As someone in the orbit of Berlin startup culture, I'd say the answer is simple - you have to overcome arrogance and ageism.

Let's be honest, those of us who have built careers on the "modern-web-stack running in AWS" tend to tilt in the bearded-hipster direction. I've interviewed people coming out of corporate behemoths, and they're typically older, have families, have a more conservative demeanor, and are a few years behind the HN curve, tech-wise. It takes some effort to cross that cultural gap and recognize the decades of engineering and inter-personal experience that some of these people have.

One thing that helped me was to move. That's obviously a big step. I was unmarried at the time, no kids, and knew I wanted something different, so I found a job in a new city and just packed up and moved.

If that's not in the cards, maybe you could look slightly farther afield in your geographical area than you would normally, or look farther afield in your technical area than you normally would.

It might also help to work on some either open source or other public-facing projects (assuming you can and they don't conflict with your current employment, etc.). Then you show that you have experience other than just what you might have from your day job.

I'm not sure what you're getting at. If you're implying that I casually leaped to the conclusion that it's a bad thing, I didn't; I was giving guidelines to someone who seemed to be implying (s)he wanted out. If you don't want out, more power to you; I'm not really a big "you have to be passionate about your job" sort myself. (It's nice, but it's a bonus in most cases rather than a necessity.)

I think I miscommunicated my point. I was speaking of bias against people who have been stuck in Dilbert Land for long periods of time and are trying to get out, but being ignored by companies outside Dilbert Land because they are inside it.

Ah, I see. My apologies for misreading. But, alas, I have no magic answers. Except for the fact, I suppose, that there are no magic answer in general, and you may have to do something a bit spectacular if you want out, to prove to those outside that you can function outside. This is where programmers have it easy; it's really easy to get involved in an open source community or something, compared to a lot of the other people who can get stuck in Dilbert-land.