Back in the job market for an executive role? You may have encountered (or wondered about) potential age discrimination when putting yourself “out there” for an executive job search.

If you find yourself experiencing rejection in your job applications, the possibility of age discrimination may seem all too real.

Yet, it’s possible that you’re actually CALLING attention to your age – more so that your leadership qualifications.

Bottom-line, focusing on your executive brand will make the biggest difference to employers. This is particularly true if your work history includes the leadership skills valued in today’s market, such as cost control, team leadership, fiscal stewardship, contract negotiations, and technology expertise.

Consider these 5 ways to get a better reception from employers – and create an “age-proof” executive resume and LinkedIn Profile – if you believe age is working against you:

1 – Use the summarization technique to display your past leadership roles.

Most executives have held increasingly challenging roles at Director, VP, or SVP levels in the past, with career histories extending past the 20-year (or 30-year) mark.

While the career progression itself is important, here’s what employers really want to know: How often have you been promoted? What type of team, country, or P&L authority did you hold? What results did you achieve – and how did these results magnify over time?

In this example of an international CEO and President resume, the main focus is on profit results. With several infographics and charts, this executive’s personal brand message reflected strong cost and revenue improvements in every position.

At the end of the resume, however, earlier positions were shown with no dates—even though specific achievements were listed for these past roles. As a result, the candidate’s age is inferred, but not made obvious from the resume.

2 – Add earlier experience under the last job in your LinkedIn Profile.

While you may have taken steps to craft an executive resume that reflects your currency in the job market, how about your LinkedIn Profile?

The same way your leadership resume benefits from an age-positive strategy, you’ll need similar techniques on LinkedIn.
For example, your last job entry can contain several extra lines that spell out early-career work history:

** Additional Experience includes: Captain, U.S. Air Force: Promoted to high-ranking officer, based on ability to inspire leadership qualities, handle critical missions, and develop junior staff.

This technique allows you to benefit from the keyword hits on the previous positions (such as military experience, which is valued at many employers), without listing dates.

3 – Show your progression (important if your career was spent at a single employer).

Even if you’ve come through the ranks at a single employer for the past 20 to 30 years, hiring authorities are mostly interested in fresh, relevant experience.

Therefore, your last 3-5 positions at a VP, Director, or C-suite level should be highlighted as much as possible in your leadership resume – removing the focus from earlier roles.

This example of a CEO resume shows how to tell a story of progressive responsibility, even when 20+ years of experience are tied into a single employer.

Note that earlier, non-leadership roles are only evident from the overall date range, without details that would detract from the executive branding message.

4 – Be age-aware in crafting your Executive Summary.

A Professional Profile or Summary (on either your resume or LinkedIn Profile) must convey much more important details than years of experience.

Yet, many resumes tout “more than 20 years of experience” as a qualifier.Don’t resort to this technique!

Write your Summary with branded and power-packed language specific to the job you seek, rather than calling out your longevity, as in this example for a COO:

“Strategic & operational executive offering land development, real estate investment, master planning, and turnaround expertise. Negotiator and advisor to developments of significant environmental, community, and financial impact; accustomed to addressing Boards and stakeholders.”

5 – Maintain your focus on relevant facts, such as degrees (but not dates).

Even on your LinkedIn Profile, dates are not required for degree programs. (When entering your degree into LinkedIn, just skip the prompt to add dates of your attendance.)

In some fields such as engineering, degrees can be used to eliminate leadership candidates from consideration because the training is considered outdated.

If you’re unsure whether the graduation year on your resume and Profile is prompting age bias, try removing it – and note any differences in responses from employers.

Remember – employers are mostly focused on the need for adept leaders who can solve their business problems and maintain current knowledge.

For best results in your executive job search, showcase your ability to deliver results in times of mergers, industry changes, and cost-cutting, with less emphasis on the timing of your career milestones.

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Guess what? Older workers get jobs. It might take a little more time for a myriad of reasons from your salary demands to your own lack of imagination about the kind of work you’re applying for, but employers really aren’t out to shun workers over 50.

