It's never too late to go to university. There are certainly people that start later than 32. Anyway, I you goal is to program for your job you might want to l

It's never too late to go to university. There are certainly people that start later than 32. Anyway, I you goal is to program for your job you might want to look into business intelligence, data analytics for business, etc. It's basically a soft transition from your current professional background and would likely allow you to make money while learning more about coding and data analysis. Then I would try to get training from the company to get better in data analytics, data engineering, DevOps, software engineering, ... I think this a challenging but realistic way where you can leverage your expertise, learn new stuff and still make money without taking a crazy pay cut. Slightly related..in Germany there are so called "Duales Studium" which is basically studying during the semester and working for the sponsoring company during the breaks. You get paid but will be expected to work for the sponsoring company for a couple of years. Pretty sure you would need to know German tho.