Is It Possible to Start a Career in Tech in Your 40s?

So, Is It Possible to Start a Career in Tech in Your 40s?

The short answer is everything is possible. What’s important in tech is not your age, but your skills. 

The questions you should ask yourself are:

• Is a career in tech what you really want? 
• Do you know what it takes to start a career in tech? 
• Are you ready to put in the work to go after it? 

Is a career in tech what you really want? 

If you have already made up your mind, excellent! You are ready to start. But if you are unsure whether to pursue a career change or not, you should have a taste of what working in technology is like. 

How can you do it? By getting hands-on experience.

If you are interested in software development, go to this site and see how keen you are to build a project with HTML and CSS. If you are able to finish the project and you enjoy the process, then you can think of giving it a go. If coding isn’t you, there are other areas in tech that you can consider, like Product Management, Scrum/Agile, UX and UI Design, Cloud Infrastructure and Quality Assurance, to name a few. The same as with coding, for these other roles in technology, you need to be ready for the journey. 

The glorious benefits of working in tech

Working in tech goes with many benefits, no wonder why this profession has gotten so much attention lately. Here are a few:

• Age isn’t a thing in tech. It is an industry that needs people, so your age is not important.
• You will feel the excitement of starting something new.
• You will meet lots of new people from all around the world.
• You will start building a career that will give you the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world.
• You will get into an industry that pays high salaries.
• You will be able to take part in exciting projects that can change how the world works.

The challenges of starting a career in tech in your 40s

You need to:

• Be willing to start from scratch. 
• Be humble and open to learn and listen.
• Be able to keep a good balance between working your current job, studying and spending time with family.
• Make time to study. If you have a family, you will need to wake up before them or stay up late once they have gone to sleep.
• Be willing to accept a possible step backwards in terms of salary. It might take a while to get a high salary when you start from scratch. 
• Be ready for rejections and for overcoming them.

Here is my advice

• If you think you want to give it a go, start today. Take baby steps. 
• Pick a project from the website I linked above and get started. That's the beauty of this area, you can learn everything online.
• Once you begin, pay attention to see if you really like it and if you want to keep going. 
• Look for mentors and ask them as many questions as you can.
• Ask your mentors what they don’t like about their jobs. It's easy to get tempted with all the good things, but what about the bad things? Don’t forget to ask about them.
• Enjoy the process. Enjoy learning. This is about the journey, so make sure you enjoy every single step.
• Don’t think about finding that amazing job you have been dreaming of. That will come if you enjoy the ride.

So remember: 

• Age isn’t important in tech. Your willingness to learn, your skills and your attitude are.
• Software development is not the only path you can take; there are many other professions in the industry.
• Even though you can learn by yourself, look for mentors and ask them for help. It will benefit you enormously.

Do you really want to pursue a career in tech? If so, forget your age, and put your heart, mind and soul into it.

You will see how everything is possible.