aireo

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to my post. I'm humbled. There's some good advice here, some great perspective, and I've found it helpful. I hope that anyone in a similar position who comes across this post also finds value.

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback and experience. This is helpful. I'm no longer very young -- mid-thirties -- and so I feel some pressure, mostly internal, to dive into something sooner rather than later.

Your point about a high barrier to entry tickles my brain. I'd love to combine my communication skills, particularly my writing and documentation skills, which I've worked hard on, with my software skills. Ideally in service of a non-profit. I think there's a good opportunity there.

Again, I appreciate you chiming in. I value the input.

Thank you for the kind response and offer. I've sent you an email.

I absolutely agree that this is not a unique situation, and I see -- and even know -- people who're going through the same experience.

There will be a culling of this profession. Some will reinvent themselves and push forward, some will find peace in leaving it behind. Some will be excited to enter it, and some will be scared off by the sight of the wreckage. It's a challenging moment, and the truth is it's just not going to be for everyone.

This is a good point.

Thank you for taking the time to share. I appreciate it.

Great post. I do think every experience has something to teach; that can be very difficult -- I'm experiencing that now! -- but we just have to be open and thoughtful. Thanks for sharing this.

Thank you the response and for the encouragement. I appreciate it.

Frankly, I'm humbled that you created an account to reply to my post. Thank you for taking the time to do so.

You'll be alright and at the very least, I hope you take away that you're always more than the sum of your parts.

You have no control over those variables and you're better than that.

These are life-long lessons that I continuously learn and re-learn and, imo, can never be overstated. Thank you.

... you may want to try and leverage your non-profit creds and see what NP consortiums are out there.

This is excellent advice, and something I will start doing.

Thank you again for the advice and kindness. It means a lot.

Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about current economy and politics. Sometthing out of your control.

This is a really important point to remember, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

I’d try to start a startup, build and sell some product. One after another, until something sticks. Even if nothing sticks - i get out of it with valuable skills and experience.

Another great point. At the very least, I'm learning and building skills, and that's not time wasted.

Thanks for taking the time to share, and I hope you're now in a position you find meaningful!

First, thank you for taking time to respond. I really appreciate it.

You pushed through a math refresh and excelled in a technical institute towards the goal of working in software. Also, getting a Masters degree is no joke - that's a lot of effort and likely takes getting accepted to two programs, pushing through all the work required, possibly doing presentations, etc.

Thank you for the kind words. This is encouraging. It did take a lot of time and effort, and I'm proud of what I accomplished. I do hope this comes across to potential employers.

Maybe volunteer at a non-profit that interests you personally and see if they have IT or software related things they need help with.

This is helpful advice. My favourite job was at the non-profit -- the work was meaningful and the people were great. My dream role would be to work for a non-profit, one ideally geared toward environment / ocean / clean energy causes, so I'll look at opportunities here.

Also learn to use AI in your coding efforts.

I've definitely been taking advantage of this. I use Perplexity and Claude (paid), and they've proven to be valuable learning tools. I focus on using them as tutors, to help explain ideas and concepts, and resist using them to do the work for me.

This actually brings up another, somewhat related question. I graduated with someone who uses AI tools to do almost all his coding. He's created some really cool projects, but I'm not sure if he fully understands what he's made. Still, he's putting in the time and effort to create something, and I respect that.

I'm trying to limit how much AI does for me, but that means I work slower and have fewer projects. I'm not sure how to walk this line -- AI can certainly help to build things more quickly, but I also know, especially for juniors who don't know what they don't know, that this can lead to bad habits and gaps in knowledge. To what extent do I use AI? I'm still figuring that out...

Thanks a ton for taking the time to chime in. As you and the original responder suggested, I'll continue to build things and expand my skills.

I think you made a really important point about re-framing this as a "learning and exploration opportunity".

Thanks again for taking the time to share some feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to provide honest feedback. What you say makes sense; it's what I suspected but haven't fully accepted.

I do enjoy programming, so I'll continue that regardless, and in the meantime keep a casual eye out for opportunities. Thanks again -- this is valuable input.

Several immediately come to mind.

