This is some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. I highly recommend that you follow the link and read this article by Liz Ryan.
Here is an excerpt:
If you’re a job-seeker of a certain age and you’re not having an easy time of it, worries about age discrimination could sink your mojo to the point that it’s hard even to keep trying. I encourage you not to give up, and here’s why: there’s a solution to the age discrimination problem.
It isn’t legislative – we already have laws on the books! It isn’t an enforcement solution, either. That’s an expensive waste of your time and a mojo-crushing experience, only to be used when the discrimination is egregious and overt (a/k/a easy to prove). For the rest of us, the solution is practical.
It’s unlawful to reject a job-seeker because s/he’s over forty, but it’s perfectly legal to decline to hire someone because he or she is Capricorn, a knitter or a Broncos fan. It’s legal to refuse to hire someone because he’s Republican or because she’s vegan. You can say to a job-seeker “You’re too ugly to work for me” without breaking any laws. In other words, older job-seekers aren’t the only ones being discriminated against. We’re all in the same boat. We hurt ourselves emotionally and operationally when we let an amorphous bogeyman like Age Discrimination slow us down. We can’t afford to do that. We have to remember that we’re more powerful than any obstacle in our way, and find an argument compelling enough that hiring managers can’t ignore it. [The complete article is great read it here]