Try job hunting at 45+ if you want to experience discrimination.
I heard somebody did a study of job apps. a few years ago. And they claimed that there was discrimination against those with certain types of names. For example, they found discriminiation against names such as Tyrone and Shaniqua. They filled out fake job applications with stereotypical black sounding names to see what would happen. And they claim that these people were not interviewed for jobs.
That's a fact!
I managed testing and quality control labs for a Fortune 200 company. A lot of the "testers" were AA employees who were in the lab, because the production side was happy to be rid of them. I heard a lot of whining about how badly they were being treated, etc. A lot of serious entitlement - the notion that they should be promoted and it shouldn't involve things like attendance and productivity. It always amazed me how AA employees with college degrees possessed neither the ability to write or speak in good English. No excuses at this particular company either. They were BIG into diversity and had special programs to help AA employees learn the needed skills and advance.
That combined with my experience as an adult single parent returning to school to get an education effectively eliminated all sympathy for the so-called downtrodden black American. Any black American who wishes to have an education and to advance in life can do so. Its a choice. The perpetual victim thing is self-destructive and I do NOT want to hear it anymore.
Really. I don't even bother looking in some markets due to rampant ageism. E.g. law firms, Los Angeles.
If you think it's difficult at 45, try it at 55. There's a hip new way of saying you're overqualified, and I've heard it more than once:
"Your resume's too strong."
My response? "Show me where I need to dumb it down."
Crickets chirp uncomfortably, followed by, "it was a pleasure meeting with you."