My current job is pretty much repeating the same thing over and over again with ever tighter deadlines. I am at the same time stressed and bored out of my mind. There is no intellectual or technical challenge, just always more pressure. I used to be pretty cutting edge but the last 5 years it was pure stagnation.
Somehow I want to break out of this but between age and lack of the latest stuff on the resume it seems it's really difficult to get a foot in the door somewhere else.
Do people really look at GitHub repos? I have never had anybody ask and I have never looked myself.
1. Contribute to open source codebases
2. Work on side projects
3. Convince your existing company to use a new technology so you can work on it in your day job.
Maybe others? I can't think of anything else right now..
Github profiles can be a bit hit or miss - I think probably most people don't really look at them. However if you have made meaningful contributions to open source codebases on github then you can link to those in your CV, or mention it on your covering letter or just mention it in the interview.
As a hiring manager, I would definitely be interested in your story and be looking for evidence of self-learning. What you have going against you is high salary expectations despite lack of domain expertise. So be ready to answer questions about how you have worked on various technologies over your career, had to learn them, successes you've had, etc.
Also, that job sounds horrible, you should get out for your mental well-being even if it requires a pay cut.
Here's some open source AI projects looking for new contributors: https://www.sourcesort.com/?refinementList%5Btopics%5D%5B0%5...
But I recommend not doing one. You are skilled enough that you could dedicate yourself to 3 to 6 months of serious study of the technologies you are interested in. Teach yourself by doing projects that interest you, and then use those projects as evidence of enthusiasm and experience.
Boot camps might be beneficial if you don’t feel capable of teaching yourself, but they will have so much training-wheels stuff that you are well past so it will be a mixed bag of value. Plus it costs a lot of money.
I don’t think the fact you did a bootcamp will increase your value much. Certainly not as much as self study and projects in a public git repo.