Hired After 45

The job search changed more in the last three years than in the thirty before it — and nobody briefed the people who last ran one in 2012. Résumés are parsed by software before a human sees them. Interviews happen over one-way video with no interviewer in the room. Recruiters use AI to screen — and reject applications that look AI-written. And you're navigating all of it with a twenty-five-year career that the machines keep misreading as a liability. Hired After 45 is a practical playbook for professionals over 40 running a modern job search: less motivation, more operating system. Inside, a complete six-week system: - The Machine, mapped: what actually happens to your application, gate by gate — and why every gate rewards preparation over youth - The Derisked Hire: reposition twenty years of experience as the lowest-risk choice on the shortlist - The resume paradox, solved: draft with AI, then run the De-Botting Pass so it survives the recruiters who auto-reject AI-looking text - LinkedIn for people who hate LinkedIn — findable, not performative - The Warm-Contact Engine: word-for-word scripts that reopen twenty years of professional relationships without begging - The AI interview, rehearsed: one-way video, chatbot screens, and a daily Mock Loop that turns your AI assistant into an unlimited practice partner - Scripts, not improv, for the human rounds: "overqualified," the layoff question, age-coded interviews, and negotiating from seniority - A consulting Plan B that pays the bills and strengthens your hand - The Six-Week Pipeline: one focused hour a day, measured by conversations started — not applications sent Plus an appendix with 66 copy-paste AI prompts and every checklist from the system. No hype. No guarantees. No pretending age bias doesn't exist — just a machine you can learn, and a plan that starts tomorrow morning. Written for managers, specialists, and professionals 45+ facing their first search in a decade: laid off, restructured, or simply done waiting.