I am 28 and a third-year medical student with a minor in CS from undergrad (biology major). I like medicine but I really don't feel it's my calling.

I do however enjoy software engineering but admittedly, I have never done it outside of my own hobbies, which it's been many years since I've coded. Therefore, I don't know if I would love it because doing it as a career is much different than toying around on things I'm interested in. I'm really interested in backend & API engineering and building scalable systems, things like applications that support huge loads and concurrency and learning that at large organizations and then eventually helping a startup scale up as an early engineer.

I was interested in software engineering as a career (and finishing with a CS degree with the CS credits I've completed from undergrad), but as Paul Graham most famously said not to hire engineers over 30.

While that, as an absolute, may be BS, I do have a lurking fear there is some truth to that, and that I'll never fit in at this stage in my life.

From software engineers I've asked there seems to be an implicit agreement that ageism is very real against older developers. I am also worried because if I get started at this point, I would be way behind people who started right out of college and I'd be in my 40s by the time I could catch up financially.

I am also worried about employability after 40, when almost everyone will be significantly younger than me, and then being laid off and afterwards finding it very difficult to find a job.

So while I understand I can get a job in the near future, I am terrified of long-term prospects. For context, I really don't have any money saved and am in debt because of school loans.

I feel as if I've already gone too deep in the hole and that I should just only do programming after my residency is over. I am not happy at all, but changing careers also has to make financial sense and if I am going to be discriminated against just because of my age then I don't think it is worth it.

Many people have told me "do what your heart wants" but they don't wake up with my debt.

Would love your opinions! (also thank you for reading. I know this is a sensitive topic and been asked about before, but I am curious about any new insight gained post-pandemic during the emergence of remote-first work cultures)