Careers often are evaluated on their momentum rather than on static criteria. Employers are especially conscious of where a candidate's career is going based on recent job titles and accomplishments, and those who can't show progressive movement are at a distinct disadvantage.

Technology also has increased employers' scrutiny of a job hunter's career. Many companies now seek candidates who have been successful in Internet ventures and are familiar with hot new computer programs.

Employers' preferences for careers on the upswing favor younger candidates with less impressive job titles over older ones with long tenures in executive positions. This makes it difficult for downsized executives to find new positions, especially if their responsibilities were reduced recently.

Besides age-proofing their resumes by eliminating jobs held before a specific date (1978 is a good cut off), mature job hunters need new attitudes.

Under the pressure of unemployment, many people revert back to a time when they were more valued in the workplace. This attitude is reflected in their resumes, which emphasize their most significant accomplishments, regardless of when they occurred. But listing major accomplishments of days long past often makes a career look like it's over.

Consider a marketing executive whose team chose the name for a successful laptop in the mid 80's. He made this accomplishment the centerpiece of his resume, allowing it to dominate its summary and most of the first page. Then he de-emphasized his age by leaving dates off the first page and providing a shortened chronology of his positions and dates of employment at the end of the second page.

His resume didn't work for a number of reasons. The laptop's name was well-known, making his attempt to hide employment dates unsuccessful. In addition, the prominence of his laptop accomplishment on the resume took space away from other achievements. This marketing executive believed what he'd done in the mid-80's was so important that employers would overlook the subsequent years. But his resume generated few interviews. In fact, it had the unintended effect of convincing employers that he did something impressive 10 years ago but had accomplished little since.

On a revised resume, he diminished the importance of the laptop-naming project and focused attention on his current analytic and project-management skills. The first page of his new resume was devoted to more recent accomplishments, and the laptop project was the last bullet on the page. Placed here, it was seen as an example of his skills rather than his crowning achievement.

Sometimes revising a resume is as simple as removing specifics of a previous accomplishment. In a former job, an executive director of a community center had raised $6 million to build an arts center in a large city. He'd organized hundreds of volunteers and supervised a staff of more than 50 employees. On paper, his current job responsibilities looked meager compared to those of 12 years ago.

By quantifying only his recent achievements, this job hunter was able to overcome the impression that his career was winding down. He wanted more organizational and less fundraising responsibilities, so he de-emphasized the arts center by eliminating dollar amounts raised and focused on his work with community constituency groups.

Consider the direction of your career as reflected in your resume. If you find yourself dwelling on the past, you could be hurting your chances of landing an interview. Be specific about recent accomplishments and vague about former ones, especially if they're more impressive. Your goal is to portray yourself as an up-and-coming candidate who's focused on the future. You should spend your energy explaining how your recent accomplishments relate to what you can do for a new company. A resume that's looking toward the future also helps improve interview techniques. Learning to market your present skills rather than your past glories will ensure your career is headed in the right direction.