The 60-year-old had more than 40 years of experience in retail before he and his wife lost their jobs amidst the pandemic’s effect on the economy in April.

He felt recruiters saw him as ‘dead’ because of his age and wanted to prove that ‘not all 60-year-olds are grey-haired gardeners or sit around drinking tea or watching sport all day’.

Mr Marks, from Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire, has been a chief operating officer, a managing partner and an operations director and has worked in India, Dubai and Spain.

In the video that has racked up 700,000 views, the father-of-two can be seen doing six press-ups while fully dressed in a suit before he addresses the camera.

He introduces himself, says he has over 40 years experience and says he does between 40 and 50 press-ups a day and runs 30K a week.

Then he tells the camera his 60th birthday is coming up in two weeks before talking about how the pandemic has affected the country.

He says: ‘And by the way those 40 press-ups and 30K are not my way of showing how fit I may or may not be.

‘It’s my way of saying that not all 60-year-olds are grey-haired gardeners or sit around drinking tea or watching sport all day.

‘Not that I’m adverse to either.

‘I’m returning to the UK after a number of years of living and working abroad and I’m finding it impossible to speak to recruiters face-to-face.

‘Even informally over a cup of coffee.

‘The fact is that the complexity and, to a degree, the necessity of the way in which online recruitment works these days means that it’s difficult for people like me to get past what feels a little bit like selection by algorithm.

‘I need to meet people. So this is my call to action. My way of introducing myself to recruiters who might be put off by my age.’

He asks employers to think about the value of his many years of experience and asks them to connect with him on LinkedIn or ‘better still’ phone him.

Mr Marks said he decided to do the video after being inspired by his own challenge to be able to do 60 press-ups and run 60km by his 60th birthday yesterday.

He said: ‘What if I combine the press-ups with a call to action?

‘I wondered if I could do the press-ups in my suit. It was a bit tight after I put on some covid weight, but I managed it.

‘Because I’d been doing the press-ups as part of the challenge, I was confident about physically doing them but I was nervous because I thought people might think I was a bit of a twit.’

The father of two said he has ‘nothing but his house’ and is looking for a job at any level in retail management.