Well, I hire people, and I've hired younger people and older people. I'm nearly 40. What I find is a couple of things: I don't mind a candidate who is older and has lots of experience. However, OFTEN their experience is not directly in our field. And that's okay, I don't mind training someone. But on my last hire, who was over 50, who was eventually fired, that person did not want to learn our way of doing things. She thought she knew better, and would not take direction. When I interview, regardless of age, I look for someone who can follow directions and do it MY way, because you know, I'm the boss, and I know how to do this the most productive way, and I also know what's going on in a global level at this organization and how it relates to other projects. I find that often people with more experience than the job requires, regardless of age, come in with a chip on their shoulder and are unwilling to learn the procedures of this organization. And I'm happy to consider new ways of doing things, AFTER you learn and master our way and see how it actually works, and show me you can do the job. (You as in the person, not you personally, Blanche.)

Right now I'm getting resumes from people who have decades of experience but it's not in our field. And they don't tell me even in the slightest in their cover letter (if they even send one) why they want to move into this field and how any of their previous experience is translatable.

I'm not denying that bias exists. It does. But I also find that when I have hundreds of applicants to chose from, I'm not going after the one who doesn't just spell it out for me and is going to make me do the digging so I can hire them. Also, experience does time out. Systems and business processes are not the same now as they were in 1996. So if the last time you did office work was in 1996, that's a huge gap, and yes, it would concern me.

We've discussed that there are other issues with your work history, and it may be a conglomeration of things making recruiters pass you over, and yes, age may be one of them.

One tip: regardless of age, anyone who presents themselves to me eager to learn from me and get into my field, and who can respect me and my career, has a better chance. Sometimes older job applicants, if they are older than me, can actually be rude and disrespectful to me, and entitled. Not saying this is you, just saying it happens. And it could be a factor in age bias. I know you're probably always as polite and professional as can be with any recruiter. But I am curious: how do you know what age the recruiter was?

Also, it seems like the agencies are giving you feedback on how to get hired and you are declining those ideas. Wouldn't it be worth it to give these people who are actually experts in getting people jobs, give their ideas a chance and see if works? You can always change your resume back if it doesn't. Just a thought.