Considering a new career...

Hello,

The courses you mentioned would be of little or no help in this profession.

Criminal investigation courses are helpful (in the CJ track at most colleges)
Vendor and non Vendor specific classes like for Encase and FTK.

How are you financially?

If you want to start up a new company, unless you have a good amount put back you are willing to risk, might not be the way to go.

If you are looking to work for someone else, then people seem to want certs and lots of places want certs and a related degree in IT (doesn't have to be CF, but CS.

To be more specific, I'd say at least a degree in IT or 6 classes in CF including a bootcamp course. Courses are going to be expensive and most employers will only pay for them if you already have a degree and they are looking to get you into intrusion and things like that. Expect minimum $2500 per class and certs usually require you to retest or take another one of the companies class every 2-4 years.

What made you want to consider this field?

I'm not looking to start a business.

I've been considering a number of computer related fields to transition away from engineering. Programming, IT, and this.

CF sounds interesting. I'm comfortable with technology and I like to solve puzzles. Plus there is the added benefit that you'd be doing some good with your skills.

Would it be safer to get a Computer Science Degree and then work in some of the CF classes or certificates.

I'm not sure when or if I'll commit to doing this. One problem I have is the schooling would have to be part time.

You wont really be doing the kind of good I think you are talking about unless you either do Defense work or work for LE. Most of the CF work falls outside of those two.

You may look into intrusion and pen testing, but there are lots of people out of work all along the spectrum of CF.

I'm not really sure on which avenue to go down, take a look at both tracks, but don't go by what the advisers tell you, there aren't tons of CF jobs out there.

Maybe from your circumstances online might be the way to go for you, but it's also expensive.

I'm in my early 40's.
I have a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering(BSME).
During college I did take some programming classes. Fortran, C, Pascal, AutoLisp. I'm not sure how relevant they would be, plus I graduated in 92.

I'm in the process of researching a new career and would like to know what further education I would have to persue, to land a job in this field.

I figured this forum would be a good place to start.

This forum is indeed a good place to begin researching your options transitioning into a career in digital forensics. The programming courses while they may not be immediately applicable to most cases work can bew beneficial whether developing scripts to automate certain tasks or developing your own tools or reading scripts written by other in the field. With the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) if you are considering pursuing further education related to digital forensics I would recommend vendor-neutral certification such as Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) followed by vendor-specific certifications such as EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE). As you pursue these certifications you could augment your academic credentials by earning a graduate degree in a related area which targets the type of forensic investigations you are interested in practising whether general digital forensics, incident response, fraud investigation, legal services technical support, etc.