Your age is absolutely not a hindrance. To my eye, it's not even relevant. What is relevant is how eager you are to learn the technologies you know you need t

Your age is absolutely not a hindrance. To my eye, it's not even relevant. What is relevant is how eager you are to learn the technologies you know you need to pick up in order to be an appealing candidate. Illustrate your eagerness to learn these things by building something personal using them and demonstrable to potential employers. When I consider candidates that don't have the typical university degree or decided later in life to switch to web development, I am most impressed by those who've dived right in and aren't looking to me to take a gamble on their willingness to be committed to the new discipline they've chosen. As for specific areas of focus, my advice would be to spend some time learning a modern language that is not necessarily what potential employers might use in real world projects. When I speak to candidates who have picked up Scala, Go, Haskell, or Clojure on their own just out of fun, I feel I'm talking to someone who simply likes the challenge of learning. That's not to say ignore the more pragmatic languages—those more likely to have jobs in your area.