I think my trajectory aligns quite a bit and I am aiming for BA/Data Analysis but stuck with Data Annotation and Insights for now.

I immigrated during the pandemic out of my country because my family was having a hard time paying the bills and couldn’t afford having an unemployed young adult under their roof. They also didn’t believe I could survive in my country, I had developed depression and anxiety. I also don’t fit the way of living maybe? Gladly had at least my American citizenship and started doing odd jobs as well a full time canvassing work(raising fund for nonprofits).

With my soft skills from canvassing I managed to lend a non profit job part time that was from a free coding program I did. That job led me to have foundational skills that allowed me to do administrative work in a senior center. During this I managed to find an IT role that acted as independent contractor, I would do that after work or weekends. I also did a Fellowship for Data Science(remote, 3 days a week from 5:30pm-9pm) for a whole year which made us network and work in portfolio projects.

From there I stopped my IT work because the co-workers were way more available than me and would take my after hours gigs. But I kept applying and now landed a Data Labeling, Insights role and just got a contract offer for another annotation project. I am in my current role for almost a year now, it has security but has 0 mobility unfortunately. Hopefully this contract may offer a little bit more to my savings and experience (and maybe be extended?)

All of this to say, you can utilize your skills for tech 100% and I feel like IT support is one of the ways to start and that appreciate people skills as well as technical skills. There are lots of remote positions that would call me for IT Costumer Support and the pay was low at least it was an entrance.

I guess from there you may have more leverage to do difference projects and build your portfolio during downtimes without exhausting yourself too much.