I am not a woman but I did start learning development at around your age (front end first with a little backend, then more backend, now a good deal of both). Pr

I am not a woman but I did start learning development at around your age (front end first with a little backend, then more backend, now a good deal of both). Prior to that I delivered mail. I now consider myself to be competent. I'm currently doing fullstack development with a combination of python/django on the backend, javascript/react on the frontend, and AWS for the infrastructure side of things. 90% of what I know was self taught. The other 10% was part of a formal course I did with the Harvard Extension School - a professional certificate in web technologies. I would say it was a good course that helped give me a solid grounding. It suited me at the time as I wasn't prepared to give up three or four years to study CS full time. I was also mostly interested in the practical side of things. The only downside was the cost. Like yourself, I was also a bit concerned about being seen as 'old'. Turns out it hasn't mattered at all. That might be partly because of the path I ended up taking. Once people knew what I was up to I started getting a lot of requests for help from friends and family. Pretty quickly this lead to a lot of work with designers that needed someone that could actually build stuff. That was great as I didn't have to deal with clients and had a lot of say in terms of what technologies I would use. If you'd asked me three or four years ago if I thought I'd be able to do what I'm doing now I'd have told you "hell no!". Obviously, I would've been wrong. You'll surprise yourself. You just have to be persistent. To answer your questions: What do you think are the next steps I should take? Try to find a graphic designer to team up with. Gradually introduce JS into your work (you can go a long way with very little). Would you consider employing a person like me? I don't see why not (not that I am an employer). How to find somebody who could help me with developing my skills? Meetups might be a good place to start. I've always found the people there to be very welcoming and they usually range from beginners to experts (who in my experience have always been very generous with their knowledge). What else could I do to increase the chances of being hired? A portfolio of projects is a must (it shouldn't matter much if they are paid or personal). As for the odd questions from people that are surprised to find you are a woman; ignore them, but don't ignore red flags.