<prompt> Human: Ive done fairly well for myself. Grew up dirt poor but have a masters molecular bio and make 90kyear doing consulting outside of my major. I am however extremely unhappy with my career. It was always meant to be a stopgap job coming out of grad school but it spiraled and they kept promoting me. Im not interested in what we do, I dislike our clients, the company does a lot of work for oil and gas which Im ethically opposed to granted I of course still use plastics and such, Im tired of most of the people, but most of all Im tired of the expectation that Im on call 247 anytime a client needs anything which is often. Also, this job forces me to live in major cities with big airports so I end up hemorrhaging rent money. Im not really sure what I want to do when I grow up, but I know its not this job. Im moving into a stage of my life where Ill be starting a family soon, so I want to find a job I dont hate before that. I have about 40k saved up for a down payment on a house 1-3 years before doing that, but its also my emergency fund so I could live a while without a job if I dip into that. Thats a hard choice to make though as Ive spent the past 6 years saving up that fund. The types of work Id like to do park ranger? dont pay well. Other jobs veterinarian? require school and loans. Id love to own my own business but I dont have a biz background and I dont want to lose my ass--I know most new businesses fail. I just feel so stuck, ironically, because the job I hate pays well and I dont want to go back to being broke. I know people are in way worse situations than me, so I feel so guilty that I cant be happy with what I have. I just hate life right now and dont know how to fix it. This is mostly just venting but if anyone has any ideas or encouragement it would be appreciated. edit: just wanted to say thanks everyone. i was feeling really overwhelmed and hopeless this morning when i posted. Im still feeling pretty lost, but at least it seems like i have options. Lots to think about over the next few weeks. Assistant: I imagine you have a lot of transferable skills that will allow you to move out of consulting if you want. It sounds like you dont like your specific employer or consulting, but you might like a regular desk job related to what you do now. Why not do some job hunting to see if you can get a more enjoyable job that still pays a decent wage? Human: Project management, technical writingcommunication, marketing, training staff, etc. yes...but all the decent jobs ive seen expect 5-10 years of in-industry experience, not just transferable skills. thats the frustrating part. I got this job by applying for a manager position with zero experience though, and they hired me on at entry level. So i know there is some flexibility...i just dont want to go back to making 30K.  <response>: HR doesnt know what they want, the people that write those job descriptions are writing for a best case scenario. Apply anyway and see what happens. 