Some people reach this point when they are 18 and their parents abruptly kick them out. Others reach it when they are in their late 20's and "fail to launch", guilting themselves into burnout. And a third set are in your scenario and realize that they hate the trajectory they were pushed onto.<p>It is all the same problem: you need to develop a more coherent sense of yourself, and what you are shaping yourself to study. The work follows from the study, not the other way around; people arrive at a certain kind of work by trading off what they want to do, what the work allows them to do, the amount of stress they experience, and the self-dignity they sacrifice in the process of doing the work. You don't want to go into a field to satisfy a certain identity need, because that's something that can be used against you to gatekeep and say, "oh, you're not a real programmer, you're not a real artist, you're not a real entrepreneur" and to justify your exploitation. It has to come from somewhere else.<p>This is the kind of subject that, in the 20th century, was discussed by "What Color is Your Parachute?" But, while it's gotten a lot of new editions, I don't think the specifics of that book are so relevant now.<p>What I suggest instead is to sit down with some paper and make Venn diagrams: who you are, what you keep thinking about, what people seem to appreciate in your work, and what kinds of problems or situations you don't seem bothered by relative to others. Find the overlap. The center of the diagram is the outline: "this is me and this is how I genuinely want to present myself."<p>And then find the opportunities, and create another diagram around the overlap of you and the opportunities. There is <i>always</i> a "new thing" coming up, that needs people to do work in it. Sometimes you are positioned perfectly for it. Other times you can find a more peripheral space in it, like the advice given to accounting students that they can work in "any industry" because everyone needs accounting.<p>And then, from the overlap of that, begin the process of marketing yourself. Make your social media profile and your blogposts and send emails as an "interested student". You will get ghosted in some instances, and get some access to real conversations in others.<p>If you determine you need to pick up a skillset, the same process applies. Diagram out what's known about the field, perhaps drawing from your interviews and emails. Identify overlaps. Position yourself to pick up the necessary background to be within that overlap, to be the person somebody grabs when they need a certain kind of problem solved. If 4-year CS undergrads can do it, you, an experienced 30-something, can probably do it in 18 months. The technical training is ultimately all muscle memory, a thing you practice with monkey-see, monkey-do, over and over, until the task is familiar and the knowledge is memorized.<p>Although not everything technical is easy to grasp, in the broad view of getting involved and employed, it is actually that simple.