> This week alone I had 2 interviews with 2 different companies where in the first one of the interviewers asked me my age, directly followed by "why hire you o

> This week alone I had 2 interviews with 2 different companies where in the first one of the interviewers asked me my age, directly followed by "why hire you over a younger graduate?" (which isn't the same as "why hire you over someone smarter than you?" because why even ask this). In the second one I was also asked for my age, followed by whether I plan to get married anytime soon. Okay, if this interview was in the United States, interviewers can't actually ask these questions. About 'amateurs': developing software for sale is a professional endeavor, so by signaling that you are an amateur, you are telegraphing that you are less suited for the job than someone who doesn't. This is a function of maturity, and maturity is expected from someone who is older. Most valley companies simply do not care if you are a 34-year old with 4 years of experience, provided your education and training were not in computer science. If your resume clearly shows your educational and work background, absolutely no sane mainstream company will care. There are larger companies that do insist on hiring people with degrees in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering to do software, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. My advice: - Polish your speaking and presentation style. Convey maturity that is commensurate with your age. Maintain a positive attitude and a professional demeanor in your interviews no matter what. Take some time to familiarise yourself with the terms of art, and speak the lingo. - Do not deal with very small shops. They generally do not have processes and management structures that are suitable to integrating people such as you (or reigning in wackos who ask illegal questions during interviews, thus showing their total lack of interview training and common sense). You will have better luck with companies that have explicit programs to bring in people from nontraditional backgrounds into software dev. - Freelancing is a good idea if you want to make some money and connections, but getting into an established company such as the one I have described is a much better bet to get into the industry.