Ask HN: Is changing career at age 30 right choice?

If your situation leads you to ponder a career change, a career change is almost always a good idea.

Ultimately the right decision is whatever lets you earn a living in a way you enjoy. If you like coding, code. If you like something else, do that. If you're poor but you enjoy your life you still win the game.

When trying to become successful, it really helps to have a clear idea of where you want to go, and a set of steps you can follow that lead there from where you're currently at. If you don't know where you want to go, your best bet is just to do something you enjoy for a while and see where life takes you. Just make sure that the things you do are related somehow, so you're building a deeper skill-set, rather than becoming a jack of all trades.

I'm starting my career at 30, so I don't see how changing one would be a problem.

Hope you take it as encouragement, because that is how it is meant.

You actually answered the complicated part yourself - you see no future in your current job and you do want to do something else. Now is the simple part - go out and do it.

Also, you have to realize that an age of 30 nowadays, it's more like 20 some time ago. You will most probably live something like 80 years, so you still have around 50 to go !

I didnt start coding professionally until I was over 30 years old and I had a degree in Economics, though I do have a youthful appearance and looking like a recent grad, playing video games, fitting the culture, etc. may have helped me avoid age discrimination. I'm now pivoting towards a career in computational biology.

I would have made more money had I not changed career paths, but I have absolutely no regrets. Unless the path puts you towards Financial Independence in the short-term, it's not worth it to labor for 40 plus hours per week for something you don't care for. Nights and weekends dont really make up for it imo

It might be a right decision, might be not, only you can decide. Having a low paying job is definitely not fun, but having a job which you don't like or which doesn't fit your traits is also not good.

I would start in the following way:

* Learn basics of programming and learn whether it's for you. You can use any of the introductory MOOCs available there or Swift playgrounds which are very good: https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/

* Try finding an option to get a degree. There're plenty of places where you can get it part time (you can get into Harvard Extension School which doesn't require admission to just take courses, and having completed courses as validation, you can get an admission to an undergrad degree: https://www.extension.harvard.edu/academics/undergraduate-de...). As the industry matures, it's harder and harder to get into it without some validation in the form of education, especially for best paying positions.