The consensus appears to be that the best way for a person with no professional experience in programming/web development to find work is to create our own experience by building websites/applications and putting them in a portfolio. I have spent the last couple of years or so doing a lot of tutorials and coding practice (Udemy, Codecademy, etc. discovered Freecodecamp fairly recently) and feel like I’ve learned more relevant information recently than I did when I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in IT years ago. What I’m struggling with is how to get there. I can probably come up with some fairly simple applications (Mad Libs-style site, types of quizzes) now using HTML, CSS and Javascript, and have thought about just doing 2 or 3 of those, throwing them on a portfolio, and beginning the job search while I’m still in the process of learning. However, I have a feeling I might enjoy backend programming more than frontend programming. I have taken classes in school and tutorials online of backend languages like Java, Python and PHP, though I am definitely not an expert. Some questions: Would Freecodecamp projects be appropriate for this type of online portfolio since we create them on our own? And if so, would we want to use the Codepen or a website of our own? I sort of feel like I’ve been hitting a wall when it comes to ideas on how to move forward, and at my age I sometimes feel like I’m running out of time. Thanks.
I think that FCC projects would definitely be appropriate. If you’re concerned about how original they may or may not be perceived as, I would suggest making your inspirations and resources used be part of the conversation.
You can also gain professional credibility by contributing to Open Source projects (hint - FCC is open source 
).