>I don't know how many offers other people are getting, but I'm 52 and I get on average about 8 messages from recruiters every day. Maybe that's because I look younger in my profile picture... :D

Messages from recruiters !== job offers. These things are completely automated and generated by AI at this point. I get dozens a week, and the rare one or two I respond to are met with total silence as they are being sent to thousands of people.

Mid 40s. I get about 3 per week. A few years ago it was a lot more. But I can’t blame my photo, since I haven’t changed it since 2008. Out of ambivalence, not cunning. Perhaps it’s because I’m specific about the somewhat niche area I work in (not web) or perhaps those resume gaps I’ve always been cavalier about are finally catching up with me. Or maybe I should drop the 1990s era from my resume since that gives my age away.

Agreed. I just went through finding a new job, and I was a little worried about it, given everything I've heard about ageism in this industry. Far from that, I had loads of recruiters contacting me, and on the whole this job search was the easiest and fastest I've ever had. One interviewer commented on my age, which felt a little odd since it was something he brought up, and not part of the conversation. But, I don't feel like it hurt me, even in that situation. People were generally very cool.

At my old job, a YC startup, I was the oldest person on staff. Older than the founders, the VPs, or any of the developers by at least a few years. But, I can also remember being the youngest person at my first job, and on balance, I think my age was more of a professional liability for me back then than it is now. It wasn't a huge issue in either scenario.

This might be somewhat of an aberration (I hope it isn't, as I'm in the same boat, but it might be). A bunch of people got laid off during the pandemic and now everything is opening up and everyone is hiring and they've become more desperate for talent.

At least in theory. I have noticed a hesitance on some employers to actually bump their ranges for wages, and have had several recruiters tell me their client's budget for the role is criminally low, no wonder they're having trouble hiring people.

I get messages from recruiters based on technologies I haven't used in a decade (Android primarily). It's all generic enough that I assume the people have no specific interest in me, they are just casting a super wide net and may not even want to interview me if I responded.

I get messages from recruiters based on the very last thing I'm doing, even if I just started doing it in the last 6 months. I got the impression recruiters rarely read the LinkedIn profiles.

I assume that either most of the people decline right off the bat, or they have a very low cost of processing candidates, because that surely doesn't seem to be a very precise way to look for the right people.

>based on technologies I haven't used in a decade

Pretty sure most recruiters don't read beyond "keyword exists".

$ grep android resume.txt && send_email

I think last I got any message from a recruiter was more than 6 months ago. Granted I have nothing in my profile besides photo and a listing of the companies I worked for and position. Plus some endorsements and recommendations. But I would have expected that any recruiter could infer from the companies I worked for and endorsements enough. Maybe just an European thing. I'm mid 30s and have always been a top performer. All jobs I had so far were me applying on the company website. I don't understand where's that shortage I keep hearing about.