by Nadine Odo

Created on: August 03, 2008

If you are among the masses of older Americans who are not yet retired but looking for a job, take heart. You're not alone, and there's hope. But first, you must make adjustments to your way of thinking and to your resume. Believe it or not, the two go together.

After decades of work experience, you're sure to have a long list of accomplishments. You're proud of the projects you were responsible for, how many employees you supervised, and the honors you earned. Well, now, for whatever reason, you're looking for a job. You've lovingly drafted, edited, and formatted your new resume, a full and complete reporting of your most masterful workplace successes. Unfortunately, for many of us, this will do nothing to help us find our next job.

First, you need to change your way of thinking. Sure, you were great at your job, but now you're older, which can be interpreted by employers as someone who is set in his ways, has outdated skill sets, is unable to work with younger people, and is nevertheless expecting a generous compensation package. Your resume could confirm these suspicions and keep you from getting that first interview. So look at yourself with a steely eye. How badly do you want a new job? And, what will are you willing to do to get it? You may need to obtain more recent training, and you may need to consider accepting a job that is less prestigious and offers fewer benefits.

Then do the same with your resume. Cut mercilessly. Knock off years of work experience from your resume and instead highlight the most recent 10 or 20 years. Depending on the job you're applying for, you'll need to tone down what you did at each job and limit your list of honors and awards. By the way, if you haven't applied for a job in a while, take note: No one should send the exact same resume to every job he applies to. You need to respond to each job opportunity with a personalized resume, addressing the requirements of the particular job.

After giving your resume a makeover, you could get some insight into how it will be received by the person who will be interviewing you someone who could be 20 or 30 years younger than you. Enlist a few younger people to take a serious look at your resume and listen to their advice carefully. Then you must make more changes to your resume. This process won't be easy, but it could very well lead to a new job, possibly in a new field, that will give you a fresh new start.

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