Age definitely shouldn't come up during promotions. Once you have a role, people are invested in helping you grow so you can get more done. You could probably

Age definitely shouldn't come up during promotions. Once you have a role, people are invested in helping you grow so you can get more done. You could probably reach out to some people in the areas you're looking to work and ask them out for a cup of coffee to find out what career progression can look like, or you could just check out public information like on levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/ https://www.levels.fyi/ I'd also look into improving at the skill of salary negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ Career transitions and non-traditional backgrounds are much more common in tech than in other fields so I'd worry less about that and just start interviewing and see what happens. Worst that can happen is you get no's or low offers, but you might be shocked at what you actually do get.