They do want grown-ups in the shop. We tend to be loyal, even-keeled, reliable. We bring intangibles to the workplace from experience to a vast network of connections. These are not something the whippersnapper cohort can even dream to do at this stage in their lives.

Sure there are all the niggling concerns many employers have, even if they don’t verbalize them, like you aren’t going to play well with younger workers (or bosses). You will only want to do things the way you have done them in the past. You’re a Luddite when it comes to technology. And shockingly, probably to you anyway, that you don’t have the grit anymore to really bring the energy and enthusiasm to the job.

And, let’s be honest, for some of you, they’re spot on. But I have realized from interviewing and counseling dozens upon dozens of jobseekers who are over 50 trying to find work in a variety of fields that the reason you don’t get tapped is because you are guilty of making core mistakes. I doubt any of these no-nos will startle you, but they are all, and I mean it, all worth remembering.

Here are my top 10 mistakes that over 50 job seekers who successfully find great jobs don’t make.

1. You’re LinkedIn-less.

If you’re serious, about job-hunting today, this is non-negotiable. A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 77 percent of employers are using social networks to recruit, a sharp increase from the 56 percent who reported doing so in 2011. Among the recruiters using social tools, 94 percent said they use LinkedIn.

Step up to the plate. Put together a profile. If the whole idea makes your fingers freeze, ask someone to help you who has done one. What’s cool is you can change it all the time, put on videos of speeches you’ve done, PowerPoint presentations, a video resume even.

Pick a great photo. LinkedIn profiles without headshots are like empty, soulless vessels. What the heck are you hiding? And please choose one that’s not blurry and shows you smiling, or at least looking approachable, energetic, and not one from a decade ago. The jig’s up when they meet you, and it makes you look silly to have tried to mask your age.

Write a professional headline that runs below your name on your profile. Make the most of those 120 characters. Tailor it to say exactly what you do, or the kinds of jobs you’re seeking. For instance, mine says, Expert/Author/Speaker. LinkedIn has a link for you to click and see what others in your industry are using. I recommend that you review profiles of other professionals in your field and see how they’ve portrayed their work. You might get ideas of keywords to enter in your description.

Search for people you know who work at firms where you might want to work, or you know are hiring, and send an invitation to connect to them. Ask if they can lend you a helping hand in some way.

2. Your resume sucks.

Sorry to be so blunt. You haven’t had to show anyone a resume in years. I get it. So you throw something together and think it’s clear to anyone who reads it how amazing you are, how top of the line, award-winning spectacular. But not everyone even knows the significance of your accolades.

The key is to rein your resume in to no more than two pages. Most recruiters will scan it in 20 or 30 seconds. Choose a traditional font, such as Times New Roman, in 9- to 12-point size, and use black type on white paper. Other fonts to consider are Arial, Calibri, Cambria and Tahoma.

Stick to the most recent 10 to 15 years of experience. Avoid giving dates when it comes to decades-old experience – and only include jobs if they’re relevant to the work you’re currently seeking. There’s no need for college graduation dates. Match the experience and skills you cite in your resume with the exact skills employers say they’re seeking in their job posting.

Your resume must tell a story, not provide a list of job titles and dates. Slide in short snippets such as you cut costs by a certain percentage, increased sales by 25 percent, or delivered project months ahead of schedule.

Proofread your resume. Of course, you do this, but it’s so easy to miss something. Print it out. Read it again the next day. Read it out loud. Ask someone else you trust to read it. Sloppy mistakes make it look like you’re careless and aren’t that interested in the job.

Finally, before you hit the send button on any electronic communication with a potential employer. Read your note again, out loud, just as you did with your resume. Beware of auto spellcheck programs. Those instant corrections can be really wrong.

3. You’re too cool to look needy.

Most people don’t really use their network to get a job. And the truth is people hire people they know, or people they know. This has been the case for ages. It’s human nature and the fear of making a bad hire makes employers extremely risk adverse, particularly in today’s work environment.

