Your experience probably counted for a lot though. 55 years old and you may just be at your mental peak - with tons of experience that comes with it. That's (for some) an ideal situation to go into consulting or starting your own company.
I am very risk averse so I would never have done the consulting gig it had not been to beat the depression after being laid off and that useless feeling sitting at home even if I was financially okay.
Also my experience and contacts certainly helped - LinkedIn was farking useless.
