[AnimalMuppet]

Not so long ago, we hired a guy who had been out of software for 10 years. We were nervous - what if he couldn't do it anymore? So we hired him as a contractor for three months at a low rate. If he could do it, we would hire him full-time as an employee at a real (market) salary. If he couldn't, we would lose him at the end of the contract. This approach let us gamble on him, with the only downside being the cost of the contract if he couldn't perform. He worked out, so we hired him.

You might need to structure something similar, so that a company isn't frightened off by that 15-year break.

[backtoswdev15]

That's a good point.

Here it is common to have a probation period between one to three months, which can be terminated by both parties on short notice. And you can also define a lower salary during this period.

Hence the workaround with being a contractor first is probably not necessary with a local employer, but with a foreign employer it's probably the only solution.