New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Can I have successful career in software engineering starting at 40?

Ask HN: Can I have successful career in software engineering starting at 40?
6 by CareerChanger | 4 comments on Hacker News.
There are many questions about getting started with software development at a mature age, but I want to give a new twist to this subject. Can one realistically expect to become really successful in their software engineering career if they start late (35-40+)? I am ambitious in a pretty shallow way and just can't switch off this part of my personality. I will turn 40 this year. I had a relatively successful career in management consulting in my 20s, have an MBA from a top school, but my business career somewhat stagnated over the last decade. At the same time, writing code is one of the activities that I really enjoy. I don't have a CS degree, but I attended a coding bootcamp, took two online courses from Stanford MSc CS program, wrote a lot of code for my startup, tried some competitive programming, so I am not completely new to the field. I can get a junior developer job at a top tech company (in my home country, outside the US), which would result in a very significant pay cut but hopefully much more enjoyment every day. Common sense tells me that I should stick to my business/management career, but on the other hand maybe I will achieve more if I actually love what I do. So my question is: what are likely career trajectories in software engineering for someone who starts late but is willing to work hard?

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