To be worried about a career change late 30's.

[bestusername]

Hi,
I'm feeling really confused, stressed and tired with being in this position.

I am being made redundant again and am desperately thinking of a way to stop this from potentially happening again.

I'm considering a career change but am worried it's too late. I have two kids preschool age and the usual financial responsibilities, mortgage, bills etc

The new career I'm considering is in IT. Software Engineering or Development. A lot of learning would need to take place but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. I think it will also give me the variety, flexibility and security I'm looking for.

Has anyone made a move to IT at almost 40? Is it a lengthy process? Is it possible to qualify through distance learning? Is it worth it?

AIBU to be worried about a career change at this stage in life with financial responsibilities?

Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate any advice.

Do it! I'm mid-30s with mortgage, disabled DM etc (no DCs sadly but still not without responsibility) and am 2 years into my 4 year retraining. Its hard going but brilliant and I'm really focussed on my end goal. My best friend also managed to get a first class degree aged 32 as a single mum to 3 under 10s. Its hard but doable!

Have a look into student finance, or possibly a paid diploma position dependant on your field. Personally I looked at it thinking I've got at least 30 years more work in me, so 3/4 years grind to get me on the right path is worth it.

Good luck OP

Sorry, meant to say, neither mine not my friend's retraining was/is in IT but the principle should be the same

Thanks for your reply. I know it will be hard. I think it’s the possibility of failure that scares me. Or it not being the right decision in the end.

I think it’s incredible your friend got a first as a single mum of 3!

Software engineering might be a bit difficult. You have to learn a lot of languages, basically all of the main ones or else you'll be restricted on jobs.

What about security? You can get a job in some companies without any qualifications and learn on the job, get training etc with the company. You just have to prove you have the right mindset, being analytical, look for differences in data etc. You could then learn the coding on the side and progress upwards, with relevant experience of working in the industry.

I think it's important to choose something that interests you. It is a very broad subject. I'm in a similar position. Pregnant with second at the moment and my career pre first never quite took off in a secure way. I'm a sahm currently and oldest is going into care 2 days a week soon to allow me to do some training. I was in a semi technical field anyway so have decided what I really want to do is to move sideways into a more techy version.

I was a 3d artist for landscape design but now am working towards becoming an environment/game artist. It has a lot of skill overlap so I am confident I have the skills and will enjoy it.

Is there anyway you can use your current skills in your new path? That way it looks better on your cv and there are lots of transferable skills. This could be as simple as admin experience to a data scientist for example.

I changed career in early/mid 30s. Did study at home, not IT based but DH is in a related field and does study new programming languages at home to upskill - 2 kids, I have mobility issues and kids have mild SN.

I’m about to change industry as I’m heading toward my late 30s. Same skills as current but such different working practices and terminology I’ll be starting back at the bottom.

With 25-30 years of working life left it is definitely worth it. Many people are going to have to change their skills and adapt as the workplace changes, increasing automation. Just make sure you will enjoy it enough to keep up the study and a career longer term.

Unless you already have some kind of known health condition or disability to indicate otherwise, you've got at least another thirty years of working. So I don't think you're too old.

How did you choose the field you're considering?

Why? I did it at 53 & 2 years later I'm at Senior level. I had ageism etc in mind but it didn't impact me.. & most of the ageism concerns I had frankly came from reading too much about it on the Internet. Thankfully its not a true reflection of the real world, the right organisation will see you for who you are and what skills you bring to the table

I'm very analytical and good with systems.

Have sales/HR background. Good st problem solving, good with numbers, good with people. I enjoy working with systems.

I like working on projects and managing them but don't have much experience in this.

I'm thinking IT because it is varied, future proof if I can stay on top of changes and flexible. I know lots of IT people who can work from home or even freelance. I would love that freedom.

I definitely don't see myself as desktop support. I really wouldn't enjoy something like that.

You won't be freelancing for years in it. You need lots of experience and knowledge. With no experience and no provable knowledge, security or desktop support would be easiest to get into. You don't talk to users though in security, unless they've broken something.

If you want to do software development, then start learning java, javascript, python, sql, c++, and maybe html and php wouldn't go amiss.

Thanks Blueoasis.

Is it easy to self teach java etc?

For the other languages, probably.

I had a lecturer to teach me java (although she didn't really) and no one in the class understood it. Even with online courses I couldn't get java. But I wasn't great at coding anyway, and that one is just pure evil to most even to the experts in coding.

You'll need to spend a good few hours every night learning each one though. They take a long time to master and understand. I'd start off with one of the easier ones like html to get yourself eased into coding and see if you even like it. You might hate it. I liked the problem solving aspect of it and feeling great once you got it working. But it is complicated.

HTML isn't coding.

How is it not? Its definitely not the most difficult and you shouldn't use it on its own, but it is coding. It's a good basis to start on because if you hate that, you aren't going to like the others.

If you're thinking of software engineering, would it be worth choosing a language and giving it a go, and seeing where you get to? DH is a software engineer, but has no qualifications in it, and has never been formally taught (he does have a different degree). When he's applied for jobs, he's been given a coding test rather than been asked for qualifications. He thinks that only a minority of software engineers he knows have formally studied computer science (or similar). I should probably say that he would have had thousands of hours of coding under his belt by the time he applied for his first job; he's a geek and always has been.

If you do want to go down the qualifications route, do check what is taught on the course - some computer science degrees are basically pure maths, with no actual coding taught at all.

Blueoasis I’ll give it a go!

Bathorshower that’s really helpful thanks. I have looked at the computer science degrees and the maths puts me off. Maths is not something I enjoy at all 😩
Over how much time did he gain thousands of hours?
I’ll start with a language and see.

Can he recommend any good sites to learn from?

He started coding when he was about 8, and first got a job at 23, so he had a while to get that much practice in! Also, he had very few responsibilities during that time, found schoolwork straightforward and didn't go out much - he may well have reached 10,000 hours. But from your OP, your situation is a bit different. However from my own (much more limited) experience, the best way to learn to code is to try it, with help when you get stuck. Formal training definitely has its place, but it would be worth knowing that this is something you definitely want to go for first.

Never too late, I'm 38 and going through teacher training. Granted I was the oldest one on the course but didn't act it 😂