In my experience, I found recruiters and screeners to be
very condescending and, in some cases, downright nasty. In one case, it was all smiles, until they brought in the tech lead, and I was quickly given the bum's rush, after that.
Recruiters tended to "ghost" me, almost immediately upon finding out my age.
It was weird. I have a tremendous résumé, and they would contact me, gushing about it, then would suddenly have a "connection issue," after I told them my age.
I'd never hear from them again. I guess the industry is crawling with 30-year-olds, with 35 years of experience.
It's quite possible to get work. All of my employees got jobs again, but it took a couple of years, for a couple of them to find settled work. Most had to be contractor employees for a year or so. Our team was composed of very experienced C++ programmers. Absolutely top-shelf engineers.
They're doing fine, now, but it took a while. I just didn't feel like going through the agita.