An effective résumé for will balance your strengths (i.e. what you can teach) with your areas for growth (i.e. what you can learn). In regards to the latter, I’m certainly not suggesting you claim ignorance. Rather, consider showing a recently developed interest in a new industry or field.

This is best done by illustrating how you’ve already begun exploring said interest and uprgrading your skills related to this area. Some quick methods to achieve this are as follows:

• weekend or short-term certification course
• self-study (visit a bookstore)
• subscription to trade journals
• membership with a professional organization
• online group affiliations such as with LinkedIn
• internships or apprenticeships
• guided tours (say of an alternative energy plant).

By showing on your resume that you’re enthusiastic about injesting a new flavor of work/life, you’ll present yourself as a hungry, invigorated job candidate who’s not even close to peaking in her career.

Stay on the BrightSide.

You read correctly: Career expenses, including fees incurred for career counseling, professional resume writing, and job-search coaching, are tax-deductible for everone with only a few exceptions:

Your are NOT eligible for career-related tax deductions if:

1. You’re looking for your very first job
2. You’re looking for a job in a different line of work
3. You’re looking for a job after a substantial break from your last job

Otherwise, you’re golden.

According to IRS Publication 529–which deals primarily with job-search expenses–a job seeker can deduct certain expenses related to looking for a new job, EVEN IF he/she never actually lands a new job. These expenses should be listed as “miscellaneous itemized deductions” on Schedule A (Form 1040)

Check with Publication 529 from the IRS to see just how much you’re allowed to deduct.

Among the approved expenses are

• Resume Services. Eligible fees include costs to pay a professional to develop your resume as well as paper, ink, and mailing expenses.
• Career Consultants & Outplacement Agencies. Hourly charges and packaged prices for personal assessments, counseling, coaching, consulting, advice-giving, and the like are all tax deductible.
• Travel & Relocation Expenses. Any trips, including international trips, airfare, hotels, and car rentals are tax deductible as long as they’re related to your job search. Relocation expenses for a family move are acceptable as well as long as it’s due to your job situation changing. Even the (overpriced) gas you put in your car and your mileage is fair game–if only to drive across town for an interview. Check IRS Publication 463 for more on these rates.

The government wants you to get back to work doing what you do best to make a contribution at the city, state, and/or national level.

Take them up on their offer. Hire a professional to help sort you out and expedite your journey back to employment.

Stay on the BrightSide.

The key is recognizing and remembering that your work experience can play a *supportive* role as well as a leadership role with organizations. The two need not be mutually exclusive.

If you’re over 50, you’ve probably had the experience of being labeled as overqualified. And in response to this unwanted job-search slur, you’ve probably done what any intelligent, ambitious individual would do: Dumb yourself down (on your résumé, at the very least).

A good move but what’s this do to your career confidence?

If today’s market is telling you repeatedly via carefully worded form-letter rejection emails, “We don’t care about your lifetime achievements or your obsolete business management model”, it’s no wonder a breech in your armor develops.

As an “over 50″ job candidate, you have a unique challenge to grapple with–and unfortunately this wrestling match often occurs in a very public arena: The Interview.

The main event?: A paradoxical tug of war which stems out of your being told you’re overqualified but feeling dramatically underqualified.

You’re overqualified because of the simple length of your resume, the style of your suit, color of your hair, and lingo in your business repertoire–or so they tell you.

You’re underqualified because you may lack some understanding of today’s rapidly evolving technologies, flattened infrastructure, and business culture.

As you sit there in the interview staring back at your Gen X boss-to-be in his hybrid sneaker-sandals and ironic T-shirt, you’re torn between standing up and screaming “I could do your job in my sleep” and humbly whispering “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Coming to terms with this paradox (before you enter the interview) is an essential component to building back your career confidence.

The next step–and no small feat–is to figure out how your strengths (i.e. what you can teach) *as well as* your weaknesses (i.e. what you can learn) match up with your targeted companies. It’s important to know both of these aspects of your professional self prior to your job search, and it’s important to know how to present them to your next employer—on paper and in person.

Stay on the BrightSide.

• I am too old
• I’ve never managed anyone directly
• I don’t have Microsoft Excel experience
• I have a job gap from 2002-2004

You’ll never see these above items on a resume because the purpose of the resume is to put your best foot (or feet) forward and to downplay your potential weaknesses.

Adding an easy reference to your age is the same thing as saying “I am an older adult.” Unfortunately, this can be viewed as a weakness by many hiring managers and recruiters.

Let me be clear: Don’t put your graduate date down unless it’s within the last 10 years or will be obtained within the next 2 years. As long as you have dates for your experience, your candidacy will not be dismissed simply for leaving out a graduation date.

Recruiters may tell you to include the graduation date and to “just be direct and honest about your age” but they don’t have as much to lose–that being the interview, your interview. And your interview is your chance to help the hiring manager get past his/her prejudices. Everyone limits him or herself through stereotypes–which originate as part of basic survival skills. People—all people—generalize and categorize to make their life easier (and in some cases safer). And we all miss out on great opportunities by holding to these beliefs.

Recruiters succeed because of their talent in matchmaking, which is why they’ll encourage you to include your age (so that you can find an employer who prefers hiring older workers and a true-love match can be found). Just remember, that some employers may need a little more help in seeing the match. Oftentimes older workers’ enthusiasm, loyalty, and work ethic far exceed that of the younger competition but it’s only in the interview where these attributes can truly shine.

