Too Late?

FunLovinCriminal

Morning
I work in Retail in Scotland. This time of year reminds me why I hate it so much. Pays rubbish. Rude customers.
I would like to retrain in IT. But have concerns that AI would replace me soon.
I am 51, and want something new. I thought Cyber Security would be the way forward, but wondering how you would start with no qualifications.
I have two kids, and couldnt afford expensive courses or to give up work and go back to college, so training would be evening and weekends.
Have I left it too late? Anyone got any experience in Scotland or careers advice in general?

Paulrn

Any thing can be done but that’s a hard task you are setting yourself. Typically a degree in a computing / cyber is required for a basic entry level job in a SOC and you will be competing for these posts with 20 year olds. You could investigate security compliance which is more about compliance and rules and requires less deep technical knowledge. But if I am honest I would look elsewhere especially if you need to earn a reasonable wage whilst training or have the willingness to work and study Hard in your spare time. Mind you once established with a good reputation the pay is excellent.

MyRealNameToo

FunLovinCriminal said:

I work in Retail in Scotland. This time of year reminds me why I hate it so much. Pays rubbish. Rude customers.
I would like to retrain in IT. But have concerns that AI would replace me soon.
I am 51, and want something new. I thought Cyber Security would be the way forward, but wondering how you would start with no qualifications.
I have two kids, and couldnt afford expensive courses or to give up work and go back to college, so training would be evening and weekends.
Have I left it too late? Anyone got any experience in Scotland or careers advice in general?

Is it a big company? Headquartered nearby? Slightly random moves can often be done more easily internally than externally if you have a good reputation within the organisation. Ultimately it's how I jumped from call centre to the strategy team (though did have to relocate as HQ was in London and not central function type stuff in my city).

Generally, in my experience, the UK tends to rate experience over qualifications, which is good for me as I have no qualifications but confuses the hell out of my US colleagues who assume I at least have an MBA or am a qualified accountant. I wouldnt spend large amounts on qualifications which people may not value however doing some form of half decent course may at least show an interest in the subject (or doing the course may show you that you have no interest in the subject). 

You may want to consider some more volumous roles in IT adjacent area like help/service desk agent which would have more transferable skills from customer service, introduce you to tech people and probably more opportunity to move off into a more specific area of IT. Some people do get stuck on Helpdesk but know a few IT people who cut their teeth there and then moved over to infrastructure or other more tech focused roles.