[austincheney]

You can start life over as an old military officer. You would be one old lieutenant but I have seen people do it, deploy, and enjoy it. This will pay less but the expectations are high.

As a developer in his early 40s myself I can say it’s hard to start over. Whether or not there is ageism explicitly it is certainly there implicitly. It does not matter your experience or skill set. If you want to be employable you have to learn to hang with the cool kids and play with the cool kid toys. You have to be willing to work with fresh junior developers fresh out of school on a level they understand and concede a certain level of immaturity regardless of the position claiming to want years of experience.

Immaturity in software is rampant. Immaturity suggests having your cake and eating it too, such as a phobia of writing anything and yet high expectations for written guidance. A better example is wanting simplicity in the code and doing the opposite out of convenience. As an older guy you might know better, but as someone restarting their career you must learn to expect this hypocrisy is the anticipated preference.

[newcareerwanted]

Becoming a military officer isn't an option for me (I live outside of the USA). My military "career" ended more than 20 years ago at the mandatory recruiting event when I was considered to be unfit for it.