I am a self-taught programmer in my early thirties. I am programming since 2013, but for most of my career I worked in the foreign sales and programming was just a hobby. I burned out hard in my last job, and I've recently started to shyly think about a career change.
I am pretty sure I am not employable as a junior developer right now. Being hobbyist, besides lack of degree, causes several problems in my case, among others:
a) For a very long time I didn't really care about code quality. Only two years ago started handling errors instead of optimizing for happy path. A year ago, I started writing tests. Just recently started learning about the design patterns, and still don't understand most of them.
b) Proof of inflexibility, kind of. My portfolio is 90% roguelike games. Never did frontend or backend work. My personal website is generated by MKDocs and hosted on GitHub.
c) During that 10 years, I am sure I developed some bad habits that will be difficult to get rid of.
d) I simply don't know what I don't know.
So I am wondering what knowledge and skills should I acquire to apply for junior positions? Also, should I already dedicate myself to a specific role and framework? Does it even make sense to try, or I'm too old already?
Would love to learn your insights.
Best regards, Ved
You're 200 words too long and five years too old. I'd go back to sales where verbosity is a good thing.