I got started in mid 30s from an arts background. 6 years on and I'm a senior engineer at a major tech company mentoring others, designing systems and helping l

I got started in mid 30s from an arts background. 6 years on and I'm a senior engineer at a major tech company mentoring others, designing systems and helping lead a team. Best decision I ever made to scratch the programming itch, not because of career progress per se, but I just love programming. For me it's mainly the intrinsic joy of it. My advice is to get your hands dirty with some tutorials and a project to confirm that you definitely have that intrinsic love of programming and writing software. It's a hard career without it but a great one with it. Your experience and maturity should also be seen as a great asset. What you might lack at the start in technical knowledge, can be partially compensated for by this. Even as a junior I found I was good at working on a project, knowing what the team should focus on, talking to 'the business' and acting as a bridge, taking ownership, showing initiative and being a self-starter. These are things you're more likely to have with age and they are definitely valued by good companies.