Seeking Advice on Career Pivot: Transitioning from Backend to Offensive Cybersecurity

I (30M) am seeking honest, practical advice from experienced cybersecurity professionals regarding my career path and the reality of my goals.

Background

I graduated with a BSc in Computer Science 6 years ago.

Due to an armed conflict in my country (over now) and other reasons, I wasn't able to have a tech job. However, during these years, I self-studied webdev whenever possible.

I am currently at a beginner-to-intermediate level in backend development:

• programming languages, web frameworks, database, api security, authn, authz, OWASP, frontend fundamentals, ...
• hundreds of leetcode-equivalent problems

Dilemma

I find great passion in offensive cybersecurity(red teaming, pen-testing). I am trying to ignore it and focus on webdev but I can't. I have been paralyzed for several months by the decision to either switch to cybersecurity or continue in backend development.

In fact, I tried starting in cybersecurity after graduation, but I read that it's not entry level career and needs understanding in different topics like web and so on, so I went to build a foundation in webdev instead.

I fear that switching now will be a waste of time given my background (age, location, technical skills).

Goal

To relocate to Europe (Netherlands, UK, Germany, Belgium) via a relocation visa.

Resources

I searched for online resources. these what I would plan to study from:

• pwn.college
• learn.cylabacademy.org
• portswigger.net/web-security
• overthewire.org/wargames/
• kc7cyber.com
• www.root-me.org
• ctflearn.com
• hacksplaining.com
• ost2.fyi
• I am aware of HTB/HTB Academy and THM. I can afford a max total of like 150$. if that would be better approach, please advice on that.

Questions

1. pivot: should I switch to cybersecurity considering my age(30), my technical background and the current market?
   1. timeline: if yes, how long approximately it should take before I'm job ready assuming I can afford like 8-10 hours per day?
   2. resources: are the included resources enough? any priority? should I start with one of them and once I finished it ask you again?
2. age: Am I too old for cybersecurity and thus should force myself forget about it and stop wasting my time? Am I too old to for tech career in the first place? please be honest with me.
3. relocation: to increase my chances of relocation, should I start learning a local language (like german or dutch) alongside english?
4. general advice: Do you have any other advice for someone in my specific situation?

Thank you.