[AitchEmArsey]

I'm unsuccessfully trying to go the other way - but that's because I was never a developer to begin with.

Writing code (or even working with computers at all) is not something I ever aspired to. I put this down to the impact Microsoft software had on IT education in the UK in the 90's - computers were for miserable people with pallid faces who never smiled, poking around in Access databases.

Now, I work all day every day on a computer because a career as a scientist doesn't pay an acceptable amount. However, since I never studied computer science or did and significant programming early in my career, I've circled around the field doing sysadmin and project management work. I find myself too senior to take on the kind of programming tasks I can reasonably handle - there is no time allowance for me wanting to learn some of these skills in more depth. Doing personal projects and changing jobs could get me into writing code, but only with an intolerably large pay-cut.

The sad thing is, my field (scientific computing) needs exactly the skills I am aiming for - but since no-one will pay sensibly for that kind of work, people either steer around it like I did, or just jump sideways into DevOps or other "retail" IT.