I found a position through an on-line resource and applied, and was contacted by a recruiter (positive experience) and screened. Based on that I was set up with an interview with the company's general manager (positive experience) who wanted me to come back and interview with a group manager. I did, and that's where it turned ugly. During the interview, she made a comment about their sales force being comprised of "white guys in their late 50's counting down toward retirement." Full disclosure: I am also in the same age/demographic group, but extremely motivated and hardly slowing down. She realized her slip immediately and froze up; I smiled, mentioned something about being able to work with all types, but it was evident that I was going to pay for her bias and the interview turned frosty-- game over. The clincher came the next day when the recruiter called me to tell me they'd selected another candidate and "it was a coin toss" as we were "that close." I thanked her, then checked the position the next week-- sure enough it had reopened; so much for the "coin toss" candidate who allegedly got the job. The general manager who'd passed me along left the company a relatively short time later, and I am not surprised. I was familiar with the last company he worked with and am sure he's appreciated where he is now. I have to say I am grateful for one thing: in doing volunteer work with other "mature workers" during this period, I used this experience as an example of what can happen during the job-seeking process so it turned out to be valuable.