40+. No degree. Discovered a passion for science. Options?

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I've discovered a passion for neuroscience and EEG research.

Academics I've emailed in this field have advised me not to go down the long academic route, as they agree that studying part-time outside a full-time job will take far too long, and they agree with the career psychologist I saw that rather than get into a long "retrain" (which many people do as a type of procrastination), I should just concentrate on finding a job along my lines of interest.

The people who do this are either neurofeedback specialists with long clinical experience and who would expect the same, or sports trainers and the like who mostly operate as one man bands and don't have business capacity to take on an employee. Academics are amazed how much I know (I'm self-educated in the field and have studied nearly 300 books and sets of recorded lectures on relevant topics) but don't know what to advise careerwise since I don't have a degree. They have also expressed surprise at my ideas for research and future studies in the field, many of which are unique.

I feel like I'm literally being forced into business for myself as the only solution (peak performance training etc.) when I have misgivings about how I would cope with the marketing and business development side. I also have too much personal debt to take out a huge business startup loan and can't even afford any decent equipment.

Surely someone somewhere has a use for me, with or without paper qualifications?

You could offer to volunteer as a lab assistant for a day or two a week?

I wish I could but my working hours are not flexible or negotiable. Unless I can find a lab that operates in the evenings and weekends...

I remember an episode of The Golden Girls in which the mother said she was going to get her law degree. The girls pointed out that she'd be 93 when she got it. The mother pointed out that she'd be 93 years old with her law degree or without her law degree.

Many of us here are searching for 'it'. If you've found it in science... GREAT!! !

Get yourself a survival job or whatever you need to get by, but end your working life in years to come on a HIGH. Even if you don't get a job out of it. If you don't, well, you'd only have had survival jobs anyway. But at least you can look back at the science study and your Phd.

THIS is the life you have now. Don't waste it doing what anyone thinks you should do. Heck. You can always enter retirement as a writer of science subject books, which can keep you working long after those who try to talk you out of it, have retired.

But most important... when you come to your last five minutes, as do we all, and you look back... you'll be happy.

A masters degree can be done part-time in 2-3 years. It's a good choice when working.

Assuming you have some education and life-experience (ie. over 25) it's quite common to skip the undergrad degree, which would take 4-7 years part-time.

It's worth investigating that option. I can't see how you are going to get into a science based career without a degree OR entering in a real bottom rung job that you might never escape from.

Jason.