"Don't waste your 20's "building a career". You've got your 30's and 40's and 50's to do that."
It's hard to try to pivot in your 30s if you don't have a resume with at least some points to match your future career.
If you haven't used anything from your post-secondary degree 8 years after getting it... employers are going to notice that and assume that your degree is worthless.
I say this having seen far too many friends get stuck in the waitress/bartending life only to find out that you plateau in your 30s unless you go into the high end fine dining, sommelier, running your own place, etc.
Same thing has happened to friends in retail after they reached manager or assistant manager at a store that was supposed to be their part time job.
Yes, this is absolutely true in my case (similar though slightly reversed from what you describe).
I did the military thing and later college, but switched directions a couple years in college to pick up programming. Even if I reach master skill levels, I'm afraid that my career is stunted because of a short military stint and several years in warehouse/factory jobs before heading off to college.
People see that I'm in my mid-30s with less than 3 years experience in my field and automatically shuffle me out of the candidate pool (so it seems to me anyway).
You might be looking in the wrong town. Consider moving to a town with a greater demand/supply factor. 3 years experience, if you can show your work (e.g. a website) should be plenty in many places.
Yeah, moving out of state right now is not really an option. We are 2 years into our mortgage and have one of those "you gotta live there 5 years or pay penalties" situations, have a new son (six months old now, so complications with that) and parents getting ready to move 2,200 miles here to help watch and experience their first grandchild.
Granted, all "excuses" but while I have meager pay and bad benefits, my wife makes enough that we don't have any financial problems (just ego ones on my part, lol - she makes 2x my income).
Anyway, we live in the Seattle Metro area, and I'm willing to commute some distance so my opportunities aren't severely limited (I think).
It's hard to try to pivot in your 30s if you don't have a resume with at least some points to match your future career.
If you haven't used anything from your post-secondary degree 8 years after getting it... employers are going to notice that and assume that your degree is worthless.
I say this having seen far too many friends get stuck in the waitress/bartending life only to find out that you plateau in your 30s unless you go into the high end fine dining, sommelier, running your own place, etc.
Same thing has happened to friends in retail after they reached manager or assistant manager at a store that was supposed to be their part time job.