Re-training at 40 - which industry/role?

depressed_but_determined

I retrained as a firefighter at 35. Wish I'd done it years ago!

wordswords

I am 34 and looking to move OUT of software development. I am older than most people I work with, and constantly get flak from young upstarts trying to userp my senior position. The industry in general I would say is not at all kind on older developers, and there is a certain amount of ageism present which gets worse as you get older. Also having to constantly relearn everything every few years does get mentally tiring as you get older.

I would say software development is a real geninue skill that not everyone is best suited for. I spent years as a teenager stuck in my bedroom after school absorbed in self-studying software development. It requires a lot of dedication that not everyone is cut out for.

You might be able to move into a project management role in the technology sphere though. You probably wouldn't be able to work from home easily and it's not as in demand, but if you get some technical project management qualifications you might be OK.

FredG

IT might not be the path for you. I do 3rd line infrastructure support for a large organisation and I'm a lot of the time you interact with project managers who are young (which I don't really care about, I'm not old myself) but have minimal technical knowledge and a tendency to just want to tick boxes quickly rather than do things properly (which I do).


Any workplace or career you're gonna find things that rankle you. Just have to suck it up and get on with it sometimes.