I D, you need to
experience this for yourself.
Polish off your resume - I know you got help on a resume rewrite a few years ago - and start applying for jobs that closely match what you used to do.
See how your experience jibes with the view that it's hard but doable.
Finding an IT role when you haven't been continuously employed in a hot skill area ONLY works in today's market if you're looking for your first job.
There are places for idealism. They are college campuses and
Mother Jones magazine.
I know I'll never work in computers again...
I don' t think that necessarily has to be true. There's competition everywhere now for everything. I doubt if one can pick any field and find it easy going.
But just because something is hard, it doesn't mean it's impossible. Just that we have to step up our marketing game...
It makes life so difficult to try to deal with this shit head-on that you HATE LIFE as a direct result of trying to break these barriers or to escape being marginalized.
It's honestly like trying to swim your way out of a whirlpool. The downward pressure is the disbelief of everyone around you that you are worth keeping around to contribute.
After awhile you realize - just fuck these nasty, zero sum assholes who control IT work environments. That was the conclusion I reached years ago. IT people are emotionally stunted fucking dickheads.
Jo has "field experience" with this set of facts. So do I. What I found through experience is that:
- Your age based advantages are ALWAYS used against you rhetorically in any professional interaction in IT if you attempt to mine your past experience. ALWAYS. "You're the old turd who always says that."
- There is so much competition for so few decent IT roles that ANYTHING counts against you, including lack of pin-point focus on specific buzzwords, or the interview just plain not liking you very much.
- Regarding tech skills, again, when you are well past entry level there is no career amnesty for re-tooling.
My nextdoor neighbor, who moved in a couple of years ago, is a software developer and works for a big company that does government contracting. She's lives alone and looks older than me, which is old! She's not very friendly. During one of the 2 or 3 conversations I've had with her I asked her how old she was and she gave me a hard look and said, "I never tell anybody how old I am!"
I did a little internet sleuthing about her and found out she's 70!
No shit she's unfriendly, Sherlock.
She probably has to run political defense every day she's on the job. Or, she views the job as pure gravy and would be comfortable if it ended tomorrow. One or the other, I'm betting.
ID, why would you ask her how old she is? That's not too friendly. After looking for jobs for a long time, I've totally given up on the computer field. I've been out of the field too long and my skills can't compete any longer. My experience means nothing. If I had known way back then how I would end up in this field, I would have concentrated on more traditional fields like accounting or healthcare instead of computers.
I'm always curious about older people working in IT and I was thinking it might lead into a conversation about old people working in IT. Hey, I'm a computer programmer, I don't have social skills!
Again, no kidding... I did a facepalm on your question.
Jo's experience and take on the industry matches mine to a T. Perm jobs and VLT contract roles are a thing for memories.