My sister was working at Boston University as a lab tech for about 8 years. Due to funding issues she was let go. She's pretty smart. Went to Rutgers, got a degree in biology. Started working for a Harvard professor who then got her into Harvard She took night classes and obtained her masters. Put out a few clinical papers with the Harvard professor.
When she was let go she weighed her choices and took night classes in programming. She's a gamer and loves most things technology based. She fell in love with programming and went out in search of work. She went to meet ups in Boston and applied to a cloud based startup. She was hired as a temp. She got good money, but it was supposed to be temporary Long story short, she worked her ass off. Took all the criticism and applied it to her craft. ZERO drama. She did her work well, and in the end she was offered a full time position making a little over $100k a year. She gets to work at home, and they fly her to California on work related trips. She could literally work anywhere. Her wife, who was working as a librarian at Boston U, quit get job and started doing social media for small and large businesses. She now has a thriving home based business. She does extremely well. She can also speak 4 languages. Super smart lady.
We over think EVERYTHING This is what stops most of us in our tracks. My sister is a gay female in a field that is dominated by young white males. She's in her mid 30s. She doesn't fit the norm. But, she's an excellent worker who does an excellent job. But, if she were to come to a forum like this and ask for advice I'm almost positive most people here would tell her to find another line of work.
I'm just saying. Just do it. If she fails, so what. She'll know why she failed and come back stronger because she now has info that she didn't have in the beginning of her journey.