Switching careers at 32.. could use some advice!

[tugofpeace]

Yes, I don't want to end up in what people consider to be traditional IT.

I want a software engineering role; hopefully one day I get to work in fintech, trading, finance, bleeding edge tech, or artificial intelligence. I've noticed that most people after about five+ years hit management or some senior level position, and from there they stagnate indefinitely, which is where I'm at now. My belief is that stagnation is undesirable and that one should always be learning, which is why I'm not phased by being a slightly older applicant. Having 25-30 working years left, is too young to call it quits and stay where I'm at just because of a few roadblocks. It's why I'm trying to build a core skillset that would allow me to transcend many industries. I plan on switching industries (as a SWE) every so often to avoid stagnation.

I've had a leadership role for much of my career in that I manage/execute all technical work and proposals/reports/budgets/schedules/invoicing/contracts/business development/client relationships/etc so this is a great asset to have. However as I've spent more time in the engineering field, I find technical topics to be more fascinating than leadership, of which much seems to be politics based on my experience.

I don't know enough about SWE to speak intelligently about it so I'm just trying to figure out if the languages/concepts I'm trying to learn are sufficient for entry level, for the most part, and if my timing is reasonable. I'm going to reach out to one of the local posters here soon but if anyone has anything else to had, it's much appreciated.

 

[purbeast0]

I don't think traditional management positions are that desirable in software dev. I never want to be a manager and not code. I've worked with a couple and both of them miss coding. I have no desire to be in meetings and crap all day. I want to be coming up with solutions from the top down and implementing them in the weeds.

Right now i lead a few projects but they are small and I'm the primary dev on all of em, and I like it a lot. Learning new tech is something I enjoy a lot too and always keep on doing. My new project I just started I was going back/forth between 2 UI libraries (bootstrap and material design) and went with material design simply because I've never used it. So it will be fun to use something new and learn it, and then I will also learn the pros/cons that come along with it.

I'm at the point now though that after working on projects with people, they will do anything not to lose me. It literally just happened in my career path and with it came a huge raise and better benefits.

 

[clamum]

I don't think traditional management positions are that desirable in software dev. I never want to be a manager and not code. I've worked with a couple and both of them miss coding. I have no desire to be in meetings and crap all day. I want to be coming up with solutions from the top down and implementing them in the weeds.

Right now i lead a few projects but they are small and I'm the primary dev on all of em, and I like it a lot. Learning new tech is something I enjoy a lot too and always keep on doing. My new project I just started I was going back/forth between 2 UI libraries (bootstrap and material design) and went with material design simply because I've never used it. So it will be fun to use something new and learn it, and then I will also learn the pros/cons that come along with it.

I'm at the point now though that after working on projects with people, they will do anything not to lose me. It literally just happened in my career path and with it came a huge raise and better benefits.

I'm with ya on the "no manager" thing. No way I'm going that route in my career path; my ideal goal is something like a senior software architect or similar.

I'm just not manager material, I'm just not a fan of managing people and meetings and crap like that. I could do it but I wouldn't like it at all.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm with ya on the "no manager" thing. No way I'm going that route in my career path; my ideal goal is something like a senior software architect or similar.

I'm just not manager material, I'm just not a fan of managing people and meetings and crap like that. I could do it but I wouldn't like it at all.

That is pretty much where I am at. I don't even know or care what my title is. It's varied from principle software engineer to senior software architect to senior software engineer. I don't really manage people right now per se but I have 2 people on my team that I delegate tasks to but they are more peers than like people I am "telling what to do" if that makes any sense. But if there is something that we can't agree on I have the final say on what direction to go, but that hasn't really happened before. When I make a final decision it's usually that we all don't really care what direction it goes and i just pick one.

I have a weekly meeting to discuss stuff with the non developers who are the ones in charge of the direction the app is going as far as what is needed. But it's just an hour long so it's not bad. I run the jira board for one project and the other one the non developer person runs it. But she basically asked me how I'm running the other board and is following how I do it on the other project.