A big problem (and it is a big problem) with the tech industry is ageism.

It's freaking jaw-dropping. When I encountered it (I left my last job, of 27 years, at 55), I was gobsmacked.

If you are over 40, forget it (unless you are C-suite, or have gobs of money). If you are in your mid-30s, you need to have a lot of relevant experience. It's very, very difficult to break in, at that age, at a junior position. If you complain about it, expect to be mocked by folks that are secure in their own employment.

I say go for it, but be prepared to roll up your sleeves, tuck in a bib, and eat some humble pie. I have been doing that, for most of my life. After encountering the current tech scene's blatant, unapologetic, ageism, I gave up, and am working for free, doing stuff I love. Fortunately, I can afford it. I doubt that's the case for the OP.

I have a GED. I have nothing but a couple of years of tech school. But I'm good at what I do. Really good. I always have been, and I can prove it.

When I was younger, selling myself was easy. Companies were clamoring to hire me; despite my lack of qualifications.

What I did have, was experience. Even now, at my age (I'm now 59), I have an unusual degree of experience, architecting and shipping software. I can prove a lot of it. I've been doing it for a living, since I was about 23 or so, and a great deal of my work is open-source (mostly because I was a manager, and did OSS to keep my tech chops up). My very first engineering project, in 1986-7, was a full-scale architecting and construction of a custom microwave switching interface. Many folks don't get to do that kind of work for years. The fact that I was cheap labor, helped.

It's just that, these days, experience isn't the currency that it used to be.

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying that you'll get lots of advice from young, and/or career-secure people, with a lot of theoretical advice, based on their own experience of not having trouble (but they may be in for a bit of a shock, as their well-coiffed pompadour starts to take on a fetching shade of grey. I can tell you that happened to me, and it sucked). It really sucks to be mocked for it. Being told that what is clearly happening, isn’t happening, is quite demoralizing. I guess that I sort of deserve it, because I wasn’t always sympathetic to the plight of others.

Comeuppance is a bitch.

The rewards can be worth it. The pay in tech; even for younger/junior folks, is quite good. If you love solving problems, and working in creative teams, then it can be an amazing experience.

But I think, like in any career, it's important to love what we do. I spent 25 years as a manager. I did a lot of tech work during that time, but I hated the management part of the job. It was absolutely soul-crushing. If I hadn't had my OSS on the side, I would have gone mad. The pay was mediocre. The frustration, however, was first-class, top-shelf.

I think that it is a mistake to approach a career, based only on the money to be made. For myself, I have always loved software, and worked for a lot less than many (the companies took full advantage of my lack of formal schooling, to keep my pay down). I can't even imagine doing this, if I didn't love it. The stress of writing shipping software is pretty damn intense. Every single day (even now), I generally start the day with an existential problem that has me defecating masonry. I solve it, but there's a lot of sweat involved. I write about that, here: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/thats-not-what-ships...