You have got to pick up the darn phone. Ask for help and advice. Networking, as I like to say, is just one letter off from not working. If you don’t establish any personal connection to the company, it’s probably a waste of time to even fill out the application.

Don’t be reticent about digging way back into your network even to colleagues you worked with three decades ago, or high school classmates, even parents of your kid’s friends. What’s the point of not taking advantage of all the years you have spent in the world – and all those whose lives have intersected with yours who might be in a position to help you?

Unless you were a real jerk to them, or incompetent, most people will want to help you. It makes them feel good. I love it when I can connect people to a possible opportunity, and I suspect most others do as well.

4. You are lazy.

Nope, no one is going to come looking for you. Get out of the door. If there’s a particular industry you’re interested in, join an association connected with it and seek out volunteer openings.

Go to industry and professional meetings and conferences. You never know who will know someone who is hiring. And many college and university career centers are reaching out to alumni to help too. You may be able to tap into career counseling, workshops on resume writing, job fairs, and retraining programs. Your nearby community college may have offerings, too.

5. You think you’re special.

Many of us hit our boomer years and we’re, well, cut from our own cloth. We can’t be pigeonholed into the daft job descriptions that employers post these days. Or the job that’s open is too narrow, too restrictive, something you were doing a decade or more ago.

And the pay is surely not high enough for all our experience. That may be true. And that’s hard to ignore. But perhaps there are ways you can ultimately negotiate for more flextime, vacation days, and other perks that can shore it up for you without losing face.

Employers know when you are looking for a job below your means. A new CareerBuilder survey of 5,518 job seekers and 2,775 hiring managers found that 18 percent of employers will eliminate candidates whose salary expectations are too high.

That said, I recommend that you don’t take the job description so literally. In reality, all jobs are a work in progress. A new video news organization may for instance, have an opening for an editor, but you’re an editor and a field producer. Don’t shy away from going after it if you really like the company and think it has the future to take off in the marketplace.

My experience is that there’s a good chance once you get in the door, you can make it your own and grow the position to fit your talents. Most jobs are organic. Nothing really is black and white, and if you can bring more to the party than an employer is bargaining for, all the better. Be willing to see future possibilities.

6. You don’t bring your “A” game to the interview.

You believe you’re more qualified than the person who is interviewing you. You cop an attitude, maybe without even realizing it. You might try to tell them why their job description is faulty in some way, or unrealistic, even.

If the person interviewing you is younger, you can come across as condescending or professorial. You might be resentful that you’re actually in this awkward position of having to come to their office hat in hand.

You don’t take the interview seriously and it shows because you haven’t done your homework on the person who is interviewing you, the company, the industry, its competitors. You think you’re there for them to get to know you, when really they want you to show them how much you know about them.

Prepping yourself isn’t that hard to do today with Google searches and all the other Internet sleuthing at your finger tips via employer web sites and Google Alerts.

You’re nervous and too proud to admit it, but it shows when you sit down for the interview. Since it has been so long since you’ve interviewed for a job this is to be expected. Calm down. Practice mock interviews with a friend (someone younger even). Videotape it, so you can see how to tweak your performance. Always remember to be yourself, sincere, straightforward. Keep it conversational. Focus on the company’s needs, not yours.

7. You look like hell.

If you aren’t physically fit, get with it. People will judge you by how you look regardless of how politically incorrect that may be. When you’re physically fit, it sends the message subliminally that you’re up for the job. You have a certain vibrancy and energy that people want to be around. I don’t mean you have to run a fast mile. You just need to be in shape. Eating a healthier diet will help you, too. You’re selling the entire package of who you are – not just your work experience and talent.

And, of course, get a great interview outfit, haircut, and manicure, shine your shoes and all that other superficial stuff. Always overdress.

8. You just don’t fit in.

You can have all the skills and experience in the world, but if you don’t fit into a company’s culture, you aren’t going to get the job and frankly, why would you want it? Consider this, 23 percent of employers will dismiss a candidate who is not a good fit for their company culture, according to CareerBuilder.

