How do I switch careers into tech from a non-technical background at 30?

30 is not too late — hiring managers genuinely don't care about age; they care about demonstrated ability. What IS true: the path is a grind and takes 12–18 months while employed. Plan for that, not the bootcamp-brochure version. The employed-person's path: 1. Don't quit. Study 90 focused minutes daily + weekends. Consistency beats intensity you can't sustain. 2. Aim adjacent first. Your ops experience is an asset, not baggage — ops + SQL/Python = analytics engineering, business analyst → data roles, ops + no-code + APIs = internal tooling. Adjacent entries pay sooner and get you inside tech, where switching again is 5x easier. 3. Build proof: three real projects solving problems from YOUR domain. 'Automated a reporting process I used to do manually at work' interviews brilliantly. 4. Your unfair advantage is domain knowledge plus professional maturity — you already know how to work, communicate, and ship. Juniors with neither are your actual competition. The people who fail at this mostly fail by consuming courses for a year without building anything. Build from month two.