I thought the suggestion for CAD was a really good one. As well as for truck driving. As well as moving to TN.

Aside from that, I think it is well to have a focus on AI in programming. That is to say, since you already have vast experience with programming different languages directly, you are certainly at the point where you can do ANY languages with the help of AI. There is a certain knack you develop when you set your mind to do a project with a computer language you hardly know about, but do it working closely with AI. I think employers are becoming very AI-friendly. I have been using the AI model Claude Sonnet 4.5. Since you didn't mention PYTHON, I would suggest thinking up a project objective and doing it in that language with the help of AI. There is an AI skill you develop by doing it. I don't know if there are any classes or tutorials that teach this.

Final tip I think is very important in this day and age is in how to approach companies. We have kind of come full circle, as so many things tend to do. In the early 1900's you can read stories about men who have just shown up to a business and sold themselves on the spot to the owner. Later, in the 60's one could send out a flurry of paper resumes in the postal mail and have good results. Now, actually, HR departments have so much red tape that companies look at it with more dread to interview and hire new people. This is where you take advantage of the full circle. . . .

You send a resume to a company you would really like to work for. Then you wait a respectable amount of time, say, a week or two, and then you dress up (not overly but according to the business) and go to the company in person. You show up, say that you don't have an appointment but confidently say you sent a resume and you want to make sure that they received it. They don't know how to handle that, and they don't want to make a mistake, so you sit in the waiting room while the receptionist goes and talks to someone. They know they have you there physically, and they don't want to lose the moment. They know how precious it would be for their work load to just meet with you and size you up for themselves and perhaps BYPASS the red tape of working with statistics only to find they bring in weird people to interview. This way your resume is put near the top of the pile, or they simply schedule you for a second interview considering that to be the first. Try to remember the names of the people at the first quasi interview so that at the second interview you can bring up some of those name as if you are familiar with them in a pleasant way already. They love that. Don't oversell yourself in words, because your physical presence, friendly relaxed confident demeanor and your resume do the work.

As a single woman having to make my way in the world, that was how I got hired for my last three jobs. I turned up in person, looking like I was ready to start working, Twice, I used the “just checking on my resume” technique.  The last place I did three versions of that.  One job in retail, someone else’s mess up was my gain. I happened to be Christmas shopping for my mother when a woman went postal on the boss in view of the public. She’d was fired spectacularly after refusing to clean the mess and telling the boss where to shove the merchandise on the floor. I didn’t see this part happen, but in process of throwing metal bathroom fixtures at the boss, she struck the cashier’s head badly enough to require hospital treatment. This event happened in an upscale home decorator shop in a mall. 
I was between jobs, working only part time at work I found uninteresting at minimum wage. Whiled the shop was closed off with police tape and the employees being interviewed, on a whim, I went to Sears, purchased a gray blazer, a cheap pair of pumps, and a flannel plaid pull-skirt from the clearance rack. I effected a quick change, put on a little make-up at the Estée Lauder store, and presented myself for a job at the home decorator store. The boss had called it a day, the assistant manager had come in. She was doing double duty on her day off, her job, plus running the cash register.  
“Can you do display counters? Floor sales presentations? Keep inventory?” (How hard could that be?) I said yes.  After an interview and week-long trial at 3/4 pay, I got hired full time in charge of bathroom linens. 

This guy brought up MANY, many good points, and really summed up my dilemma.

In just 12 minutes!

This guy brought up MANY, many good points, and really summed up my dilemma.

In just 12 minutes!

The big contradiction I see is what he says in the first minute, that modern companies are only concerned about making the next quarterly earnings call. If that really were the case, they wouldn't care about age. They would in fact be more eager towards hiring older people because the younger ones tend to be lazy and have weird work ethics, and I would even say some mental problems.

How to explain more than half the country wanting a 78-year-old to be their President?  

I explain it by saying you need to research companies that were clearly behind Trump, and apply to them. Democrats and Marxists don't like the older people.

If you don't care what the politics of the company is?  Quick tip, put a fake tattoo on your neck for the interview, just high enough to be seen above the collar! Oh, yea, and, don't be seen in the waiting room with rosary beads in your hand!

The big contradiction I see is what he says in the first minute, that modern companies are only concerned about making the next quarterly earnings call. If that really were the case, they wouldn't care about age. They would in fact be more eager towards hiring older people because the younger ones tend to be lazy and have weird work ethics, and I would even say some mental problems.

So, actually ... the bias and perception is in the opposite direction, where they believe that older people are "low energy", often just trying to coast to retirement, and of course their salary expectations are higher, whereas the younger ones might be eager to prove themselves, will work harder, often being single and therefore have no problem working late and weekends regularly (for free of course, since the label them "exempt").  There's also the adage about teaching "old dogs new tricks", where they believe younger talent might be more malleable to being molded into their corporate vision, and, frankly, I would hesitate hiring an older guy myself.  Why?  I know LOTS of these older guys who haven't bothered to learn anything new in the past 25 years and simply didn't care to do so.

I'm on the high side of my 50s and, even though I haven't been laid off yet, I have posted my resume to about 2 dozen jobs over the last few months, mostly remote, but a couple even local in the area here.  I think I got very quick dings on about half of them, got exactly 1 interview (and got dinged), and the rest didn't bother to respond.  I used to get a ton of interest, just because I have various things on my resume that sound really cool ... "Lead Software Engineer at NASA", "Systems Architect", "Enterprise Architect" (the last 2 at Fortune 100 banks, etc.).  So just having those on the resume has always elicited many responses ... but not anymore.

The big contradiction I see is what he says in the first minute, that modern companies are only concerned about making the next quarterly earnings call. If that really were the case, they wouldn't care about age. They would in fact be more eager towards hiring older people because the younger ones tend to be lazy and have weird work ethics, and I would even say some mental problems.

How to explain more than half the country wanting a 78-year-old to be their President? 

I explain it by saying you need to research companies that were clearly behind Trump, and apply to them. Democrats and Marxists don't like the older people.

If you don't care what the politics of the company is?  Quick tip, put a fake tattoo on your neck for the interview, just high enough to be seen above the collar! Oh, yea, and, don't be seen in the waiting room with rosary beads in your hand!

This idea that the young is lazy is just a stereotype, sure some sre but it's because they know hard work doesn't get you more rewards. As a young man I learnt the hard way that working hard did not get me a pay raise, your employer just gives you more work. Most companies will just increase prices to increase their profits.

Stereotypes are based on statistics. Statistics are real.

Even if we assume young people are lazier. An employer doesn’t have to pick between lazy young person or hard working old person.

There are many more people seeking jobs than jobs available. This means even small & mediocre employers have the luxury of picking top talent.

So lets say 2000 people apply for a single vacancy (not too unrealistic) 1k are young 1k are old.

Assuming you are right, I’m still certain the top 10 (1%) of young people applying to the job have plenty good work ethic for the job, where even if an older person had better work ethic it wouldn’t be too noticeable in output.

After that point it would certainly be other factors from the youth which greatly triumph “work ethic”. Such as; youthful energy, the fact younger people are more eager to prove themselves early in their career, lack of family responsibilities, not going to retire soon etc etc…

In short, the top 1% of young employees will generally be a better pick than the top 1% of older workers, because both will probably produce similar output, but younger people are more attached to their jobs for the reasons above. And we are in a market where all employers can hire the top 10% or 1% due to the high applicants to vacancy ratio.

Of course it’s more nuanced than that, but I hope you get the point.