I feel you, I am an ex-CEO who didn't network very well when I had the chance. I'm at an early stage of a second career in engineering after several years brea

I feel you, I am an ex-CEO who didn't network very well when I had the chance. I'm at an early stage of a second career in engineering after several years break. The more I write about my CEO/founder experience the less valuable it feels, and the more I've condensed it. I don't know how much of my thinking applies to your situation. But I worry that CEOs naturally come across as jacks-of-all-trades - I definitely see that in the mega-graphic on your first CV. I once advertised a Product Owner position and interviewed an ex-CEO / inventor who wanted to tell me all about product sourcing in China, the software stack, managing an engineering team etc. ... very little chat about the job I'd advertised, which was probably my fault for not narrowing the interview earlier. I remember thinking - I'm sure he can do it, but he's going to be a handful. I'm torn between worrying that this was ageism or just a bad impression, as if he'd said "I have done much more difficult jobs than the one I'm applying for". That is an easy impression to make by accident. Random realisations about my own search: 1) My previous career led me to being over-familiar, and I'm working hard on fixing that without losing (what I hope is) a personable voice. That is definitely off-putting to an interviewer. 2) Even the stuff I'm proudest of must will be sotto voce, something that an interested interviewer can pick up on among a CV ruthlessly tailored for the situation. As a CEO you're used to selling everything about yourself; as an interviewee anything irrelevant is off-putting. 3) I have the luxury of not needing a new role soon, so I can focus on making enthusiastic applications that I'm really interested in. If I made 1000 applications I can't imagine how I'd express my any genuine interest in any of them. Good luck, and please let us know how you get on.