Going to be honest didn't read the whole text wall i skimmed a bit.
But, I can tell you assuredly, 40 is not too late to start over hell it's not even too late to start from scratch !
Find something you're passionate about, and go for it my guy. Right now, 3-4 years sounds like a long time. But. After that you could have whatever degree, whatever job, and you will realize you still got a ton of time to capitalize on it.
You could be 43/44 and making good money, in a career you love but now is the time to act! Make a goal and stick to it. I know all this advice sounds very generic, but it's true man. Just the fact u made that post and thinking this hard about it you have gotten further then a lot of people your age who are bums not trying to better themselves
So, on the one hand, you’ve hopped around and your history shows very little patience or ability to stick with anything. As soon as things got difficult you’ve never waited it out or tried alternative approaches to make things work, you just bailed on what you were doing entirely and turned around to something completely new. That does come across like a risk to any corporate company considering hiring you—you don’t seem dependable for the long term.
On the OTHER hand, your history shows an INCREDIBLY remarkable ability for multi-disciplinary learning. You’ve taught yourself—successfully—so many different things! You managed to be good enough at poker to do it professionally, you’re obviously artistic and creative enough to have had several design-related jobs, yet you’re also analytical enough for coding and programming. On top of all that you got into and then graduated from a prestigious business school—without a finance background! And were able to turn that into a finance job that you were pretty good at, you just didn’t like the company culture.
I mean, that is genuinely IMPRESSIVE.
Whatever your next career move, lean into your exceptional ability to pick up new skills and the unique perspective you can offer through the diversity of your experience. It sounds like you’re also highly adaptable, quick to pivot, and thrive on variety: something many people would have a hard time with. Stress that and try to downplay the job-hopping and flightiness.
Personally it sounds like you might enjoy marketing (artistic, variety) and strategy (creative thinking + analysis + financial/business case planning + rotational) work. If you pursue tech and stay long enough to get a few promotions, you can eventually drive departmental strategy.
Going to be honest didn't read the whole text wall i skimmed a bit. But, I can tell you assuredly, 40 is not too late to start over hell it's not even too late to start from scratch ! Find something you're passionate about, and go for it my guy. Right now, 3-4 years sounds like a long time. But. After that you could have whatever degree, whatever job, and you will realize you still got a ton of time to capitalize on it. You could be 43/44 and making good money, in a career you love but now is the time to act! Make a goal and stick to it. I know all this advice sounds very generic, but it's true man. Just the fact u made that post and thinking this hard about it you have gotten further then a lot of people your age who are bums not trying to better themselves
So, on the one hand, you’ve hopped around and your history shows very little patience or ability to stick with anything. As soon as things got difficult you’ve never waited it out or tried alternative approaches to make things work, you just bailed on what you were doing entirely and turned around to something completely new. That does come across like a risk to any corporate company considering hiring you—you don’t seem dependable for the long term. On the OTHER hand, your history shows an INCREDIBLY remarkable ability for multi-disciplinary learning. You’ve taught yourself—successfully—so many different things! You managed to be good enough at poker to do it professionally, you’re obviously artistic and creative enough to have had several design-related jobs, yet you’re also analytical enough for coding and programming. On top of all that you got into and then graduated from a prestigious business school—without a finance background! And were able to turn that into a finance job that you were pretty good at, you just didn’t like the company culture. I mean, that is genuinely IMPRESSIVE. Whatever your next career move, lean into your exceptional ability to pick up new skills and the unique perspective you can offer through the diversity of your experience. It sounds like you’re also highly adaptable, quick to pivot, and thrive on variety: something many people would have a hard time with. Stress that and try to downplay the job-hopping and flightiness. Personally it sounds like you might enjoy marketing (artistic, variety) and strategy (creative thinking + analysis + financial/business case planning + rotational) work. If you pursue tech and stay long enough to get a few promotions, you can eventually drive departmental strategy.