Jeez, if I had a quid for every time this subject came up....
Unfortunately, age is not just an attitude of mind. How I wish it were so! There are many age-related issues which can and do affect the potential employment prospects of our older Wannabes. There is the proven deterioration of learning ability with age. There is the combination of lack of experience and limited productive service remaining. There is the perceived problem of re-educating a life-experienced individual into a company's mindset. Etc. etc.
All these (and others) are reasons for
not employing older fATPLs when times are bad in the industry, as they have been for the last 3 years.
The good news is that, even in these bad times, we have heard of some of our older contributors getting European and UK employment. Most of you are aware that Capt Pprune (Danny Fyne) was 37 when he started training; he is just the most prominent of many Ppruners who weren't in the first flush of youth when they began. And the market is suddenly getting much, much better....
There are companies with prejudice against older beginners - and not just in aviation. The same can equally be said about ex-US (or wherever) pilots, and I'm sure it would be equally true in the USA if the positions were reversed. There will always be obstacles placed in your way to what you want, but generally the biggest obstacles are placed there by you yourselves.
There are plenty of precedents for older pilots succeeding in this industry. Why shouldn't you be one of them?
Scroggs