Happiness

> That and my age made me feel really depressed and unwanted. In my case, my age was the "elephant in the room," at my interviews. I feel as if the original in-house recruiters (different beast from the "outhouse" recruiters, though), and even a couple of managers, had no issue with my age. As soon as even one tech person became involved, however, the temperature dropped twenty degrees. They were usually quite brusque, and I knew that I was screwed. After that, the company usually "ghosted" me. I stopped following up, because even the enthusiastic and supportive recruiters and managers wouldn't talk to me. It was very depressing. It was not my imagination. They really didn't want me, and they didn't care whether or not I knew it. No blowing sunshine up my butt, or stringing me along. They wanted me gone, ASAP. The few companies that seemed interested, did so, on a pretty nasty footing. They made it clear that they would be doing me a huge favor, by offering me a job, and that I'd be treated like garbage, if I took it. That was why I threw in the towel, and just decided to retire. I was more than willing to do a pretty awesome job, and take chances with risky companies, for a fairly low wage, but this did not seem to matter (indeed, it seldom even got to that point). But it's all actually been for the best. Nowadays, I can't even imagine going back to the rat race (I liked that "Happiness" cartoon, that a previous post linked[0]). It was very sick, and I never want to go back