I presume a troll? At 25 I graduated as MSc (physics), had not worked a day in the industry, and began my PhD studies. At 26 I figured computer graphics where much more fun than running quantum physical simulations in a lonely cellar and began my software engineering career. At which point I was still pretty clueless of the complexities of software engineering in the industry.

The time limit is not age but how much experience one has doing software engineering projects. One needs several unders ones belt, preferably some that have actually shipped so that one sees what the end user implications of the said products are. How long this will take? A couple of years? Hard to say.

>I presume a troll? At 25 I graduated as MSc (physics), had not worked a day in the industry, and began my PhD studies. At 26 I figured computer graphics where much more fun than running quantum physical simulations in a lonely cellar and began my software engineering career. At which point I was still pretty clueless of the complexities of software engineering in the industry.

How did it work out for you? I am curious as I am thinking of shifting from fin. applied math (econometrics) to SE ...

For me it worked pretty fine careerwise (I'm now 35 to be precise). I'm working now in the technology development department of a multi-discipline CAD vendor, everyone else is really talented and I mostly enjoy my tasks. I even get to write simple linear algebra like a QR decomposition now an then. The job is stable, mentally stimulating and my co-workers are sensible human beings - who are mostly way past their 30s and some over 50s.

I turned to software engineering because computer graphics gave and give me such a huge kick. I don't know what intrinsically motivates you so I cannot comment whether I would suggest the career for you or not. Here's the rub: software engineering can be viewed in some circles as blue-collar work, which means the work environments can vary quite a lot. Also, the discipline is really young, and it shows in the amount of cargo cult and bullshit quotes one finds peddled as "best practices". There can be gigs where co-workers are experts and those can be great, however, there can be lot of environments where co-workers are perpetual expert beginners and those can suck big-time (or so I've heard).

Realistically, software engineering is still a pretty solid career choice so from a sustenance point of view I'm sure there are far worse options one can choose.

If you graduate at 21 and start working immediately, by the time you're 25 you'll have 4 years of experience with a few shipped mid-size projects under your belt. It's not that uncommon.

Define mid size. The only reason I ask is that at 4 years experience I had no where near the skills I needed to lead a midsized product.

At 25, you should be working towards a goal to not having to do anything to make make a living by the time you are 40.

Focus on eliminating the very need for the problem to exist. Than on workarounds.