Ask HN: Retired engineers, are you being asked to return to work?

Several years ago, I was pushed out of my full-time job, along with all other engineers over 55. Similar situation for four of seven colleagues in our consulting consortia, where we do occasional side jobs. Our consortia previously numbered 13, but four had got their fill of American employers and went back to their home countries, while two 'near-shored' themselves into Mexico and Argentina.

For last three months, phone has been ringing and email is full of both contract and full-time offers. I have doubled fees and am more selective (fishing and reading and harassing my wife are my preferred tasks). None of this made sense when you look at reports of the thousands of people being kicked to the curb (but maybe that's particular to coders and not hardware engineers). But I did see this:

businessinsider.com/baby-boomer-retirement-surge-spark-forever-labor-shortage-jobs-workers-2023-5

Older workers, are you being sought after? Do you think that gen X and Y will have less stressful employment situations, or will employers always be able to mitigate worker costs?

Great question and I'd like to add one:

When you started your consulting business where you advertising or through networking to find clients?

I’m not an old older worker (37), but I’m a generalist (I’ve done design work in the past, heaps of frontend/UI work on the web and mobile, plenty of backend work, and now a fair amount of work around embedded systems and hardware). I’ve been getting a lot of attention from recruiters very suddenly, but I’m noticing it’s much different work from the last five years or so. I’d say the majority of it is in technologies related to health, which isn’t really where I want to be.

The AI hype train hasn’t touched me, and the hype trains of yesteryear have gone totally silent. The work I used to get approached about most (full stack web roles) have eerily dried up.

It’s nice to know there’s work available, but a little concerning that I’m not finding what I’d like to be doing most.

Virtually all roles I hear about or see are senior too, and occasionally but rarely intermediate. I have a huge amount of sympathy for people just getting started right now — it seems like a hard time to get a foot in the door.

0. I am mostly a hardware guy. Process automation, ATE, manufacturing, and product and process compliance. Banging out code ranges from 10% to 50% of each job.

1. My experience and skill set is not that common. Most EEs and MEs have eschewed this field because it has, outside of FAANG-type companies, paid less.

2. If you go the formal accreditation route, getting up to speed in EMC/Product Compliance/Corporate Conformity, depending on the industry sector, is approx 4 to 7 years.

3. Most of my original client contacts came from attending various IEEE Society symposiums. New business contacts are through former/current clients.

I am not retired yet (so feel free to ignore my N=1) but I have also observed that the previous companies I worked for are reaching out with blank checks.

I think it has to do with RTO and layoff morale hits decimating the senior workforce, compounded by companies not being willing to train staff anymore and just cannibalizing each other for seniors. Another compounding factor is simply the seasonality of recruitment in tech. Recruitment efforts wind down for Nov - Jan, and peak in May - Jun and Oct; specifically after the quarter's financials are done.

These short-term factors could also exist within a larger trend. But it's good to remember that they are present.