Ask the expert: Employers keep rejecting my CV

I have been shortlisted four times for a job, each time losing out to someone with less experience, and younger than me, and have been out of work now for many months.

Having sent my CV to several recruitment consultancies, I have been interviewed, filled out countless forms, and been advised by consultants that they "have nothing suitable at the moment, but please keep checking our website".

The results of my many psychometric tests show that I am 'extremely bright, determined, persistent and have a good sense of humour'. I have been advised that my presentation is superb and that I am elegant and articulate. I'm very much a self-starter and my CV reflects that I have started and grown several businesses, and that I have great sales and marketing skills.

I would really appreciate some professional advice regarding how I can secure a suitable position. There must be some employers out there who recognise the value in employing an experienced, mature person.

While your CV highlights your drive, personal characteristics, and business history, it does little to set out the specific skills and abilities you have developed that might allow a potential employer to identify your talent against their requirements.

Put your sales and marketing hat on, with you as the "product"; what would a potential employer need to know about you to shortlist and "buy" you? Certainly your attitude and intelligence are part of this, and you have grown revenues in your prior positions, these are all to your credit.

But you appear to be looking for management roles; potential employers may want to know about your ability to manage budgets, personnel and profitability, not just revenue growth. And they may be concerned about your goal setting and planning, as well as knowledge of regulatory and employment requirements, among other things. You may need to redevelop your CV to highlight your management abilities, in addition to your entrepreneurial and sales skills. This is particularly important as you have been working in a very specialised industry for the last four to five years, and you will need to demonstrate that you have skills that are transferable to a new area of employment, rather than limited to the industry that you have worked in most recently.

You seem to be concerned as well that your age may count against you in the job search. Many employers do appreciate mature and experienced workers, but there are stereotypes of older employees that you may confront as well. As a candidate, it is difficult to judge why you are not being hired, but the assumption that a younger candidate always has less relevant experience may not be valid. You have, after all, been shortlisted for these four positions, and from the length of the job experience and the personal details that you list, your approximate age was known before you interviewed.

The international research even suggests that for managerial posts, age may be an asset. Again, there are ways of highlighting aspects of your CV (technology literacy, energy and ambition) that help to counter any negative stereotypes about age and aging. It may be worth a call to your interviewers to see if there are areas where you fell short.

Another aspect of your CV which also triggers stereotypes is that you have been largely self-employed for much of your recent career. Employers may assume that you are used to complete autonomy and do not have the required skills for managing within an organization where you are not the boss, and where you may be called on to work in team or project based teams that you do not control.

Again, you can work to counter this set of assumptions in your CV by highlighting your successes in teamwork, negotiation and influence both in your own businesses and when you have been employed in others. Some non-work examples may help in this respect as well. You can also promote what having owned your own business will enable you to do in someone else's business, by bringing forward that keen awareness for market opportunity.

I realise that you are keen to move on, and - as a successful salesperson - you are not accustomed to being repeatedly rejected, but managerial job searches often take six to nine months. Your energy and ambition may accelerate this process somewhat, coupled with some revision of your CV, should help.