I've run into this problem several times.
About a year and a half ago while looking for work, I found that on many of my interviews a noticeable change in my interviewer happened when they asked me to verify my age. I learned a long time ago that when sending out my resume to leave off dates and any mention of the year. I always left things kind of vague, stating that I was there for 6 years or 8 years, just never listed the actual year. I've never looked my age so I always had that going for me. On several occasions I was in the interview and told that I had all the right qualifications for the job and just needed to fill out the actual application. Time and again I was told that "it was just a formality" and that after some higher-up saw my resume and my skill set I'd be offered a job.

After handing back the filled application I'd wait to see the visible change in my interviewer when they got to the line where you had to fill in your birth date. Then I'd have to ask if there was a problem, be told there wasn't, and go home never to hear back from them again. After the sixth or seventh time I started writing the numbers badly enough to mistake a 6 for an 8, taking 20 years off my age. The very first time I did this, I didn't see the interviewer change attitude, and I got the offer by phone about 3 days later. I didn't take that first offer due to another interview happening the next day and being given the offer while still in the interview.

It took a couple of days after being on the job before the mix-up of the numbers became known. I still have that job after a year and a half, and my employer has been very thankful in both wage and compliments ever since. Face it, if you've got the skills and can show that you're the right person for the job then age doesn't matter. But you might have to help nudge things along by writing a little sloppy.

-Goran

More like:

"The kid from down the block that coded our website in the first place moved and we're too stupid to know how to rework our site to work with any other browser."

Of doing freelance work.

I've been reading what everyone else mentions or offers, but the one missing item from all the advice is to ask for a deposit. While this may not seem like a very good business move, it does show intent and makes sure that you don't put in a ton of time to only have a client back out later, The deposit can cover expenses for client meetings and research into their project. But you need to ask for a deposit, even more so on the big ticket large scale projects of more than a thousand.

I've had several projects in the last year go belly up. On was a calendar project we were hired to do by a local school. We made the mistake of not having a contract, (Our bad), and not getting a deposit, (again out bad). We figured, "what could go wrong?" the district calendar was a project funded for the last 8years by a local bank. We shopped the project around to several different places and brought the budget in at $12,000, a $6,000 reduction from the year before. We got the go ahead from the school to do the work, and when we were ready to go to print, the bank bailed out of the project. They're now having money problems of their own. The school didn't have the money in the budget, so the project died. And we were out all of the time we spent on the project, plus the money we were going to get paid.

While we can't hold the school responsible for the bank failing to fund the project, a deposit would have kept us from loosing money. After that point, I started asking for deposits and I haven't had a client bail on a project since. By simply asking for a show of earnest money in the project I can safeguard myself from spending my time on a project that goes nowhere.

-Goran