Well... I'm 33, and in a similar boat. Except, I don't feel fucked. I crashed out of Software Engineering aged 19, because I couldn't hack the maths, and a bu

Well... I'm 33, and in a similar boat. Except, I don't feel fucked. I crashed out of Software Engineering aged 19, because I couldn't hack the maths, and a bunch of personal stuff. So I got a law degree. Then I went and worked in government (in the UK) for 7 years, before deciding that, yep, I actually did hate it, and leaving when they decided to pay a bunch of us off. I went to work for a startup (non tech role), because I wanted to learn about starting a business and running a startup. I learned a bunch, mostly about what not to do. Then I decided to (re)learn to code, and hacked together http://test.gmbl.io http://test.gmbl.io - it just about works, but I'm only a couple of steps beyond your 'couldn't deploy anything more than a single page application' ability, I think. Largely it depends WHAT you want to do. Sorry to be brutal but wanting to "make a real impact through technology" isn't what you want to do. It's the output of something, you're having the Coffee Shop Problem. Lots of people say they want to run a coffee shop. No, they don't. They want to hang out in a coffee shop, drinking coffee and chatting to customers. Not grinding beans, cleaning stale milk out, mopping floors and humphing inventory all over the place for basically minimum wage (in most cases.) What do you actually want to do on a day-to-day basis? If you like coding, then do that. If you don't, do something else. If you want to code and don't have the degree, get more technical and build your portfolio. If you want to do product management (which sounds like a shout), then DO IT for a bunch of products - your own or someone else's. Edit: I got more technical, but I don't use it on a day-to-day basis for work - just to solve my own side-project-problems.