A few days ago, I went to one of the county sheriff's departments to do the written test.

I was talking to one of the guys waiting to get checked in, and he had a pretty interesting story I wanted to share.

He's 45 years old and has been doing software engineering and development for most of his career, the past 20 years since he graduated college.

He said he had always thought of getting into law enforcement in some capacity, but he always made so much money working in software he never thought about making the switch seriously.

The past few years after getting laid off, he had been applying to different tech and software companies and just not hearing back.

He can't get hired anywhere.

He has done plenty of final round interviews, but he knew ageism was a problem.

He doesn't actually really need to work. He could probably figure out a way to retire and just do some consulting for the rest of his career.

He feels he still has some good working life left in him and he wants to take advantage of that.

A lot of the sheriff's departments and police departments around here don't have age limits, so he's decided to start applying and do what he actually wants to do for the rest of his working career.

I guess for him, it was a positive not being able to find another software position. He did say he feels kind of disappointed that his experience isn't valued now.

There's definitely a sweet spot between having enough experience and not being too old.

I told him there a lot of people that feel like he does right now and going through the same thing and feel the same way.

That includes me. I used to work in tech and now I got to figure out the next thing.

I just thought his story was an interesting tidbit and to share here for others.

I wished him best of luck on written test and hope he passed. I got notification today that I did pass this test, so we'll see what happens.

The 2 Deputy Sheriffs there at testing said they do get applicants in 40s and have sent some to the academy.

I know there's a lot of other software and tech people that have been laid off that are in a similar position trying to reconsider their careers.

Crazy what is going on out there in the job market.

Especially for men.

We don't get that same support structure when we lose our jobs as women.

FYI, I passed the test.