As an older worker in Connecticut, what's it like trying to find a new job? Here's what we learned.

Imagine, late in your career, creating a LinkedIn profile, chopping your extensive resume down to two pages, and peppering your cover letter with algorithm-friendly keywords.

After months of trying, you finally land the elusive phone or in-person interview with a hiring manager. And then: crickets.

Computer programmer Mark Kirschblum has been looking for work since December 2018.

"It's more of a science, almost an art," Kirschblum says. "I'm somewhat introverted, so to do the networking gets me out of my comfort zone. But you do what you have to do."

Kirschblum met former Manchester Historical Society executive director Eileen Jacobs Sweeney and Michael Renaud, a personalized marketing solutions expert, at Pathways to Employment, a five-week job-search training program.

"To be part of the program with other people who are in the same general age category," Renaud says, "we can all say, 'You know what? We're not the only ones.'"

All three job seekers, along with Courant reporter Stephen Singer, discuss what it's like to be older and unemployed in Connecticut on the latest Capitol Watch podcast.