Short stories: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (Ken Liu); Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation (Ted Chiang); The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)

Novels: The Monk (Matthew Gregory Lewis); Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

I hope the OP is okay with me getting in on this.

I just picked up _Learning Go: An Idiomatic Approach to Real-World Programming_, 2nd ed, based on its positive reviews. I'd like to read it and create a small project (for example, a simple backend for a personal website).

Any other suggestions for a good Go project?

I first read this when I was an English Lit undergraduate. Theory was my favourite topic -- Derrida, Foucault, Althusser, etc -- but this book, in particular, always stood out to me. It's the writing style. The words and sentences are simple, especially compared to other theory books, and it was captivating to read as a result. (It doesn't hurt that the topic itself is highly interesting and relatable.) IMO, an example of excellent writing.

Brogue was my introduction to the genre. I also tried Golden Krone Hotel, a beginner-friendly title (and the first one I beat)! I played CoQ for a while, too, but there's something about Cogmind that clicked with me. I'm not very good at it, but it's a _total_ blast.

And I agree with you -- it is, imo, the most beautiful roguelike that I've seen or played. And it's got hundreds of unique sound effects, too, which makes a huge difference.

I've thought about CDDA, but honestly, the amount of material there is intimidating. But it looks very cool.

These games are indeed dangerous! I don't have kids, but I'm still in school, so I have to be careful. When you have some time, definitely give Cogmind a try. Hope you enjoy it!

I’ve already mentioned Cogmind, but Brogue is a beautiful game with tight gameplay. Another great recommendation.

I hadn’t played games for a long time, mostly because of school, but recently I picked up Cogmind, a fantastic sci-fi roguelike. Basically, you’re a robot that can attach and replace different items, including utilities, propulsion systems, weapons, and power sources. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had playing a game in ages.

The developer, Josh Ge, is also very kind and deeply engaged with the community, which is great.

Highly recommended!

A wonderful message. All the best, everyone. I wish you all a safe, happy, and healthy holidays.

At 32, I had a Masters in English Literature (which I loved doing) and was working for a non-profit. I liked the organization and what it stood for, but I didn’t love my job and, more broadly, how my career trajectory was shaping up.

After dabbling in coding, which I fell in love with, I decided to go back to school for software development. I didn’t have the high school math grades to be a competitive applicant, so, while working full-time, I re-did all high school math over a four-month period —- finishing just days before the program’s application deadline.

A year ago, at age 34, I started the program. For the first time in my professional life, I feel I’m exactly where I should be. I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

Was it scary? Absolutely. But even scarier was the thought of looking back twenty years from now having not made the change.

If it piques your interest, go for it!

Fantastic. Jotted those two down. Thanks for the input -- I really appreciate it.

I figured The Pragmatic Programmer might be a good one. I'll begin with that. I've added Refactoring to Patterns to my list. Thanks for sharing this.

I did take a course on computer architecture and organization. Just this last term, in fact. It's been one of my favourite course so far. Our final (small) project for that class was writing a simple assembly program -- ours asked the user for a word, counted the number of vowels in that word, then printed that result to the console. Challenging, but very, very interesting.

I've added those two books to my list. Thank you for the recommendation!

I wonder if your last sentence was the answer. Or, at least, one reasonable answer.

It’s not an audiobook, but if you’re a fan of history, particularly World War 1, then Dan Carlin’s six-part series “Blueprint for Armageddon” is fabulous. That’ll give you 20+ hours of content.

Carlin’s a self-proclaimed “non-historian”, but his storytelling is very compelling.

Makes sense. I'll take a look. Thank you for sharing, @DantesKite.

I've been thinking about possible projects. So far, I've been reading about algorithms, which I want to practice via coding-challenge websites, but focusing on a larger project seems sensible. Thank you for sharing this!

I love this idea. I also see the value in reflecting upon what's been learned. Appreciate this great input.

This is very practical advice, and something that several people, in this thread and elsewhere, have told me. I'm made a note of this and will consider it a priority skill. Thanks for taking the time to share this, @engineerDave.

I've written all of these down. Thanks so much, @wly_cdgr.

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing, @brudgers. I've bookmarked these lectures.