I am an asp.net programmer and I am getting up there in my age. I wanted to know, from your experience, what skills (please be as specific as possible) would you focus on (.net or generic), what skills would you make sure you are razor sharp on, in order to avoid age discrimination?
I have heard from a few recruiters that I have "alot" of experience. I don't know if that would mean that I am too old.
Be on a few failing projects. Learn which patterns (technical, corporate, personal) lead to success, and which ones lead to failure. Share your wisdom with the bright, young, naive team building the Twitter-killer.
I would say market yourself as an Architect (application, database whatever your desire). To some that is a fancy title, but research what an architect is, and zero in on it. I have never seen an architect position get off shored or be run by a 25yr old. The only catch is, you have to back up the "I am an architect and I know my stuff"