I would imagine you'd approach it like any other junior developer would, some kind of portfolio, and applying to literally anything until you get in, as well as

I would imagine you'd approach it like any other junior developer would, some kind of portfolio, and applying to literally anything until you get in, as well as meeting people. A hiring manager would see anything as a risk, including your working years as anything else, because they'd need to imagine that you can take instruction from a 25 y.o intermediate or 29 y.o "senior" person on a team. If doing it as a job is something you truly want to do, and that is a big if, apply to some really boring corporate gigs in junior positions. There's a big difference between being good at hobbyist programming and being good at it as a job of any kind, but the closest approximation would be contracting. That's because as soon as it's something you have to do rather than something you just want to do, the entire dynamic changes.