> but it’ll get harder for me now I’m in my mid-40s.
Only bad thing about age is that in many organisations you will deal with people that don't have that much experience as yourself and they are not aware when they are making a mistake doing something, because they read about solution on some happy clappy blog or something. Less experience people tend to go into arguments more easily to defend their position and you have all seen this many times over. Unfortunately there is no easy way to get around this. Typically you get to explain things over and over and it may get really boring, as new cohorts come in. In most places the problems to solve are all the same. Take data from one place, transform it and put in another. Progression to management in that sense is where you get people to do all the boring stuff, that is still fun for them and you keep an eye so they don't screw things too much while yourself taking care of the big picture.
Probably best way is at that point to start own business. More fun and reward.
Only bad thing about age is that in many organisations you will deal with people that don't have that much experience as yourself and they are not aware when they are making a mistake doing something, because they read about solution on some happy clappy blog or something. Less experience people tend to go into arguments more easily to defend their position and you have all seen this many times over. Unfortunately there is no easy way to get around this. Typically you get to explain things over and over and it may get really boring, as new cohorts come in. In most places the problems to solve are all the same. Take data from one place, transform it and put in another. Progression to management in that sense is where you get people to do all the boring stuff, that is still fun for them and you keep an eye so they don't screw things too much while yourself taking care of the big picture.
Probably best way is at that point to start own business. More fun and reward.