I used to hate a guy at my last company, who sucked at his job but knew one of the VPs since they were roommates in college, now I'm that guy. After 13 years, my former company downsized and walked two dozen of us out one morning. I'm closer to 50 than 40 and don't have a degree, so it was slim pickins out there. If I got an in-person interview, it was half ghosted half "we went with internal candidate"
This past Thursday, I went to one friends wedding and caught up with another friend I hadn't seen in a fewish years. Of course, catching up leads to saying well I'm on the job hunt and he's like what your not at former company?! Turns out he's now VP of a local company. Since then, I went to an "interview" the next morning, filled out on-boarding paperwork over the weekend, and just completed my first day of getting to stay a salaried office type worker that will finally have health insurance again