<p>^All of this is untrue for various reasons.</p>
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<li><p>Although it’s true that it’s harder to become financially successful, or even recognizable, at a national level if you aren’t already rich, whether or not this is overall true depends on what you define “important” by. Even if you go by the wisdom that “important” people (at the tops of companies and agencies) have an exclusive club, they WILL have to replace themselves eventually, so they are of course looking for people to do at least that.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s ridiculous to believe that at 27 (which is still quite young) that your present education and training dictate what opportunities are available to you. At age 27, if you wanted to become a lawyer and got great LSAT scores and into a top law school, you’d graduate when you were 30 or 31. Your prior work experience may even be beneficial - let’s say that an engineering major works for 5 years in the engineering field and then goes to law school to be a patent lawyer. Are they really going to be worse off than a high school graduate? Of course not.</p></li>
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<p>There’s also no such thing as starting all over. You always carry who you are and your past experiences with it, so it’s far better to make use of that experience rather than try to forget it about it. With teaching experience if OP decided to become an education lawyer or a child advocate, her experience would be an asset, not a liability.</p>
<p>This idea that you have to determine your entire life’s course by the time you are 18 and if you are 22-25 and haven’t finished or figured it out yet, you’re screwed - it has GOT to go away. It’s not even remotely true. There are so many middle-aged folks changing careers or switching tracks within their careers that it’s ludicrous to believe that someone in her late 20s couldn’t do the same. My mom was a SAHM for 16 years and went back to get her nursing degree at age 40 and began a career as a nurse then. If she can start a new career from scratch pretty much at age 40, then you can begin with actual work experience at just 27.</p>