So, here I am again after 3 years in a job my gut told me I shouldn't have taken in the first place.

I have $47k in the bank and 5 months of unemployment. Not to mention that I live in a house I own outright.

All in all, I'll be fine for the next 8 months to a year, but then things start to look bleek.

With so much going for me, why am I worried?

I'm a man with a criminal background. A minor thing by life's standards (if only employers would agree). 15 years ago, as a 23 year old fool I got into a fight on someone else's property. A year later, I took the wrong plea bargain and got stuck with an assault charge. By the laws of my state, I can't get it expunged and don't have enough money to offer a politician a bribe to get it pardoned (lawyer told me that). This dispite the fact that no one got hurt and I never saw the inside of a prison cell (probation).

When I took this job I started as a freelancer but things seemed to have changed in the past 3 years. Now, every time I look at upwork there's nothing worth taking within my skill set (php, html, css, js, and bit of angular. Otherwise, no frameworks).

I have nothing but time and a list of over 100 classes on udemy to take on the one hand, and a growing understanding that chatGTP has pretty much made web developers obsolete overnight on the other.

I have no way of knowing whether a class in anything in particular will improve my chances of getting hired, and I am ever cognizant of the fact that I must use my time wisely to get a job as quickly as possible.

I'm kinda lost to tell the truth. I'm paralyzed by the almost infinite variety of actions I might take that won't do any good and have no mentor or better informed person to even point me in the right direction.

If I go back to freelancing then how do I compete with younger and more killed people with higher ratings? If I try for jobs, then they'll probably just overlook me for someone without a record.

By contrast, if I spend this time learning new skills how do I know I'm learning in the right direction to be in more demand or will even be able to land a position using those skills without on the job experience in them?

The whole thing seems like a worthless effort no matter which way I go. And I feel like I'm sinking slowly, a dinosaur in a new ice age.

The only thing that feels worse is knowing how this might effect my wife and my future.

Any advice would be a welcome improvement over this silence and confusion.