i'm on the verge of giving up on job hunting.

[Lerkfish]

I"m not receiving unemployment, either.
last december, I was laid off. I took a job with a company that ended up being untenable, paychecks were bouncing, people's medical insurance was not paid by the company so their doctors refused to treat them....and they have sinced been sued by the state for refusing to pay the state the employee taxes that were being witheld from our paychecks.... in other words, a real piece of work place to work, so I had to quit before the cobra from being laid off ran out.

unemployment refused to put me on the rolls because I quit, even though it was the smartest thing for me to do.

that's just the background in order to point out that even though I"m unemployed, I know for sure I don't show up on any unemployment statistics put out by the govt.


ok, so why am I on the verge of giving up? I"m 50. The only industry that is hiring people doing what I do is run and owned by people usually 35 or less. Their staff's average age is usually around 25.
I rarely get a chance to interview.

I've thought about dying my grey hair, but honestly, you can tell I"m 50 regardless.

anyways, the last straw was last week. From my WORK and resume, they invited me to interview.

I showed up and waited in the reception area. One guy (about 30) walks in and contemptously (but in a whisper) asks the receptionist "who's THAT guy waiting for?". The receptionist tells him I'm the interviewee.

The guy says nothing to me and walks back to his office. The receptionist takes me back and yes, you guessed it, that was the guy interviewing me. I was a bizarre interview. Instead of like a normal interview, where they spend some time chatting or asking about your philosophy about work, etc. Instead, it was immediately grilling me on the most complicated programming techniques. It was an obvious "gotcha" exercise, trying to trip me up rather than find out what I know.. he even used a term I was unfamiliar with, and when pressed to explain what he meant, it was clear he was using terminolgy particular to his OWN COMPANY, which of course I would not recognize. There were other clues....
I came with a portfolio booklet and a DVD with flash animations on it. At some times, when grilling me, I offered to show him examples on either one and he just said, "oh, we don't need to do that, just answer the question".
At one point, he says "well, I could ask you if you had any questions for me about the company, but that's probably a waste of our time".
Then, after only fifteen minutes, he says "well, I'll see you out" and he gives me the bum's rush out the door. It was all over so quickly, and THEY INVITED ME TO INTERVIEW, and I had driven quite a ways ( 2 hours) in a snow storm to get there.

At first I tried to go back over what I said to see if I made mistakes, but honestly, the interview was engineered against me the moment he saw me in the reception area.

This is not the first time this has happened over the last several months. but usually they are more diplomatic about it.
I had a very depressing drive home in the snow storm and realized this industry is never going to hire me.

so, I"m giving up for now. I'm going to concentrate on redoing my website, yet again, in the hopes of appearing more attractive to the youngsters...but I am giving up essentially.I"ve won international and national design awards, even a pulitzer, and this is what happens to me.

I understand how the elderly eskimos felt who were pushed out on ice floes to die


sorry for boring everyone, but I wanted to point out that I"m a non-statistic but I am real. The unemployment numbers are larger than any statistic will tell you.