What’s wrong with entry level SWE at 40? Working for and with younger people is no shame.
Someone dear to me could have started SWE at 38 but felt as you do and quit. More than 12 years later they would be a veteran at the job but instead today still are looking in from the outside saying 50 is too late, regretting their decision and making excuses just like they said at 38. Wrong then, wrong now.
12 years from now you will probably kick yourself for worrying about what worries you today. I am proud of you for making a change; stick with it! Few industries consider you senior after 3-5 years.
To be more charitable, I think the original poster wants help finding what they want… but isn’t providing useful feedback. Making it hard to help.
Hopefully rglullis here is helping nudge (if uncomfortably) into actually articulating a positive desire instead of asking fairly generic questions and dismissing everyone’s suggestions and feeling attacked when challenged to show a direction.
There are literally thousands of hiring managers reading these threads. Any one of us could help if the poster opens up with real specifics and what their strengths and desires are. It can be frustrating being one of those managers when the poster doesn’t appear to know what they want other than more money and a challenge. And also doesn’t provide any list of skills and experience.
For anyone reading: original poster is too timid to put their real self out there, making it hard to even help them. When you shoot your shot, step forward unapologetically and say what you have to offer and the challenge you are looking for. The Only piece of info I have is liking narrative text games with relatively simple decision trees, some interest in rust and some reflexive hate for fintech. Also some desire to not move from some unspecified location.
“Something useful that feels like it's worth being made”
Example? What is worth making?
“technically interersting to make (which to me generally means challenging to keep me interested)”
What do you find challenging? Sounds like writing a programming language and using Rust are interesting to you, given your projects?
“with good quality tech practices where you can feel satisfied you've done good work.”
If you don’t mind me saying, it sounds that you know what you don’t want, but do not have a good handle on exactly what you want (or haven’t expressed it) or how to get where you do.
As an exercise, follow up on some of these threads. Multiple people have made suggestions and you have been a bit dismissive. Go a bit deeper. If you want a job programming Rust and building programming languages but find you are not getting the interviews for programming language companies like JetBrains, its possible you could also just take on open source tasks in Rust’s existing community. It doesn’t have to be the core team, maybe one of the game dev rust environment frameworks. What are the pros of doing this? Ignore the cons for a moment since you are feeling stuck. Is it worth being made? Is it technically interesting? Is it good quality tech practices?
I have noticed for me that my interest in programming languages peaks when I want to sharpen the saw. When I want to learn and get ahead of the next wave (our industry is so faddy, I find it silly to ignore it. It’s an amazing way for new people to become the experts quickly in a new area and ride the demand). When I dive into it, I realise that its not so much the language, it’s just a new work environment and opportunity I want, then I dive into a new industry. For me, my passion was really being in something used by millions/billions of people. I went to big tech and loved it. I came to recognize that I wanted a team that knew what it was doing in a big org with possibilities and lots of learning material. When I get the programming language itch now I recognize it as being bored. Thats me, not you though. I am just illustrating. What appeals to you specifically as making a difference? Who do you want to learn from or work with?
To help you out, it can seem that you are going in circles and the doors you want are closed. But those doors are not the only way into the building. What building do you want to be in?
Someone dear to me could have started SWE at 38 but felt as you do and quit. More than 12 years later they would be a veteran at the job but instead today still are looking in from the outside saying 50 is too late, regretting their decision and making excuses just like they said at 38. Wrong then, wrong now.
12 years from now you will probably kick yourself for worrying about what worries you today. I am proud of you for making a change; stick with it! Few industries consider you senior after 3-5 years.