diary and manage my own hours, can be as creative as i want and they're super flexible so if I need to be off for something I can make that happen with lots of support from my manager. So I'd need to be earning a good bit more with good opportunity for progression and wfh and flexibility in a new role to make it worthwhile because I know I've a good thing going in many many ways. I think that's what makes it so hard to know which direction to move in. I loved doing research in the social care field for my masters but I'm not sure if a role like that even exists as a full time job.
Does anyone have any advice or any suggestions of a field that my skills might transfer well into? I don't mind if I need to do a course in the evening or something to boost my skills but I couldn't afford something as expensive as a degree as I've just put myself through a masters.