I'm an Inventory Analyst / Inventory Control Analyst / Inventory Accountant. I've learned in my seven (7) years of doing this that these roles are interchangeable and I have experience in both retail and cost inventory methods. I didn't go to school for this (B.A. in PoliSci to get into law school, but found I didn't like law), I started from the bottom as in-store inventory control for a big box retail store and hopped over to the corporate side in another company. I lost that corporate job due to the pandemic, but have been able to get employment elsewhere since then. I'm currently making about $26/hr which is extremely low compared to open positions outside of Florida (I've found some going between $75k-$85k a year, some even higher in other states like Cali and NY), and I live in Miami which has horrible salaries across the board on top of being the highest COL city in the nation.
I'm getting progressively frustrated with my situation. I've been wanting to change careers for a long time and am self-learning programming and web design so I can get into something like devops, but that takes time and admittedly I'm a slow learner. I need to pay the bills and $25/hr isn't cutting it anymore especially when I have a 90 mile round trip commute between home and the office. Job postings that match my title/position are few and far between, and the ones that are paying equal to or more than my wage are even more rare. When I apply, I get rejected. Maybe it's my resume, maybe not, but each iteration of my resume never yields a different result. Out-of-state positions are far more available but I get rejected because I don't live locally, and some have given responses back to me saying I'm a good candidate but the offering is immediate and they won't wait the “customary” two weeks for me to give notice, find an airb&b, and pack my bags to move.
I'm at a loss on what I can do, and I feel that my specific job skill is either becoming useless or fulfilled by other positions with people who have more experience than I do. It's not even something I like doing, it's just a job that I know how to do. I'm wary of moving out of Florida without a job lined up first, but it feels necessary to do at this point. I don't want to leave because I have friends and family here that I don't want to leave behind, but I feel perpetually stuck in a tough shituation and would like advice on how to move forward. Currently I've applied to many Supply Chain Analyst positions, IC positions, junior accounting, anything that looked similar to what I currently do, and some county/local positions because why not?