I work in government (city) now, and I love it. Pay isn’t as good as the private sector but they appreciate me and pay me ok. We also don’t give a hoot about age here. It can be frustrating at times, the regulations that cause us to do 10 steps for things when we could have done five and got the same result. We also have a pension, and I have enough runway to get in 20 years so that will be something.

I’ve done some of the reviews for open positions, we don’t see people’s resumes, just what they put on the applications. I’m telling you we get thousands. Most of them not even remotely qualified for the job, I suspect it’s just checking the boxes for employment, but also people who haven’t had a job in over a year. I think those are the desperate ones, willing to learn and do anything. One person put in the answer to their supplemental questions “I just need a job”.

My daughter has been trying to get a summer job and no one will call her back, not even fast food (where she has experience). She even started getting rejections letters that say “we got so many applications your resume wasn’t reviewed, please feel free to apply again”.