But my question is why would you want to work for a company that isn’t simpatico with your own values? You should check up on the employer to see, if, in fact, you can drink their kool aid cheerfully.

Be choosy about where you apply. Scattershot is not a proven method. Save yourself the rejection when a prospective employer figures out what you already know. You aren’t their type.

A web search for articles you can read about the company is step one. Visit the career help site, Themuse.com and GlassDoor.com, a site that runs write-ups by current or former employees. If the news is good, fantastic, it will ramp up your enthusiasm for your interview. If it sounds like a crummy place, to work, don’t waste your energy. There will be something better down the pike.

9. You wait for the phone to ring.

If you’re unemployed now, do something. Try volunteering for a nonprofit organization or do pro-bono work in a job that uses your skills.

Volunteering lets you network and potentially get your foot in the door with a future employer. It also fills in gaps of time that you’ve been out of work in your resume. It keeps it alive. And you never know, you might just meet someone who will lead you to a job opening elsewhere.

Then too, According to LinkedIn research, 42 percent of hiring managers surveyed say they view volunteer experience as equivalent to formal work experience. Plus, it’s good juju when you help someone else.

Search for prospects at VolunteerMatch.org, HandsOnNetwork.org and AARP’s Giving Back. Seek out nonprofits that need your particular professional expertise through Taproot Foundation, and the Executive Service Corps. Bridgespan.org runs an online job board for nonprofit positions. Idealist.org has a searchable database of both volunteer and paid positions.

10. You’re stuck in a moment and you can’t get out of it.

I love this line that Bono sings in the U2 song “Stuck in a Moment.” I think we can all relate to that conundrum. When it comes to landing a new job, so many people I talk to are so stuck in the idea that they need to replace the job they had before.

Not so. Look at your skill set and past experience as transferable to lots of different challenges and fields. If you’re switching industries, you’re redeploying skills you already have in place. Reframe your experience. You’re selling how your knowledge base and skills can solve business problems in the future regardless of the employer or even the specific job description.

11. You have flat-lined intellectually.

When is the last time you bolstered your brain by learning something new, really new? If you can show a hiring manager that you’re taking classes, a workshop, working toward a professional certification, it shows that you are not stuck in your ways and are willing to learn new things. It’s smart to look at the specific requirements of the jobs you’re applying for. If you don’t have the prerequisite proficiencies, add them right now. Sure you can probably dance your way in an interview by saying you are a fast learner, but I recommend that you just take the time and check it off your list. You might even be able to take a course online.

Finally, here are some ideas of where to look for employers that value older workers. AARP offers this list of the best employers for workers over 50: 2013 AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50. Also check out the websites that are geared to older workers such as RetirementJobs.com, Retired Brains and Workforce50.com.

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In 2011, I was an account executive with Scor Global Life Americas Reinsurance Company, in Plano, Tex., near where I live. When Scor acquired Transamerica Reinsurance, I was laid off along with several other people that October.

At that point I called Mike Pado, a former colleague at Scor who had left the company several months earlier for a job as president and C.E.O. of Aurigen USA Holdings. Aurigen is based in Bermuda, and Mike had been hired to look at starting a life reinsurance company in the United States.

Mike, who works out of Red Bank, N.J., was still in the planning stages for the new venture when I spoke to him. He said that at some point he’d need a person who knew the reinsurance industry and its top executives and could contact them for a snapshot of the United States market. He knew I fit that bill. But he was hoping that the person he hired would also be an actuary. I’m familiar with risk assessment and risk management in that field, but I’m not an actuary. So besides my age, I was worried about that.

I had done a good job at Scor for 12 years, and I was disappointed that I had been laid off. My level of anxiety was fairly high. The Aurigen venture sounded like a great opportunity if it worked out. But the business world often has certain misperceptions about workers 55 and older. Some people think we’re set in our ways, we don’t have the energy we used to have, or that we’ve lost our drive. They may worry about offering us a lower salary than we earned previously. I knew I’d have to address these concerns when job-hunting.

