we just hired a guy in his mid 40s to do sysadmin work. apparently he had been out of work for over a year. turns out he worked with someone we know 3 jobs ag

we just hired a guy in his mid 40s to do sysadmin work. apparently he had been out of work for over a year. turns out he worked with someone we know 3 jobs ago, completely randomly (didn't find out until the interview). we snapped him up right quick as his salary requirements were relaxed because of his work hiatus. even 10k/year makes a huge difference when you're a small firm. that's $1-2k/month when you factor in payroll tax and healthcare. would we have hired him if he didn't know that guy? i would be lying if i said i knew for sure. but we have other > 35 year olds on the team, so there's a good chance. but it certainly helped. either way, great hire so far. certainly increases the chance of us hiring more > 40 folks in the future (all the founders are < 30) lesson to me is always be on good terms with the poeple you work with, you never know when an old colleague will put in a good word for you in the future, and under what circumstances.