
Too old to start IT career? - Cozyskier
This is my first post here. I&#x27;m a MBA Enterprise risk analyst and investment analyst that has always been intrigued with programming and software development. At 44, am I too old to get into IT? I&#x27;m also interested in cybersecurity.
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nickysielicki
Unless you really hate your job or are having trouble finding work, you may
not want to go down this path. We need more informations about your skills.

Have you dabbled in programming before? What languages?

Do you use a unix-like operating system? Windows? How comfortable are you with
inner workings of your preferred operating system?

If you use unix, how comfortable are you comfortable with command line tools
like grep, sed, and/or awk? Do you primarily manage your system using a GUI?

WRT security, do you know much about IP? Are you aware of differences between
unix sockets and ip sockets? Are you aware of common vulnerabilities for
outward facing services? (ie: sql injections)

Without knowing a bit more about you, it's difficult to say. I can't imagine
it'd be a good move for someone with an MBA in a separate field to move to the
IT field if the above questions are not trivial to you.

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d4rkph1b3r
Well, it depends on how much money you want/need to make and how long you want
your career to be. If you want to retire at 55 then it may not be worth it. It
may take you 5 years or longer to go beyond 'entry level' in an IT career. So
you may (probably will) not make six figures during that time. Does making
~60k while you learn the ropes sound good?

There is some age discrimination (less than people make out imo) in the
IT/programming world, does that bother you? Does the idea of being on a team
primarily of younger folks sound fun or terrible? :-)

The company I consult for hired a new batch of HTML programmers (very entry
level), many are college age and we had one guy who looks to be in his late
fifties. _shrug_

At 44, is your ego prepared to be constantly battered? If you do
It/programming right, this _never_ goes away, as you'll continually hit
plateaus that are painful to overcome.

Basically I'm trying to say that there's no 'yes/no' answer to 'are you too
_______ (old/young/smart/etc) to become a professional ______
(programmer/It/security expert)'.

It's all trade offs, and depending on which ones you are OK with making will
influence your decision. I find programming incredibly rewarding, but I very
much liken it to a difficult sport. How bad do you want it, and are you
willing to endure the challenges of getting there?

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kazinator
At 44, the smarter thing is to think about how you're going to retire in 20
years or whenever. Not a good time to be taking any sort of pay cut!

Programming is a nice hobby. In many ways, it is a nicer hobby than it is
career. Some die-hard programmers dream of having more money so that they
could work strictly on whatever hacking interests them. I don't know whether
enterprise risk analysts regard enterprise risk analysis that way, but I'm
guessing no.

If you want to do programming and get paid for it, and get paid well, then
connect it to your present work. Do some programming which helps you analyze
investments or perform enterprise risk analysis.

If I were an MBA enterprise risk analyst (but otherwise the same person that I
am, with my software skills) I would definitely not change career to
programming. I'd grab all that enterprise money I could and carry on my
programming projects, where I dictate the requirements, design, implementation
and all the rest of it, and where my name is on everything at the end of the
day.

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debacle
You are not too old, but unless you go into enterprise/corporate IT or plan to
do consulting/freelance, you may find a lot of ageism.

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bhhaskin
You are never too old. It sounds like you are interested in software
development and software engineering which is a whole different ball game than
IT (although often IT will overlap, but not always). If you are highly
motivated and driven to learn new things on your own you will do great.

~~~
bhhaskin
I should also add that it is quite a bit easier to get into a career doing IT
work than software development..

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kazinator
It may be easier to get into, but it also seems like an easier way to yourself
into a lot of hot water, whereby a lot of stress is focused on you through
several layers of management above.

As a developer, I do not envy the IT people who have to fight fires such as
company-wide security breaches. Or multiple failures in server farms.

I mean, we sometimes have a difficult time estimating work, and due to
combinations of estimating mistakes and caving in to product marketing or
whoever, we sometimes have to meet unrealistic deadlines. But IT work can be
completely unpredictable.

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Cozyskier
The reason I post here is that I can see that there is a depth of knowledge
and professional experience that I can't tap into with mainstream media. I'm
behind saving for my retirement and I really to step up my game for my family.
Very open to suggestions and ideas.

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akg_67
Unfortunately 44 is too old to make a career switch especially to
programming/development. In my personal experience, Ageism is much more
prevalent in IT and Technology field.

Once you hit mid-forties, it is very difficult to find a programmer/developer
job even when you have been in technology all your career. I know people, in
40s and 50s, who took over a year to find a development job after being laid
off from their previous development jobs when company got bought out or
folded. Personally, I will not recommend a career switch to development in
mid-40s.

But not everything is lost. If you can learn development on your own, consider
launching side projects in your domain of experience or scratch your own itch.
Also, freelance and consulting opportunities will open up with time.

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giaour
Since your MBA is in a different field, it probably won't bring you the same
salary premium if you become a junior developer. Would you be ok with a steep
pay drop?

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Cozyskier
How does Machine Intelligence and Deep learning fit into programming? What
type of background does a person need to get into that ballgame?

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bhhaskin
That is computer science (software engineering). For Machine learning and AI
you will need very very strong math skills. If you don't plan on going to
school I wouldn't suggest this.

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Cozyskier
By the way, I'm also a Navy Reservist...5 months before I go Inacitve.

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Cozyskier
I've been very fascinated by Mindops.com, Metamind.io, and others...

