35yo government employee, built real apps with AI, no CS background — realistic 5-year path to software career?

I'm 35, married, and have spent 11 years as a central government employee doing work that — I'll be honest — a well-trained 5-year-old could manage. I'm not bitter about this. It's just the reality...

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35yo government employee, built real apps with AI, no CS background — realistic 5-year path to software career?

Source: DEV Community

I'm 35, married, and have spent 11 years as a central government employee doing work that — I'll be honest — a well-trained 5-year-old could manage. I'm not bitter about this. It's just the reality of the role, and it's exactly why I'm writing this post. My situation outside of work: a genuinely supportive wife, and about 2-3 hours a day I can carve out for learning and building something meaningful. What I've already done — and why it surprised even me Here's the part that feels almost fraudulent to admit: I have already built and deployed real software. Using AI assistance, I built several PWAs and one hybrid mobile app. They're not toy projects — they're actively being used by my wife and her clinic staff in their day-to-day business operations, right now, live. I did this with zero programming knowledge. I couldn't write a single line of code from memory. I think the term is "vibe coding," and I'm probably the most unqualified vibe coder alive. But the apps work. Real people use th

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