I told Mike I was interested in working for him, and we left it that we’d stay in touch while he continued to develop a business plan and consider a staff for the United States company. In the meantime, I sent out 300 résumés. I heard back from about a third of the companies and had about 12 or 15 interviews, but no luck.

By June 2012, eight months after Mike and I first talked, I still hadn’t found a job. Then Mike called and said he could offer me a three-month position as a marketing consultant, and that we’d see what happened after that. I was excited, but a consulting job was not ideal for me. I told him I would do the best job I could for him but would continue looking for a staff job with benefits, and he understood.

Consulting works well for people who like short-term projects and freedom, but I’ve always liked having a staff job. I like the feeling of belonging, and benefits are important.

I started talking to executives right away to gather the information Mike wanted and help him determine whether there was room for another entrant in the United States life reinsurance industry. I spoke to a vice chairman, 11 company presidents, 25 chief actuaries and 30 life underwriters and sent Aurigen’s annual report to customers and others, sometimes with a handwritten note.

My work helped Mike make a case to his board that another United States life reinsurance company could do well. In October I got the news that Mike’s proposal had been accepted. He was finally able to hire me as an account executive on staff for his new-business development team. I was able to stay in Texas for my new job at Aurigen.

Right after hiring me, Mike had me join him and the Aurigen pricing team at the October 2012 conference of the Society of Actuaries in Washington. Many industry executives attend, and I’d help sell prospective clients on the benefits of working with the new venture.

When word got out that I’d been hired, my former colleagues gave me a warm reception, which was nice. Several welcomed me back to the industry, and one asked about my sales territories. It felt great to know that I hadn’t been forgotten.

Rather than start a new company from scratch, Mike began looking at United States insurance companies to buy, choosing one that Aurigen closed on and renamed this past spring.

Some people might have no problem retiring after being laid off at 59. Maybe they tell themselves it’s not what they would have wanted, but they make the best of it. Or maybe they are ready to retire, so it turned out to be perfect timing. I’ll be 61 in September, but I want to keep working, so getting a chance at this job worked out well for me.

It’s easy to get depressed about being an older job seeker. You have to keep your eyes open, stay focused, and be open to possibilities. You never know when and how an opportunity may come along.

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Introducing the 2013 winners of the AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 award, cosponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management, a biennial program that recognizes employers with exemplary practices for recruiting and retaining mature workers.

1. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
2. Scripps Health
3. Atlantic Health System
4. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
5. Mercy Health System
6. The YMCA of Greater Rochester
7. West Virginia University
8. Bon Secours Virginia
9. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
10. WellStar Health System
11. Cornell University
12. West Virginia University Hospitals
13. George Mason University
14. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
15. Monongalia General Hospital
16. S&T Bank
17. Virginia Commonwealth University
18. FCCI Insurance Group
19. TriHealth Inc.
20. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
21. Stanley Consultants Inc.
22. Southern Company
23. Yale-New Haven Hospital
24. Michelin North America Inc.
25. Department of Veterans Affairs-Veterans Health Administration
26. Saint Vincent Health System
27. Cianbro Corporation
28. SSM Health Care
29. Solix Inc.
30. Mountain States Health Alliance
31. Central Florida Health Alliance
32. Securian Financial Group
33. One Nevada Credit Union
34. Swarthmore College
35. MEI Technologies Inc.
36. School Board of Brevard County
37. Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center
38. Tufts Health Plan
39. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
40. Coconino County
41. Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind
42. BlueCross and BlueShield of North Carolina
43. Ochsner Health System
44. University of Pittsburgh
45. American University
46. Lee County Electric Cooperative
47. Massachusetts General Hospital
48. Pinnacle Health System
49. Perkins Coie LLP
50. CheapCaribbean.com

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If you were born between 1946 and 1964, you are known as a Baby Boomer and you are somewhere between 46 and 64. In my practice, I work with a multi-generational client base, including many Boomers.

If you are 25, 35, 45, 56, 64, 74, or 84, in my opinion, you are not too old to find w – o – r – k or a j – o – b as long as you have:

* the drive to do so;
* the will to want to;
* and the guts and the grit to go fishing in a competitive, global, turbulent, and ever-evolving pond!

