Need Advise - SAS as a Profession

[TimsCanada]

Hello,

I am new to the community. My questions may not be appropriate for this community. If so, please let me know where to post these questions. I have some general questions about SAS as a profession.

1. Would you advise someone who is stable in their profession to learn SAS in their late 30s? I am making 110K CAD. My current work place is very slow-paced and I have plenty of time to learn SAS. My profession's salary growth prospects are limited. I am working as a pharmacist for a big retail store in Canada. 

2. How long does it normally take to learn SAS to get ready for a job? My preliminary research says 8 to 12 months.

3. Can I work as a free-lancer SAS clinical data analyst/programmer while continuing my job ?

4. Is it normal for SAS professionals to make 150K USD after 5-7 years of industry experience in the USA ? Would you guys advise a pharmacist to learn SAS (Happy with current Profession-pharmacist, except no growth)

Appreciate your time and advice.

Thank you !

[ballardw]

Moderately generic comments:

Additional skills that complement your work are seldom wasted.

2) Really depends on the job. The first job I got because of SAS was after one semester of an analysis class that used SAS. That was for a part-time student job though. The second job I got that used SAS I was hired as a FORTRAN programmer with SAS used to analyze the results of the FORTRAN model code.

3) Likely depends on what you mean by 'free-lance' and your current job restrictions.

4) Salary is all over the place based on skills, organization, work and time frames for results.

[TimsCanada]

Thank you Ballardw 

3) Likely depends on what you mean by 'free-lance' and your current job restrictions. - Working on Upwork or Fiverr as a contractor/consultant per my convenience. Until I am sure that I am ready for full time Clinical Data Analyst/Programmer and once Programmer job meets my current salary. 

4) Salary is all over the place based on skills, organization, work and time frames for results. It might be easy to reach 110KCAD package should I work for US based company rather than Canadian company. Generally Canadian companies tend to pay less. My random guess 30 to 50% less. Just not sure how easy for the Canadian citizen to get hired in US as a SAS programmer or Data Analyst. 

[Kurt_Bremser]

I learned SAS at age 41 (retired this year after 24 years of SAS work), so you're in a good age IMO.

But I already had an IT job in the company, and a programming background.

[Reeza]

I wouldn't consider SAS a "profession". The profession is data analysis/analytics and SAS is a tool used in that field. I actually use R/PowerBI more these days than SAS. I also work with a lot of pharmacists who support the analysis at a health insurance company.