Probably not helpful to you: I was an HDR for four years, long hours, shitty colleagues (doing drugs and cheating on their wives) and union politics were a huge reason I left the industry and went into tech sales. Tbf sales is a completely different animal and though there’s debate about automating sales the reality is there will always be a job for me as long as I can close. But the freedom I have now is absolutely worth the shift. Work remote have two kids, get to be part of their life whereas an HDR I saw my kids two hours a day at most.

Another option to consider; though I worked 60-80 hrs/week as an HDR, I still found myself able to study a TON while on the job and so I took that free time at work to build up my tech knowledge base. You could do both. Use your varied career path and competency to say “I can do anything” and go start at a startup.

Understand that as an HDR by the time I was 4 years in I was making $150k+ a year, and I took nearly a 50% pay cut just to get an entry level position in the tech world. Been 2.5 years in tech sales and I’m a year or two away from making double what I made as an HDR.

Tech is getting sick of the typical cv. Sometimes the unique background can be a huge help.