As long as your skills are updated, your mind is open, your ego is checked, and your health is satisfactory–you’ll win the employer over in the long run.

Stay on the BrightSide.

Lying on the resume isn’t the issue here.

From listening to you say you’ve applied to 1000+ jobs and are willing to take any job from a director to a security guard, you’ve got me thinking you’re not sure what you want to do next.

This lack of commitment to a defined career is most likely coming through as a symptom on your resume and perhaps in the interview. Hiring managers hate having to figure out what it is you’d like to do with your life and career. They want you to tell them, flat out from the beginning. And they want you to have the evidence (i.e. your past accomplishments) to back up your proposal.

It’s not going to matter if you lie or not on the resume if it’s unclear what type of position you want to obtain in the first place. And simply changing the “objective” is not enough. Your entire resume needs to be focused on one (or a handful at most) job goal(s).

And, by the way, it’s fine to desire a job just for the paycheck. We all have responsibilities to take care of. But if this is the case, are the jobs for which you’re applying addressing your other values such as a shorter commute, flex time for family, working with like-minded people, securing benefits, or teaching you a new skill?

If not, the employer knows something you don’t: You’ll be leaving your new job within a few months. Or worse, you’ll stay at your job and just be going through the motions with very little, if any, enthusiasm for the work. In either case, the employer will regret hiring you and you’ll regret taking the position.

So, in light of this information, I’m asking: When was the last time that you applied for a job you really wanted?

1. Two pages plus. As an executive, it’s okay to submit a résumé of more than two pages. In fact, 4. executive résumés may comfortably reach 3 or more full pages in order to accurately portray your breadth of experience, progression of job responsibility, and repertoire of conferences, publications, affiliations, and the like. Keep in mind, companies often pay executive search firms upwards of $50K to fill a position; they’re not anxious to waste more time and money on phone screens which is why your hyper-detailed professional profile will be appreciated.

2. In Summary. Since you have more years’ experience to cover and inevitably more accomplishments, you’ll need to both highlight and summarize your most relevant and impressive achievements in an introductory section at the top of the résumé—a section that may stretch to a half a page or more. Make sure to point to earlier accomplishments that may be “buried” page two or three and possibly go unnoticed. A solid introduction is essential to set the tone of your résumé and provide a big picture perspective on your far-reaching career.

3. Beyond bullet points. Two-line bullet points are not always sufficient to encompass an executive’s multi-faceted accomplishments. An effective résumé will utilize the CARE strategy often suggested as an interviewing technique: Explain the Challenges you faced, the Actions taken, the Result of your actions, and a brief Evaluation of the outcome. In short, you want your résumé to tell a story—your story—with believable characters, a compelling plot, and a cliffhanger ending, if possible.

4. Business casual. Since you’ll be boasting the accomplishments of the company and depending on infrastructure, the rest of your leadership team—and because you’re developing stories, not abbreviated fast facts, it’s okay to utilize taboo first-person pronouns and possessive pronouns such as I, my, we, and our. Using such verbiage is an excellent way to show ownership, leadership, teamwork, and intellectual collaboration.

5. In the company of others. Executives have a direct influence on the direction, value, and standing of their company. For this reason, company profiles are an essential component to an executive résumé since they can cover overall revenue, size, history, breadth of leadership, viability, market share, growth, partnerships, and fiscal potential—all elements that reflect directly on you and your peers.

6. Reasons for leaving. Résumés purposely refrain from divulging disparaging information about employers. However, since the company’s status links to your success, it’s often mandatory to explain your reasons for leaving and/or the unfortunate decline of a particular venture. Best to present the truth, however unfavorable, rather than fall prey to the limited imagination of a busy hiring team. Besides, there are always methods of gauging your success beyond revenue generation.

7. Building an empire. Executives are responsible for hiring decision-makers and other major players in an organization such as vice presidents, officers, and senior directors. These hires make or break a company which is why it’s usually advantageous to (briefly) mention who you’ve hired, what they’ve accomplished, and how quickly they’ve progressed within the company or field.

8. It’s who knows you. What’s better than hiring an ultra-qualified executive? Hiring an ultra-connected executive. In addition to demonstrating your ability to build inter- and intra company alliances, your résumé should allude to your current business contacts, particularly those who can and will access their own network to your new venture’s benefit.

9. Soft skills, hard sell. Executives should complement their numerically-driven accomplishments with evidence of useful intangible qualities such as emotional self-control, intuition, foresight, interpersonal flexibility, persuasiveness, diplomacy, innovation, and a versatile communication style. Executives aren’t merely hired for what they’ve done but rather who they have influenced and how.

10. Tooting your horn. Listing awards and honors received within a company is tempting but such a declaration may prove harmful. As an executive, your rewards occur outside the walls of the company, such as in the stock market or within a press clipping. Leave the cubicle commendations to your hard-working employees.

11. Watch your tone. Although not often mentioned in a job description, hiring managers seek leaders who possess inherent personality traits such as integrity, charisma, optimism, self-efficacy, and directness. In reaching executive status, you’ve already demonstrated such qualities in your work, but does your résumé reflect a similar tone?