That's a really good question. Right now I'm making £55k, which is not terrible money, but it's way less than my industry peers are making whilst doing arguably less.

I actually don't know how quickly my pay will scale in 2-5 years in industry. My general feeling is that regardless of how good I might be (or think I might be…), I'd still be older than the other entry-level candidates, and when a promotion would come up, my age might become an issue (e.g. I would be more likely to start a family in the next few years and therefore my work would come second).

I want something that pays at least £65k, which I don't think is unreasonable for my skill set, but without industry experience, I can see why employers might cover their mouths and laugh a little.

Age definitely shouldn't come up during promotions. Once you have a role, people are invested in helping you grow so you can get more done.

You could probably reach out to some people in the areas you're looking to work and ask them out for a cup of coffee to find out what career progression can look like, or you could just check out public information like on levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/

I'd also look into improving at the skill of salary negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

Career transitions and non-traditional backgrounds are much more common in tech than in other fields so I'd worry less about that and just start interviewing and see what happens. Worst that can happen is you get no's or low offers, but you might be shocked at what you actually do get.

Those are great links -- thanks a lot for this