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I am a self-taught programmer in my early thirties. I am programming since 2013, but for most of my career I worked in the foreign sales and programming was just a hobby. I burned out hard in my last job, and I've recently started to shyly think about a career change.
I am pretty sure I am not employable as a junior developer right now. Being hobbyist, besides lack of degree, causes several problems in my case, among others:
a) For a very long time I didn't really care about code quality. Only two years ago started handling errors instead of optimizing for happy path. A year ago, I started writing tests. Just recently started learning about the design patterns, and still don't understand most of them.
b) Proof of inflexibility, kind of. My portfolio is 90% roguelike games. Never did frontend or backend work. My personal website is generated by MKDocs and hosted on GitHub.
c) During that 10 years, I am sure I developed some bad habits that will be difficult to get rid of.
d) I simply don't know what I don't know.
So I am wondering what knowledge and skills should I acquire to apply for junior positions? Also, should I already dedicate myself to a specific role and framework? Does it even make sense to try, or I'm too old already?
Would love to learn your insights.
Best regards, Ved