Bob, I have been a CIO and Director of Information Systems and now I am unemployed and 60 years old. I don't want to retire but the job market is either very bleak or my resume makes my age too obvious; I'm getting no response to my inquiries except the usual "we will file your resume for one year." Assuming that my suspicions are true, do you have any advice for someone of my age?&nb Bob,I have been a CIO and Director of Information Systems and now I am unemployed and 60 years old. I don’t want to retire but the job market is either very bleak or my resume makes my age too obvious; I’m getting no response to my inquiries except the usual “we will file your resume for one year.” Assuming that my suspicions are true, do you have any advice for someone of my age? I’ve been out of work for a while and I’m thinking about getting Java certified just to make some money.– I’m Not THAT old! Dear Yes You Are …The short answer is, yes. Assuming you’d actually like the advice, too, here it is: Look for positions where your age will be an asset.CIO is one of those positions. The problem is that there just aren’t that many CIO positions available, and the competition for them is intense. You could be facing age discrimination, with-that-much-experience-he’ll-cost-us-too-much discrimination, he-hasn’t-worked-in-our-industry discrimination, or he’s-missing-a-key-buzzword-on-his-resume discrimination. It doesn’t matter: The purpose of a resume these days is to filter you out.So the first thing to check is whether you’re approaching your job hunt the right way – as an exercise in strategic selling. If you’re reading the classifieds, sending your resume to HR and so forth you’re cutting your chances of success by about 90% – the percentage of jobs that aren’t filled that way. The right way to search is to network: Call your friends, family, acquaintances, and everyone you know in the industry and ask them who they know who they’d be willing to introduce you to who might be interested in hiring a new CIO (which is to say, you’re looking for introductions to CEOs and CFOs). Call those people and ask the same question.With everyone you talk to, ask if you can have a half-hour of their time to get acquainted, with a goal of finding out who they know who might be worth contacting (not with a goal of getting hired – that will come later). In that half-hour, do the job. Which is to say, ask what kind of issues they have with their IT, tell them the problem sounds familiar, talk about how you’ve solved it in the past. At the end of the half hour, ask if they know anyone you should be talking to. (This is the short version – for the full account, go to www.asktheheadhunter.com – the definitive site for the modern IT job-seeker. It will be well worth your time.)Next: Are you defining yourself too narrowly? Broaden your search to logical extensions of what you’ve done in the past – in particular, consulting, high-end project management, and IT sales. The search process is the same. Only your targets are different.And finally, keep an ear to the ground for companies that have terminated their CIO. Call the CEO’s office immediately to offer your services as an interim CIO until they find a permanent replacement. I know a few folks who started doing this just to fill in and who swear they’ll never go back to regular employment again. You’re in a tough and competitive sales situation at the moment. Failing to view yourself as a product and your situation as a sales challenge will make it a lot tougher than it has to be.Good luck.– Bob ——– Technology Industry