A little background: I have a bachelor in CS and worked a few years as a developer until I got too bored. Then I discovered investing and spent the last ten years as a self-employed micro cap investor.
Now, having failed as an investor, I'm looking for a new career. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do next and how to figure it out...
My current approach is to look at all kinds of open positions, but it feels ineffective, like looking for the needle in the haystack, without even knowing how the needle looks like. In parallel I'm relearning about software development as a plan B, however, I'm struggling with motivation problems and self-doubts, and somehow I can't imagine myself as a developer anymore.
Any advice? Thanks.
If you want a career then I'd start backwards: Where do you want to be? What can you imagine yourself as? And then works from there what you need to get there. And likely what you have to do is upskilling somehow before you can even apply, you can probably take a lot of learnings from your past 10 years and apply them to your new role but there are likely a few things you have to learn first.
On the developer point specifically: Can you not imagine yourself as a developer because of self-doubts or because you really don't like that path? If you already didn't like it 10 years ago you might not like it now either but if it's just because of doubts whether you can do it then it's a different story. It's certainly also going to be difficult to get back into a developer role but with the current job market it is probably still easier than most other career options IMO
What you and I area looking for in essence is a life coach. I'm not one but fatherless all my life, it seems having someone to bounce ideas and finding purpose may help. Not necessarily that i have an answer for either of us but having no one to talk to doesn't help. Wife is not someone whom this topic is either ideal or would go too well.
Again, I'm not selling you anything but to tell you I feel the same. Just looking for a chat bud who is maybe willing to share each other's burden but also maybe the sounding board will shed some light in the end of the tunnel.
In my 40's w a 2yr toddler and wife, I'm about to be jobless after my contract ends. thank god! but not thankful not knowing what to do next....
As a developer in his early 40s myself I can say it’s hard to start over. Whether or not there is ageism explicitly it is certainly there implicitly. It does not matter your experience or skill set. If you want to be employable you have to learn to hang with the cool kids and play with the cool kid toys. You have to be willing to work with fresh junior developers fresh out of school on a level they understand and concede a certain level of immaturity regardless of the position claiming to want years of experience.
Immaturity in software is rampant. Immaturity suggests having your cake and eating it too, such as a phobia of writing anything and yet high expectations for written guidance. A better example is wanting simplicity in the code and doing the opposite out of convenience. As an older guy you might know better, but as someone restarting their career you must learn to expect this hypocrisy is the anticipated preference.
I would suggest looking into CS niches that you enjoy and where age would be an asset. For example, formal methods (e.g. in finance or in aerospace), automation/robotics (e.g. in biotechnology), or data engineering and modeling (e.g. in banking).