When I was 30 I worked for one of the largest media companies in the world (household name globally). I was struggling with alcoholism throughout my tenure there and finally decided to get help and turn things around (it was really deep depression underneath). I did that and worked for about a year with things going very well, however I had a relapse and in that process it led to me ultimately getting fired. It was a huge crush to my ego and at the time I thought that was it, I was screwed.

Fast forward a year (sober!) and I am the lead developer at a startup making 50% more than I did there and starting my own venture on the side with two very solid co-founders.

The moral of my story is never give up, life isn't always easy and sometimes you have to really hit low points to find reasons to change. Things will ALWAYS get better with jobs and with life. Always have faith in yourself and know that others have struggled and made it through.

Technology wise, the core language I use (python) was highly transferrable but I had been using for instance backbone.js in a large SPA. My current role uses ember.js and I had to learn that on the fly (just like I had learned backbone on the fly). Always just take what you learned and the process for how you learned it and communicate that you can do the same if needed in a new role.

Cheers.