I agree you're going to have a tough time landing SWE at meta, but I think there is more to this story.

> I did everything right

This can't be true.

I have some doubts about your statements. If you can't get a job at FAANG or the major startups, sure - that makes absolute sense. Competition is crazy.

If you can't get a job at all, that makes no sense, and probably speaks more to the fact that you might be an academic parrot who can talk code, but not write code, as an actual software developer with practical abilities. And that goes more to your lack of practice, rather than lack of knowledge. The world is not to blame in that regard but you.

Alternatively, try different domains - your skills might work little wonder in the software world, but might move mountains in other (especially labour-intensive) domains.

An often forgotten field that's adjacent to programming but much easier to get into is network engineering. If you're smart enough to program then you're smart enough to to architect and configure a network. Salaries are comparable to programming jobs, and college degrees generally don't matter much.

Getting no offers in 2 years seems very possible (it's tough out there - every job seems to have dozens of applicants), but getting no interviews at all is rough.

I wonder if anyone on HN has experience working with a technical consulting or contracting agency. Are there good ones? How hard is it to get hired?

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. Sometimes it's luck of the draw. It also depends a lot on which industry you're in (finance, gaming, etc.). As an extreme example, if you're any good at COBOL, you can probably get a job working on legacy systems regardless of your age. Gaming, probably not so much.

You may have more success getting smaller freelance jobs at first and building a reputation as a can-do developer, which might be easier to parlay into a full time job. But at the end of the day, connections are sometimes the most important factor, so I would encourage anyone in your shoes to work on not just their technical chops but also their people-meeting skills.

Getting a freelance job is easier than getting an interview?

No, I'm saying getting a freelance job is often easier than getting a full-time job because the barrier to entry is lower: companies don't usually scrutinize freelancers with the same eye, especially for smaller jobs, since it's much easier to let a freelancer go if it doesn't work out. Also, freelancers are usually hired based on their ability to get the work done, not so much biased metrics like age and gender. Of course, every industry is different, but that has been my experience as a freelancer for several decades now.

Although in the case of the person I was replying to, apparently even getting an interview was impossible, so YMMV.

What filter? Why would age matter at all on the filter?

Age matters because ageism is rampant. That’s the filter.

How would they know their age? I only list the last ~10 yoe on my resume. No one knows i’m in my 40s until they meet me in person, unless they are really good at guessing ages from fuzzy video calls.

Probably a good strategy. Though at the interview you could still get "not a cultural fit" or "overqualified" or "we are only hiring recent graduates" etc.