How to figure out and pursue a more lucrative career past age 30?

I moved from the non-profit world into a government job. The agency I work for has a grants department and they are very well compensated. So I think your skills would make a direct transfer to a public agency. Another related area would be companies that cater to government agencies doing consulting. For instance, we bring in outside experts when we have an art project because art funding and the execution of a public art piece is very specialized.

For identifying in-demand skills from the outside in, this was my approach. I read - labour stats/projections, and looked at related tools. If you're in the US, tryhttp://www.bls.gov/ and O*Net Online ("bright outlook" occupations http://www.onetonline.org/find/bright). Links for http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/lmi/publications/index.shtml and http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/labour-market - what business and econ news I could follow - job scraper sites and online classified ads, for a rough idea of how many of which jobs were where. (I did this again later, to identify qualifications employers were looking for, vs. the ones universities/colleges were selling. At some point, I even dropped a ton of ads into Wordle. That might have been a low point.) which helped narrow things down to fields that looked sensible and seemed like they might suit me*. Then, I read - local/regional news to scan for changes that might affect job openings over the next while in industries that seemed like reasonable bets. - relevant professional journals/newsletters (even gripey comments on forums, to see what the worst of it might be like), for a sense of the regulatory environment and issues in the field - lots of questions here - tons of profiles on LinkedIn, and bios from organizational pages (again, to identify key qualifications, associations, etc. - not sure people engage with LinkedIn as much now, though) and I talked to whoever I could find. All that might have been overkill, but it made me feel better. *I'd already done a whack of self-assessment. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451608322/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/r is a good place to start. Good luck.

I got a top tier MBA and now make six times the salary I made before the grad degree. And I am much happier with what I do. I am years into this phase of my career, but even in my first post-MBA job my salary was double what I was paid before school. Non-profit management won't have as much growth potential, but there are probably tangential areas that would. I didn't make this all happen in my 30s, but I worked for several years before I went back to school. If you want to take the MBA route you may want to explore part time or executive programs if you're over about 32. Only a few schools in that category are worth it (UCLA, NYU, Columbia, Wharton, Chicago, Kellogg come to mind- be aware that Harvard's "executive program" is not degree granting and won't help you).

Learn to code. Developers are in very high demand in almost every urban center. You can do it in the evenings and weekends at first. Check out: https://www.hackerschool.com/

People sometimes start med school at age 30+, if you want to look into that. I have classmates who had previous careers in theater, music, the military, nonprofit work, pharmacy... and as a plus, medicine can be fulfilling, too. :)

Look into grant development work at Universities. Same skill set, significantly better pay, particularly at state schools where you will get into the state employee pay ranges and possibly be union.

There are for-profit businesses that cater to non-profits, and they don't necessarily have the same baggage that non-profits have (the flat structure, the limited salary ranges). I'm thinking about consulting firms in particular. Would that be a good interim step? Lots of them love folks who have non-profit experience.

Hi. I'm a 30+ idealist who is looking at my sorry state of long-term financial planning and feeling you. I don't have the advice of someone who's been there, but what's working for me now is joining industry groups and going to their networking meetings. Get on a few mailing lists. Reach out to people beyond your non-profit bubble to make some new connections. You have skills, and you need to learn how to talk about them in a new way. Start with any industry that seems interesting/lucrative in your area and get some meetings or phone calls with people who work in those fields. Ask them about their work to see what sounds like something you could do. Talk about what you've done and ask them how those skills can transfer. If they can't help you, ask them to refer you to someone who they think can. Finally, if you need to get some new skills, look into evening classes or maybe a group of people going through an online course together. This is not a good time to hunker down by yourself, and learning something new is a great way to make connections.

Yes, try universities or hospitals.