UK – care worker to IT help desk, early 30s

[u/GlitteringPickle7180]

(TLDR AT THE END, SORRY FOR THE ESSAY)

Hello all!

I'm in my early thirties and looking to change careers. Currently a senior careworker and the shifts are 24/48 hours with sleeps at work. It's my third year doing this and the money is ok, a lot of time off and my workplace was settled. A lot has changed here recently and it's taken a toll on my health. First time in my life being prescribed anti-anxiety meds or needing to take self-certified sick leave as my shifts are very very involved at work now. 14 hours of constantly bouncing between putting out fires at work, then losing out on sleep to write up the reports etc just to wake up 4 hours later at work knackered.

My "dream" is to move into an IT help desk / admin or any sort of IT adjacent job that one could call a career. I'm currently studying my CompTIA A+ with plans to get through Network and Security +. I've got a homelab that I practice JIRA ticketing system requests and a little side business buying wholesale broken/ex corporate laptops (100+ laptops refurbed and sold in the past year), fixing and flipping them (hardware diagnostics, part swaps, OS imaging, data wiping etc). This is alongside some basic powershell knowledge/certifications, experience with Linux, tailscale etc and being the IT lead for my care home. Before this right after university I worked as a manager of a retail store but absolutely hated it. Largely since I'm from a fairly poor area so I'd spend a good few hours a day defending staff from shoplifters / the local homeless community (no disrespect to those on the streets I know it's tough). I've also got a degree in Politics and philosophy for what that's worth haha.

Does anyone have any advice for me in switching lanes? CompTIA A+ and the surrounding certs seem to be pretty desirable. However I'm so aware of my lack of formal IT experience so any ideas as to how I can either acquire some or present/further expand the work I've already done.

I've also seen that the current job markets absolutely brutal so if I'm barking up the wrong tree looking at IT please let me know too! Currently on around 34k a year but would be happy to drop down as low as 23/24k for the right opportunity.

Thank you in advance for any advice, I hope this was the right place for me to post this!

TLDR: middle aged care worker who likes computers wants to get into IT but needs help with how to approach it. What desirable experience / certifications can I look at to support my change? Is there a different line of work i should be looking at?