I know the feeling of recruiter love. I've basically been semi-retired for a few years. But I ran into a contract gig with someone I really enjoyed working with that lasted almost two years, so it's only really been a year. But the recruiters keep dropping me notes on LinkedIn.

For me, the best in is probably reaching out to people I know, but since I'm trying to focus on writing, I've been making no effort. I'm 65 now, and as much as I enjoyed the last gig I had, it was a lot of deadline pressure and the usual "client needs it now" after waiting forever to establish specs. I don't miss that.

But money is tight, so I may need to reconsider. I think my radar is pretty good for people who are ageist, and I think one reason I ended up doing freelance work for one guy for two years was because he loved the "age". I think one time he said something like, "No horsing around with you. I drop you a project, it gets done."

Thanks a bunch for the comment and good luck!