Ask HN: Laid off, frustrated, looking for advice

This is a combination of venting and looking for advice. It's a different account than my usual Hacker News, would like to be anonymous at this point since I'm looking for work.

I live in a large city in the Eastern time zone, 40+ years old, my most recent job was for 12+ years at the same place, 10+ in Java. I got laid off in May. Got my resume together, talked to some recruiters, the usual stuff. I've had a couple of nibbles, couple of interviews, but no offers so far. It seems my problem is that the assignments I was given was just regular Java coding, more back end than front end. Not much J2EE technologies, light on servlets, JSP, JSF. Also, the company didn't use Hibernate or JUnit. Basically, I don't have the fashionable skills. I have no doubt that I could pick them up quickly, but if I don't go in saying that I have actual experience with them then firms don't want to talk to me.

Here's an example of my frustration. Back in early June I sent my resume through a friend to a company they work at, they have an opening. I hear back that they're looking for someone with Google Web Toolkit experience, I don't have that, no luck. I talk to a recruiter in late July, I hear that the position at that company is still open. I could have learned GWT in six weeks, I think any decent developer, at least a decent Java developer, could have learned GWT in six weeks, but the position is still open and whatever project they want to do is stalled while they wait for the perfect candidate.