| That is an extremely impressive resume and I commend you on a life well lived. I was headed into HVACR when my mother had a stroke and my career path diverted... ended up studying psychology, but then later using my programming skills I'd taught myself when I was 12, and managed to land a career in web design, where I've been for the past decade plus. I attempted to also apply to over 50 jobs... none actually resulted in an interview. Some required me to take a few further tests, but it led nowhere. My most promising avenue was driving across country for a company that delivered prestigous artwork to high end clients, but they wanted me to be fully dedicated to the job, while I wanted to be on call and/or work part-time, while doing my remote web design job. I'd asked if they could at least come close to my current salary, and even was ready to settle for $3 less than what I'd really wanted. They never did call back. If there is anything to let you know that even though you know so much, have so much experience.... companies will still overlook you. You possibly face ageism the more you know too. I've had to dumb myself down a bit on the resume though I do keep my bragging rights for consecutively bringing in half a million year-after-year. While the job market may have a high demand for engineers, the competition among ourselves, and then the weariness of companies towards AI and ChatGPT have not helped, and its just a very different world we live in where every company can be picky as much as they want. After all, from all the top tech companies... adding up those laid off/fired numbers... looking at about 100,000 or so people, and safe to say that about half of those people were considered to be "engineers", who are all polishing up that resume with tech company names on them and possibly applying to work for small startups. As for qualifications... even brand name recognition probably gets you hired, like going to Harvard or Princeton had always done. You said you are 60... max out unemployment as long as you can if you are currently receiving it, then start dipping into that 401k now to help subsidize your income. Use it wisely and sparingly. If you are a relatively healthy 60 year old, I suggest you do not retire until at least 66.4 years old, otherwise, you'll be giving up quite a bit of your social security check if you take an early retirement at 62. I know it's not something you want to read... but for the time being, instead of staying out of work, why not settle into a different job or line of work right now just to get more points into your social security? |