And should you elect to cast your line into X, Y, or Z waters, perhaps you will check your tackle box for the right bait:

1. Passion! Let others see it, hear it, feel it, get it, notice it, enjoy it!
2. Energy!Act like you have some and lots of it! Do not yawn during interviews or tell people how tired you are or that you are exhausted.
3. Enthusiasm! Bring it, show it, offer it, deliver it!
4. Let It Go! Don’t look back at what didn’t go your way; instead, today is a new day.
5. Think differently! Instead of thinking about your age and how ‘old’ you are, why not reconsider that you’re ‘still above ground’ and that you have an immense body of talent to share!
6. Engage! Connect with purpose and intention; add an abundance of the above numbers 1, 2, 3 into conversation to keep the listener listening!
7. Attire/Appearance! Dress professionally, appropriately and well for the job you want. Maybe it’s time for that makeover you’ve been thinking about!
8. Attitude! While you cannot control your age, you can control your attitude; how will the employer gauge yours?
9. Language! Carefully select the best words to deliver the message you wish to convey about yourself, your brand. Figure this out ahead of time so you have specific ideas of what you would like to share about yourself in support of the j – o – b you would like.
10. Technology! Instead of saying ‘something a bird does’ if you’re asked about a ‘tweet’, educate yourself about social media and its impact on job search. Do not take yourself out of the game because of technology — you are never too old or too young to learn!
11. Partner/Collaborate. Learn from all ages of people. Regardless of your generation, learning is learning.
12. Volunteer! Whether you’re employed or unemployed and 22 or 82, helping others and serving others knows no age.
13. Experiment! Try something new; try something different; take a calculated risk and see what you learn; see where it takes you!
14. Keep dreaming! Dreaming doesn’t stop because you turn ___ (fill in age), unless you let it! Whether you are 22 or 73, build a bucket list and start doing!
15. Stay active! As long as you are able, stay active always and in all ways!

Consider the wisdom of George Eliot: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

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The demand for finance-executive talent is slowly reviving.

After more than a year of dormancy, the job market for finance executives is showing signs of life. “The market is definitely coming back,” says E. Peter McLean, chairman of the financial officers practice at Korn Ferry International. “There are a good number of high-level, big positions in the market that weren’t around last year.” Walter Williams, a finance recruiter at Amrop Battalia Winston, says his firm won more assignments in March than in any other month going back more than a year.

As the open positions are filled, the usual domino effect should kick in, says McLean, as other finance chiefs move into newly vacated positions and leave more open slots in their wake. Still, as with so many other aspects of the economy today, the road ahead for the CFO market is not entirely clear. Williams says a large number of finance executives are not ready to jump to a new position yet, even though they may be unhappy.

And confidence among executive recruiters has slipped in the past few months, according to a survey by ExecuNet, an executive-networking company. While 64% of recruiters in the January survey said they were confident or very confident that the executive-employment market would improve in the next six months, only 53% reported such confidence in the most recent survey, conducted in March.

But it’s still a far cry from the period between December 2008 and October 2009, when the market for CFOs was “totally dead,” says Williams. Some firms, anticipating a return to growth, are starting to look for fresh talent to lead them through the recovery. Whether a company will switch finance chiefs will depend in part on the way its current CFO approached the recession and the belt-tightening that went with it, says Williams. A company whose finance chief was forced to make overly draconian cuts “may need someone without that legacy,” he says.

One item on the résumé that will help finance executives land new roles when they are ready to look around — in addition to a strong track record of thoughtful leadership during the recession — is a background in mergers and acquisitions, says Williams. With many firms looking to scoop up weakened competitors, deal-making skills will be an important qualification for finance chiefs.

What will ultimately give CFOs and boards the confidence to make a change? “We need to see new top-line growth,” answers Williams. “We’ll see what happens this earnings season.” With many CFOs feeling overworked and underappreciated, he says, “when the dam does break, there will be an awful lot of turnover.”

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