Certainly. You said you would have made the change earlier but now consider yourself to be "old" (and therefore your skills are out of date). At what age would you have not considered yourself "old" and likely a more suitable candidate for jobs?
I know that the "buzzword bingo" of tech doesn't help. What languages did you write in?
I play a few instruments and it is enjoyable but I am not sure I would have "succeeded" as an artist, simply because it is another industry set up to sell things just like the software industry (particularly "rent-a-software" that seems to be taking hold) and disillusionment would have set in (unrealistic expectations?). I suspect I would have ran out of creativity or ideas, and I wonder if the same would have happened to you?
It's a shame about you hating it and dreading programming. I don't like some of the stuff I have to write but at least it is writing software - I try to keep in mind that's it's still "better" than other jobs I would have gone insane in (eg. basic administrative jobs).
"Certainly. You said you would have made the change earlier but now consider yourself to be "old" (and therefore your skills are out of date). At what age would you have not considered yourself "old" and likely a more suitable candidate for jobs?"
Well, being more suitable for jobs is less a matter of being young than of having the right skills and a good CV. The reason I brought up being old is because I think it's harder to make a career switch when you're older than when you're younger.
"What languages did you write in?"
I'm actually going to refrain from giving any more details about exactly what I did. Suffice to say the tech I knew at my peak is, mostly, no longer in fashion and that I knew a variety of languages.
"I suspect I would have ran out of creativity or ideas, and I wonder if the same would have happened to you?"
That's certainly possible, but there are ways to keep oneself fresh.. like surrounding oneself with other creative people, who can be really inspiring, or to work on many different projects at the same time, so it's more difficult to get bored than working on the same thing over and over again. I do share your concern, however, particularly in the long term, but now, looking back on my life I wish I'd just tried more things career wise, and taken more risks... even if they didn't work out in the end, they would have provided lots of opportunities to completely change my life, learn new things, and meet interesting people.
"It's a shame about you hating it and dreading programming. I don't like some of the stuff I have to write but at least it is writing software - I try to keep in mind that's it's still "better" than other jobs I would have gone insane in (eg. basic administrative jobs)."
Yes, there are plenty of worse jobs. I dread those too.
I know that the "buzzword bingo" of tech doesn't help. What languages did you write in?
I play a few instruments and it is enjoyable but I am not sure I would have "succeeded" as an artist, simply because it is another industry set up to sell things just like the software industry (particularly "rent-a-software" that seems to be taking hold) and disillusionment would have set in (unrealistic expectations?). I suspect I would have ran out of creativity or ideas, and I wonder if the same would have happened to you?
It's a shame about you hating it and dreading programming. I don't like some of the stuff I have to write but at least it is writing software - I try to keep in mind that's it's still "better" than other jobs I would have gone insane in (eg. basic administrative jobs).