Becoming a financial analyst may help you build the skills you are looking to obtain to become an investor.You may want to consider working in an accounting department of a small business to gain skills when you open your own business.Becoming an auditor may help you understand industries/trends/ratio's that also may be useful to start your own business.

The more intimidated they are with your appearance, intelligence and interpersonal skills the better you'll be landing a job.

So, my biggest opportunities at this season of my career are knowledge, skills, and relationships.

Learn to do creative financing and learn marketing skills

Although I'm new to real estate I'm hoping that my analytical skills and creative problem solving experience can be leveraged successfully in this arena, especially with respect to buy-and-hold deals for income replacement. 

@Joshua Hartman great question, now it is definitely a great time to be in real estate and in some markets there could be more investors than in others, but opportunities can be found even in those markets it all depends on your skills and willingness to stand out from the rest.

@Art PerkitnyThat is impressive!

I do have a plumber in my network that may be helpful in at least bouncing around ideas, but I suspect you'd want someone with more of an engineering skill-set to evaluate options for that. 

  :)   Right now I'm listening to "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield on Audible.  

Real estate is a team sport, so you have to always surround yourself with the right partners/team members that have the skills set complementary to you and the goals that are aligned with yours!