Even after graduating from college over 20 years ago. I purposefully took a job as a computer operator in a larger city where I still live that was way below my skillset and the amount I could have made at in a smaller city closer to home as a junior Dev for the opportunity.

Over a decade later, when I really started taking my career seriously again, I made the same calculation. I had two choices, I could accept an offer that was paying more but using a technology that I didn’t see having a future or taking a job paying only little bit more but was clearly a better long term play technologically. I’m aggressive about keeping up and having a competitive resume.

I respond to every local recruiting company that reaches out to me. I keep them in the loop, I’ve met a few recruiters for lunch and I refer my favorite ones when I know someone is looking. I’ve also done hiring through recruiters.

The problem is when you have to go in cold and pass a google-style interview just to get considered for any job, even at a greeting card company. The now ubiquitous position where "we only hire the top 1%." With that much competition, being old puts you at a definite disadvantage. Especially when tech interviews focus on CS trivia rather than engineering design and experience, benefiting those fresh out of college.

I am still hands on. But, I had to elevate myself above being seen as “just a Developer”. I’ve been asked simple technical questions to determine whether I had basic competence, but all of my interviews over the past few years have been along the lines of “draw out an architecture” or “describe how you would solve these $hairy_problems we are having. I have never been asked a leetCode type question. The closest I’ve gotten was writing a merge sort on the board - I did, got an offer but I was so turned off by the entire process that I took another job instead.