I was made redundant a few months ago and have not yet found another job. Fortunately we can manage on what DH earns but I'm getting increasingly frustrated about it as I want to work.
MIL said recently that I probably won't get any offers because I'm over 50. She bases this assumption on "what everybody says" and also on an incident with someone in her extended family. Years ago this person had a very specific job. Strictly speaking there can only ever be one person in this exact job (well, I suppose it could be a job-share, but it's defined by a relationship with another job-holder that there can definitely only be one of - kind of like being the Queen's chiropodist, although it wasn't anything like that). She wasn't sacked or anything, she left to have children and then had a job with more conventional hours and holidays off while her children were young. Some time quite recently, the children having grown up and left home, she heard that the same job was available again and applied for it but didn't get it. According to MIL this proves that you can't get a job, however well suited you are for it, if you're over 50. I should add that MIL herself changed jobs twice over the age of 50 (when I first knew her) but she may think the climate has changed in the 30-odd years since then.
I can believe that ageism exists but I don't believe it's as clear-cut as "this will never happen." I can understand it when I don't even get interviews for jobs I'm not particularly well qualified for or haven't done before. However, I have had two interviews recently for exactly the type of job I had before, and both times I've been told that I was a very good and experienced candidate but it was an exceptionally good field and I just missed out this time. In neither case do I know who actually did get the job (incidentally, is it socially acceptable to ask?) but there were people of about my age there and younger people. Should I be beginning to wonder if ageism is a factor? If so, is there anything I can do to minimise its influence? (I don't mean lie about my age, but should I be emphasising how fit and healthy I am?)
So as not to drip feed, I should also add that two agencies have expressed an interest in taking me on, but the jobs they were saying they could find for me were either wildly unsuitable (customer service person answering questions about technical equipment I know nothing about), impractical to travel to (and I mean 2 hours minimum each way) or unpredictable patterns of hours and perhaps no hours at all some weeks. Basically the sort of jobs they probably find it very hard to fill. I am lucky that I can afford not to do this yet but I will probably consider it in the end if I keep on being rejected for more suitable jobs.