Am I wasting my time getting into tech at 40?

[SherbettingSherbert]

I posted in Back to Work but got no responses there and I guess I'm just after some reassurances from the lovely MN community that I'm not completely wasting my time.

Have been self employed as a web designer, developer and tech support for 7 years, the last 2 I've been mainly a SAHM with the odd project on the side. But I just can't balance it anymore. Being self employed means I'm wearing every hat and income is patchy at best and non-existent at worst. Pre-kiddo my business was thriving, but that equated to working every hour under the sun and pulling regular overnighters. I just can't do that nowadays. And I don't want to anymore. I loved my work and my clients were amazing people, but I'd like some life balance.

I did consider expanding into an agency but all the agency owners I've come to know seem incredibly stressed out all the time and have little to no work-life balance.

I'm pretty much self-taught with no formal qualifications so have applied for some opportunities with Code First Girls, got going on FreeCodeCamp, The Odin Project and looking at some Udemy courses so I can formalise my knowledge.(Previous MN thread was incredibly helpful here, thank you!)

BUT, I'm about to turn 40 and honestly I just don't know if any company is going to be looking to hire a 40 year old junior dev that has to work around childcare!

Anyone else got into tech employment later in life?

Any particular roles in demand that might be worth focusing on? Is LinkedIn a good place to look for opportunities?

My experience is mostly front-end but it looks quite popular and I worry I'd be going up against a lot of much younger candidates with a lot more flexibility in their lives.

(Appreciate I might well be going through a life crisis at the moment!)

Thank you!

Just realised that was a bit of a long post, didn't want to drip-feed 😅

Don't rule yourself out. I hire configurators and I don't care much about their age etc - I work on the basis of how good they will be at their job. That's ALL I care about - they they can deliver and are a good team fit.

Thank you, that's good to know @whoareyouinviting! I'm actually really enjoying the coding exercises and camps, just didn't want to spend all this time focusing on it to find at the end there's no prospects for someone like me.
This makes me feel a lot better :)

Look at the BBC if an office is near you. They have a number of junior developer schemes, previously ran a women 'step into tech' programme too.

Not wasting your time. I did this in my 40s with no previous experience at all. Yes there might be younger candidates, but you have valuable life experience and other skills that are important. Second what yoshiblue said and look at the BBC or other companies that have run similar schemes (Sky and Very spring to mind). Not sure where you’re based but Tech Returners run courses I think in Manchester and London, they help get people like you into tech roles.

Some great suggestions, thank you! Might have to wait until DC turns 3 for some of these though as can't really afford extra private childcare to attend in-person training at the moment. Will definitely keep an eye on these and think around some solutions.

I'm ten years older than you and working towards a career shift into Edtech.

With your background and experience I would think you already have a fantastic headstart. Is there a particular aspect of the work you enjoy more or would like to develop more? It might be worth trying to hone in on one or two key skill sets and focus on those. So more design-oriented or more tech-oriented?

Perhaps have a look at the jobs on otta.com to get an idea of the up-to-date skills employers are looking at, and then use free or cheap online sources to learn whatever seems useful. Google and Microsoft offer free online courses with certification at the end, for example. The CS50 offered by Harvard is also apparently very good. (All on my to do list).

There are lots of remote or hybrid jobs on offer in tech too thanks to the different collaboration tools. If you're used to working on your own you might want to check some of them out. This is on my to do list too.

Good luck!

@SherbettingSherbert the Tech Returners programme is free and delivered remotely at the moment by the look of it. Probably doesn’t completely solve your childcare issues but might be worth a look. www.techreturners.com/programmes/your-return-to-tech

@apalershadeoflight Thank you for the info, super helpful! Good to know about Google, Microsoft and the CS50 from Harvard sounds good too, must look deeper into these. Otta.com looks great! I’ve not heard of the site before and it did cross my mind to reverse-engineer my plan so this is a great resource to find what an ideal position might be and what they would be looking for. Appreciate the steer.

I might look at some additional skills not directly related but potentially beneficial like Agile Prínciples and improved Touch Typing for faster coding.

I think you might be right about previous experience, sometimes it’s easy to overlook the soft skills we gain with age and experience.

It sounds like you’ve got a brillint plan yourself, wishing you all the best luck.
We can do this!

@GardenExpert you’re right, Tech Returners does looks great and definitely doable. Signing up with them now! Thank you

Good luck!

You're welcome. I hadn't heard of the site either but read about it on another thread on Mumsnet.

I love your idea about improving you touch typing speed. Have you found any resources worth looking at? And thanks for your encouragement too: "Yes, we can" is definitely the mindset to have!

Tech Returners looks really good - go for it!

This is a great thread, thank you for starting it!

I work in tech, in a really fast moving field and since returning 2 years ago after having my 3yo, my confidence has plumetted. So much change and my desire to stay has disappeared.
I want to switch career (at 41) and tech seems to be my thing, but wow, I feel overwhelmed with the learning hills to climb!
I completed a CFG course in web dev, that was really great. Looking at their degrees for next year...
Will definitely look into all the suggestions above!

This is a great thread. Very informative. I'm looking to start out in tech, but struggling to know where to begin....

Totally worth it. My husband has just done the same in his mid 40s. It took him longer than his younger bootcamp peers to find a job. But he's been in work for nearly a year now and is really flying and loving it. And earning about 3x more than he used to learn as self employed tech support!

Go for it. Try the civil service, seriously, it does pay less than the private sector but it's so flexible and will work with you while you learn!

Don't know how relevent this is but I'm considering doing an MSc in Data Science the next time my company goes in to the Voluntary Redundancy mode (we used to be there frequently and regularly and after a couple of years of stability I think it's going to start again pretty soon). I'm in my late 50s. I love the subject and have enough experience that I believe, if I get an MSc funded through my redundancy payment, I can support myself for the last years of my career using the context of my current role to differentiate myself (I'm practicing my personal marketing statement. Can you tell 😀).

So in short, go for it.

People skilled in DevOps are v v scarce at the moment. Definitely work looking at in your '40's

@SherbettingSherbert

This is on LinkedIn from Sky at the moment There will be other schemes around

The Sky Get Into DevOps Programme is just around the corner.

This flexible and free15-week virtual DevOps course is designed for women looking to kick-start a career in technology.

The course, which doesn't require any prior experience, has no age limit and will give you a solid grounding in DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering.

So, whether you are a returner to work, a career changer or just want to start afresh, this course is for you. We will give you all the support you need to be as successful as you can be.

Fore more info: lnkd.in/eAWyNKSP

#LifeAtSky

Some great suggestions and encouragement here. Thank you everyone 😀

Very informative thread! Best of luck!

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What a great thread.