Bob Crum finally bailed out of the tech industry last year, after four decades working for Silicon Valley companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Cisco. When his contract with Cisco ended, he tried to find a job elsewhere, but quickly discovered that, aged 62, his “richness of experience” was seen as a hindrance, not a help, in today’s tech industry.

“I was told ‘we decided to give this job to someone earlier in their career, your experience was a long time ago’. Those were hurtful things to say to someone who was eminently qualified,” he says.

“After several months trying to get back into the tech world, I just threw up my hands and mentally told myself, I’m retired from high-tech and will move on to bigger and better things.”