Is software engineering a good field to switch to at age 36?

It's honestly rough to get started now. Even before AI entry level jobs were hard to get. If you don't have years of experience at this point the opportunities to even get your foot in the door are low. By the time you finish a program it's likely to be worse.

If you want to do software engineering in personal life as a hobby, for fun, or to build your own thing there is still value. But starting a career that you depend on for a living is not something I would advise.

I am presently a software engineer. Have been for over 20 years. Even I am kind of worried about AI displacing me.

I tried that when I was your age. I was enjoying it too. But life got in the way and I couldn't continue.

You don't need math for software engineering. Experienced software engineers currently make excellent money. The only thing that has to be considered is how disrupted it will be by AI, as I see you're considering

I see AI as an enabler in some fields such as Healthcare and Defence. Still room for applications focused software engineers..

I am a mathematician, but I spend most of my work time writing programs.

Yes, it is a good idea, especially if you have already been accepted. There are plenty of disrupters just waiting to interfere with every field so worrying about what AI might or might not do is a fool's game. If you are willing and able to switch fields now, you will be able to switch fields again if necessary or desired.

My.friend is in that field. It's good money but if you dont have experience it's rough. Since AI is now taking over a lot of the entry jobs

You would be better off choosing a field that isn't becoming more and more redundant with each passing month, which software engineering definitely is doing. Even if you were 20 years old, I would tell you the same thing.

Cyber security and CISSP should be the right choice

To me that whole field looks like one that will be taken over by AI.. sorry..😷

What background do you currently have? Your career could suffer a large setback