I recently completed my bachelors in mechanical engineering (mid 2013) but have never been that interested in my degree. Failing to discover another path I stuck with it and even graduated with honours. More recently I have become very interested in software engineering and have been accepted to study a Masters in SE starting Mar 2014. However I will be 27 when I graduate and I fear that I will be too old for the industry or overqualified with little experience. Of course I will be looking for work experience during my masters but even then I will be competing with people who have many more years on me in terms of software engineering.

My safer alternative that I would consider is to apply for mechanical engineering jobs now and aim to study my masters part time.

Is 27 too old to be entering the software engineering industry? Am I better off sticking with mechanical engineering? Any advice will be appreciated :)