Unsure what to pursue

[Ideas]

So online research is a huge thing...but something you're likely to hit upon by chance, or by scouting local involved companies/groups/sectors in your region, or by going to conferences.

Yeah, I feel a lot of those are freelance contract positions versus employment. Or, like you said, finding just the right offer through networking.

I'm thinking more of researching at a university, which may be unrealistic to get But I'd be ok with getting a PhD, although probably not ok with getting a $30K and up loan if it's not even my optimal type of career.

I'm thinking I better not go into a field without "plenty" of jobs. Now, I am thinking I will probably need to keep freelancing part-time, and just aim for part-time employment.

I guess the ideal situation is I choose a field I like a lot, get a reasonably cheap Masters for that field, and I work in-person part-time for a while if I can, then transition to online PT or FT. (Or, get lucky and go right to the online job.) I feel that in-person employment would be easier to get. And possibly pay more since, for online jobs, I would have to take whatever I could get. Too much competition. I figure the in-person employment would, after some time, allow me to compete better for the online jobs.

Then again, I'm worried if it's a field where the in-person employment is an almost necessary step. I'm not sure my health will allow me to do that for years, even part-time. I just don't want to have a useless degree.

So I wouldn't let a fear of math keep you from analytics, generally speaking.

Well, that makes sense. I fear doing design work and programming though! A little design work is fine, but I don't think I have the eye to be competing against artists. I also fear data processing if it's more tedious stuff. I do, however, think there may be areas in Data that could fit me.