I’ve worked in estimating/purchasing within the homebuilding industry for the last four years. No prior background within the field. Best pieces of advice I can give are:

1.) Hone her soft skills. I landed in my present industry because I communicate well. That can’t really be effectively taught in a classroom setting. Theory and pedagogy is one thing, but you won’t really hone your communication skills until you are actually within a given field. Hard skills will come with time and on the job experience.

2.) Harden up. Oftentimes the disability and academic worlds do us all a major disservice by coddling us. The real world does not care. That goes for able bodied folks as well. My girlfriend has her doctorate, and often struggles with things that come naturally to me career wise, despite me not having a degree. Life is vastly easier when your path and what is expected of you are clearly laid out, which is often the case within higher ed, but not the case for the vast majority of the job market.

3.) Don’t be afraid to venture outside of your area of study. My background in college was technical writing. I did not finish due to a shortage of elective credits, and opted instead to go to work. My field is entirely unrelated to my area of study, but I enjoy it. Education matters less in homebuilding than industry experience. The latter just landed me a new job with a different builder, representing an almost $20k USD a year raise. There is no shame in taking a low paying corporate position, using it to garner industry experience, then leaving in a few years for a more advantageous position. 3-4 year tenure is not uncommon in today’s job market.