I am 37 yo, from Brazil and I made the decision of somehow radical (and late) career change, from manager to developer
As a summary, I graduated in Economics, worked 8 years with non-profit project management and fundraising, then about 4 years with startups (non-tech founder and marketing). Now I decided that I want to invest in being a developer. I believe I will be professionally happier as a developer.
I would like to ask HN your help with some doubts around the goal that I set myself:
Start from scratch and, in 4 months, be employable as a junior developer.
Is it possible at all? How is it possible? Where should I start? What path to follow? Learn from where? Bootcamps, online, self-learning, mentors, classes?
I am inclined to focus on front-end development, but maybe at least some back-end knowledge to be kind of a full-stack web developer.
I can go trial-and-error-and-google mode with CSS/HTML, but JS (and everything else) I have zero knowledge.
I believe I have some affinity with the craft of programming, good logical thinking and expect to learn things fast.
I am open to brutally honest feedback and diversity of opinion, even questioning my decision at all if you will.
1) Maybe more than 4 months to be an employable junior developer, but certainly under a year if you're willing to put the time into it.
2) "Front-end development" is very broad. You could work for anyone making anything doing that. And that could easily be a feasible first step towards a career in development, especially as it'll give you paid opportunities to practice. But
3) You have 12 years of professional experience. Capitalize on it. Are there applications that would help in those niches? Are there solutions that could be provided? Maybe not an application, but the synthesis of several to create better workflows and environments for workers in non-profit project management/fundraising.
What were your pain points in your prior career(s)? What did you see organizations struggling with? Create solutions or find solutions to fill those needs, and then market them (you have a marketing background, should be helpful, and industry connections, even more important). If you aren't interested in doing a startup or consulting yourself, maybe look for existing companies that are trying to fill these needs.
EDIT: Also, for anyone else reading this, particularly from technical backgrounds in other engineering/science disciplines, I highly recommend considering that 3rd statement. You have a great breadth of technical knowledge, unless you just hate the field or have a true passion for something else, no reason to abandon it.