things do get a little trickier as you get older. Like, many people just don’t want to hire you. You must get your head around that fact.
I was lucky to get into engineering work coming off a VA disability. There is almost limitless potential in many technical fields and reputations mean something and they deliver. In most technical fields customers don’t care about age, they care about results. The older engineers are usually the most valued and respected.
My advice to older career seekers is to avoid the service industries and choose practical work which you enjoy. Then sit down and draw up a step-by-step plan to achieve your objective. Mine was around 20-steps in pencil and took up one sheet of paper. Review the plan for accuracy and feasibility. I followed my plan meticulously and it worked.
It will be very hard and depressing if people expect others to assist them. They won’t.