Unfortunately 44 is too old to make a career switch especially to programming/development. In my personal experience, Ageism is much more prevalent in IT and Te

Unfortunately 44 is too old to make a career switch especially to programming/development. In my personal experience, Ageism is much more prevalent in IT and Technology field. Once you hit mid-forties, it is very difficult to find a programmer/developer job even when you have been in technology all your career. I know people, in 40s and 50s, who took over a year to find a development job after being laid off from their previous development jobs when company got bought out or folded. Personally, I will not recommend a career switch to development in mid-40s. But not everything is lost. If you can learn development on your own, consider launching side projects in your domain of experience or scratch your own itch. Also, freelance and consulting opportunities will open up with time.