[gsibble]

Last time I applied out in 2023, I probably submitted 700+ applications. I've been CTO of several medium sized organizations, CEO of a startup that exited, and am a great backend coder and software architect.

I got 2 interviews. One wanted me to be CTO to manage a 50 person team for $180k. I made $200k in 2014 managing a smaller team.

I gave up and do consulting now. It's actually easier to find clients and I can collect 3-5 paychecks. Works much better.

edit: I forgot a recruiter was working with me. I asked him what was going on. He said I was "too senior", "looked expensive", and "no one wants to hire white males right now."

[leviathan]

How exactly do you find clients as a consultant? I'm facing a similar issue now, and the networks I used to rely on for clients have all gone downhill recently.

[gsibble]

That's by far the hardest part. Almost all referrals. I've tried everything including hiring a sales team paid on commission and nothing reliably works.

Because of that my pay varies pretty dramatically. Something always seems to come in at the right time, but I still haven't figured out how to reliably find clients, despite how many companies are looking for people out there (I'm an AI expert and lots of companies are interested in my work but they are very hard to find).

[klipklop]

> edit: I forgot a recruiter was working with me. I asked him what was going on. He said I was "too senior", "looked expensive", and "no one wants to hire white males right now."

Out of curiosity, what chronological age do you "present" as? Ageism I suspect is a factor on top of the overt racism that is seemingly OK as long as it's against a single group.