All very good questions. I’m at the Senior Manager level in my profession, trying to switch to entry / junior level in IT security. I have solid experience and great references, and I get calls from clients and recruiters constantly for work in my current field. But I get practically no responses when I submit myself for positions in the new field.

I tracked one recruiter down recently and she basically told me she’s convinced I will not stick around once I feel the pinch of the salary reduction. She said she didn’t want to be hiring for the same job again in 6 months.

I’m not sure that’s the whole truth, or if the others would say the same thing.

Now I’m trying a hybrid solution, of freelancing gigs in grants and proposals part time and doing technical work part time. I’m also focusing my work on tech-centric topics whenever possible. But I usually can’t conteol that.

I’m also considering supplementing my current education with CS classes, and picking up a few more certs. But I’m not sure those will have a good return on investment.

Meanwhile I think persistence in bidding on jobs will be the ultimate solution.

You might have better luck becoming a manager of or in an IT security company. That way you can learn the technical details on the side. So you sell your value as a manager. Lateral moves happen all the time across domains. You don't have to start from the beginning again.

This is a good idea too. I guess I always assumed I would need to “work my way up” from entry level. But I do have a lot of experience running teams and managing budgets.

Thanks for the input. I’m going to broaden my search and look for these roles, and see what happens.

Can you find an in between job. Maybe it does what you do now mostly but has some aspect of what you want to switch to?

Good idea, that’s possible. The challenge has been finding that job opening, and then getting it.

Maybe I should go to the companies where I know that position exists and proactively bid on a position, rather than waiting for one to open up.

Thanks for the idea!

> Will they be uncomfortable asking a 45 year old professional to bring them coffee?

This isn't what interns do at any reputable technology company.

Noted. I’ve edited it to be more clear what I was trying to express.

Do interns in technology jobs do low status jobs either?

My experience is interns usually try the big cool new ideas, because it frees up the regular people to bring work to production and it doesn't matter so much if the interns try something and it doesn't work?

Can also confirm. Did 5 internships at a variety of companies.

I got to try out radical new ideas and was given a surprising amount of freedom.

The primary goal with interns in tech is to convince them to work at your company post graduation.

>big cool new ideas

Can confirm, have interned at 3 of the big $N.

This may be a culture thing but I'd be uncomfortable asking a 20 year old professional to bring me a coffee.

Edit: This was originally in response to a suggestion that OP would be uncomfortable asking a 40 year old for coffee which has since been edited.

Nobody brings coffee for anyone anymore. Everyone gets up and gets a coffee together or if someone is being nice asks if you want one and brings it to you which usually leads to getting up to get a coffee together.

In my experience, software engineering seems more open to nontraditional career paths. I've known plenty of people to get into it later in life and came from a variety of backgrounds without a problem. Most people probably never find out that they had a prior career.

At an internship I lived with a fellow intern that was 12 years older than me (I was also a bit older compared to most of the interns since I was a PhD student). Everyone seemed to treat him the same and he got a full-time offer. I don't think the others ever realized he had 10 years experience and a degree in something completely different!

A few years ago mainly to keep the DHSS happy when claiming Job Seekers Allowance I applied for an apprenticeship with HMGCC.

My idea was that some one might see my atypical CV and think outside the box about hiring.