I was trained as a mathematician but now focus mainly on developing "stable boring" software. Note that "stable boring" software is almost never "correct" from

I was trained as a mathematician but now focus mainly on developing "stable boring" software. Note that "stable boring" software is almost never "correct" from an academic perspective. The software is stable not because it has achieved theoretical perfection, but because it has been hardened through countless cycles of iteration, debugging, and customer feedback. The "boring" parts. My #1 advice would be to get a foothold ASAP. University IT/other IT departments can be a good starting point. Even if you don't start out as a SWE, any sort of systems-facing role will get you valuable domain expertise and you will 100% have opportunities to automate whatever work you are doing and eventually graduate into full-time development positions.