And it went well!
MetLife is launching a program specifically to bring in people who have taken off 2+ years from work. I just happened to find out about it because a friend got a (regular) job there recently. These jobs are 10-week internships that can become permanent. What an amazing idea - I reckon they’ll be more comfortable taking a chance on hiring an ex-lawyer who last worked a decade ago on the hope that my smarts and transferable skills might be useful to them, since there are no strings attached.
So I just talked to the recruiter, and it sounded like this might really work out. We’ll see what the hiring manager says now.
Wish me luck!
(Oh and if anyone is interested, the internships are listed on their jobs board with the notation “Act2.” And evidently they’re following the lead of other big companies that have done something similar, so there should be other opportunities out there as well.)