Comment Re:Yes, No, Sort-of (Score 1) 376
There are also older managers who will not hire you: they appreciate the willingness of younger engineers, without strong experience, to be driven or manipulated to make specific goals and not to _question_ the wisdom of management. It's very difficult to be in the field without some sense of politics, or to know when management is lying to you, and such a manager will not appreciate having their work questioned.
But to stay active, I'd strongly urge getting active in freeware and open source projects. Whatever freeware your current role relies on, get involved in. It keeps up your skills, it helps to mentor the new users, and it keeps your name visible on Google searches for the technology listed on your resume. And it helps guide the software to be the way _you_ want it to work.