Considering becoming a computer software engineer in mid-life...

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Q. I am a 36 year old stay at home mom, with eight years experience working with databases and surveys, bachelors degrees in economics and mathematics, and a small amount of paid experience in applications programming. I am considering changing careers in midlife and becoming a computer software engineer, focusing on applications. Before I invest time and money, I want to be confident that I will have made a sound decision. Before I move forward to enroll in graduate school, I would like to know the answers to these 9 questions: 1. How many hours on average each week does a computer software engineer in applications work? 2. Am I too old to start in this career? 3. Should employment prospects be good in the next 15 years? 4. Is there ageism in this profession? 5. How long will it be before I start earning at least $38K a year? 6. How does one gain entry into this career? 7. What kind of people excel in this career? 8. What is the career path? 9. Are jobs only plentiful in big cities? 10. What additional training or education would I need to obtain to make an entry into the field? If you are a practicing computer software engineer, would you mind briefly responding to some or all of these questions?

A. 1. Depends on how fast you want to move up in the company. It is highly competitive. However, some people are extremely productive in a short amount of time and so can goof off. Basically, if you can produce results you are working enough hours. Sometimes you are treated like a machine and in that case you need to set some boundaries. 2. No. They will give you a shot but you better know your stuff! Interviews are very intensive and you will have to prove your knowledge and ability in them. 3.Depends on where you want to work and what you want to study. I would go to flipdog or any job search and see what types of software engineering jobs are in demand in the area you want to work. I was suprised to see that in Boulder, Colorado, for instance, there was a bunch of imbedded and networking jobs. 4.I guess there is a stereotype for young male but don't ever get hung up on this! You are as good as your last project. Sometimes if you come in as the underdog and blow them away it puts you at a great advantage! 5. With a BS in CS from CU at Boulder, I started at Intel in Folsom, CA at ~$40K in 1996. But after 4 years I was making over $100K with stock options, however, that tanked to an average of $86K last year. Needless to say, I no longer work there. 6. Internships are best. Make sure you work in one while you are attending school. 7. Self starters, creative thinkers, problem solvers, researchers, fast learners, and people who just plain love to program. 8.Depends. My landlady is President of a software company because she is very talented and extremely smart and is an excellent business person. But she admits to working 80 hours a week since the beginning 20 years ago. 9. Depends on if you have the skills for the area that you want to work in. Do the research. I was able to get a job in a smaller area (Boulder, Colorado). 10. It depends on the area of software engineering that you go into. My landlady also got a degree in marketing and she went into international consulting at one point. I think the best thing is to research the types of software engineering jobs that are dominant in the cities that you want to work in and work with your university councelor to put together the best program. Make sure to get into an internship in that type of work...etc.

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