One answer related to this from my observations in the US: > By the time all this happens, I'll be in my mid-40's. With all the people coming out of university year after year with similar qualifications to what I will have, how likely are employers going to choose me over one of them? The is a lot of [age discrimination in the sector](https://duckduckgo.com/?q="it+field"+age+discrimination) in the US. Be prepared for a lot of unexplained rejections, and some off the wall rejections from folks who don't have a filter. The folks who *"don't have a filter"* will say some unusual things. One hiring manager at a leading ecommerce company told me I was too old and he worried I could not keep up with his younger team. We then finished the last 1 1/2 hours of the interview discussing the authentication architecture and problems, and how best to fix it. Another fellow interviewing me blurted out I could be the "token old man" during the team interview. The IT and computer industry draws a lot of a certain type of people. More precisely, they are INTP's and INTJ's on the [Myers Briggs Personality Types](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=meyer+briggs+personality+types) indicators. They are highly technical but some are social misfits. A lot of them don't pick up social queues well and say the darnedest things. They are not being mean. Rather, it is like talking to someone with a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome. They say the most colorful things at times. I learned about rose-budding from one guy who had an IQ into the 130's. He could not hold a conversation with a woman, but he could break into just about any server and knew what rose-budding was. ----- As an alternative to IT (and after a fair amount of reflection after I got older and my mind got slower)... If you have a choice go into nursing or law. The baby boomers are getting old and they need folks with technical abilities to get through school and take care of them. Law is a more interesting choice. The legal field needs technical folks for patent attorneys. In fact law school usually requires a bachelor of science for admittance. Bachelor of arts need not apply. The neat thing about a patent attorney in the US is, you don't have to go to law school. You can study and pass the test to get admitted to the Patent Bar. Also see [Becoming a patent practitioner](https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/patent-and-trademark-practitioners/becoming-patent-practitioner) on the USPTO website.