mrgogetter:
The short answer is "No, you are not too old." But you didn't come here for the short answer, I suppose.
The reality is that you needn't worry about "job prospects" right now. The point at which you are employable is a long, long, long way off. Your first job as a civilian-trained commercial pilot will be as a flight instructor, for that is the only job are open to a freshly-certificated pilot. And those "job prospects" are pretty good. We always need new CFI's.
So how long will it realistically take you to get your CPL, your Instrument Rating, and your CFI? Maybe you'll be a ball of fire and get all the ratings in just over 300 hours. Time flies, no pun intended. Unless you plan on flying full-time (as in, no "real" job, just flying all the time to get your ratings), it's gonna take awhile. Figure two years, maybe three. And that is before you can even think about getting your first "job" as a pilot.
To be truly employable, you must amass somewhere around 1,000 hours of flight time. Employers generally want to see 1,000 hours of r/w PIC (pilot-in-command) time. So don't go thinking that you can spend 600 hours as a copilot somewhere and 250 hours flying yourself around in an R-22, log another 150 hours in puddle-jumping planks and then hop into a 206 as a command pilot doing charters or whatever. Remember, of that 600 hours you'll log as a copilot, what fraction of it is really PIC time? Alternatively, how long will it take you to log 600 hours of actual PIC time as a copilot? SIC time counts...not! in terms of your general employability. Anyway, there are so few helicopter copilot jobs out there that 'tis folly to think you will use that as a way to build flight time. Folly, I tell you!
In helicopters, there is a general pervasive feeling that a pilot is not truly competent until he has 1,000 hours. Whether true or not, this comes from the insurance companies, who've long required that magic number as the ticket to ride. You might be a whiz-bang, crackerjack pilot by 500 hours. Chomping at the bit, you know...you just know that you'd make a damn good charter/ENG/EMS/offshore/whatever pilot if somebody would just give you a chance!
Don't hold your breath.
So. After you've figured out how long it'll take you to get the CPL, IR and CFI, now we have to figure out how long it'll take you to work your way up to 1,000 hours. Perhaps you think that you'll dive in big time. You'll work 24-7 if need be. You'll do anything just to log stick time.
And you'll burn yourself out in short order. I've seen it happen. A young friend of mine came into this business from ground-zero, literally desperate to be an EMS helicopter pilot. He took crappy CFI jobs at a number of crappy operators flying crappy piston equipment. Nearly got himself killed a couple of times, but has an angel or something watching over him. He slept in hangars, in his pickup truck, showered at indulging FBO's...he flew early morning and late into the night, then early morning again. He never flew purely for "fun" anymore, it was work now, although it was sometimes fun.
In all the time I've known him, he's never had a girlfriend. Not because he's gay (at least, I don't think so), and not because he didn't want a significant other, but because involvement in this industry is not conducive to stable, steady relationships. Weirdly, women just can't compete when their guys lust after helicopters. (Hmm, maybe that's why there are so many gay helo pilots...)
By the time my friend had struggled to about 600 hours he was a basket case. And he is still not hireable by a turbine operator! He became very discouraged, for it seemed as though his "dream" job was just as far away as it ever was. In fact, he no longer saw EMS as his career goal. Last time I saw him, he'd begun to question why he got into this in the first place? I said, "Welcome to helicopters! What else is new? Let's go get drunk." And we did. You can always reason things out so much more clearly when you're drunk off your ass. Or so it seems. Hey, me and the bartender and a certain Mr. Jack Daniels have often solved all the world's problems in a single afternoon!
But I digress...
It is possible to have a career flying helicopters without going in the military. I did it. But I started at age 23. The head of the helicopter company I was working for told me it would probably take seven years. And it did. But that was a long time ago. And for that to happen, I had to have some MAJOR breaks along the way. I managed to get hired-on by the company in a non-flying capacity. That outfit had a flight school and some turbine aircraft that I could fly SIC in. I was very, very lucky and it shortened my time from wannabe to PIC considerably. But they were seven very long years. Long years. I lost my hair somewhere along the way (it was those David Clark headsets, I swear!). Oh yeah, and my youth.
So do your homework. Talk to other civilian pilots who've actually done it. Don't think that because one guy did it in some ridiculously short period of time that you'll be able to repeat it. Like I said, it didn't work that way for me. I don't mean to be discouraging - only realistic. Over the years (30+ now) I've seen plenty of starry-eyed guys come into this business, including my friend. You can do it if you stick with it, but do not think it'll be easy. It is a long road, fraught with difficulty and frustration.
Good luck to you!