For a little background, I'm a 37 year old civil engineer living in Canada. My experience resolve mainly around environmental risk management, project manager and management (team of 4 to 20).
I'm currently pursuing (free time) a master in philosophy around the ethics of AI. This is actually for the fun of it, work load is negligible (compared to engineering school).
I have found that I do not enjoy management in big organisation (which I'm doing right now) and civil engineering is a field that is really conservative and I do not fit in the mentality of the industry.
I am a very fast learner and when I stop learning, I lose interest. I'm a problem solver, but not that good in the day to day operations, I lose interest.
Basically, I don't see myself being happy in management role. I do see myself in a more specialized role, being a consultant, teaching. I'm at my best when I'm solving problems.
In order to do that, I need to at least get a master degree and this is where I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I don't want to redo a bachelor degree, so I'll have to stay close to engineering.
A) I stay in civil engineering, pursue a master in a speciality. That doesn't solve my problem with the industry and the conservative mentality I don't fit in with.
B) I do a certificate (10 classes) in computer science that will be enough for me to get in a master in computer science. I would probably pursue AI development or cybersecurity. I think those 2 field have a lot ahead. I don't think the market is saturated, there is always room for good talents.
Option B) is a bit longer to take (1 year to 2 year max), but I feel it has more potential for growth. Pay is also a factor, in civil engineering, unless you want to manage huge team or have your own firm, salary are around 90K at the moment. I, maybe wrongly, believe software have higher pay for individual contributor and the possibility of making your own thing is higher (civil engineering is way harder to have your own company, needs a lot of cash).
Is it really hard to change career at my age (heard there was some ageism in the industry, might be false).
Thanks for your input.
Many master's programs allow entry without an undergrad degree in a related discipline. Some of the classes may be more difficult, but this can be addressed by getting recommendations on which undergraduate courses (far less than a second bachelor's) to take to fill in the gaps, or just studying harder and using office hours with the knowledge of the professors.