IMdir@ has it right....I have an MBA and BBA...was out of work from 2001 until 2006...went out and acquired the MCSE, CISSP, CompTIA Prjt Mgmt+, Network+, Security+ and A+ certs in 2006 at my expense... to also try and overcome the 'stale' and 'not current' label' that the HR folks kept alluding too....mattered not, here it is 2012 and still no job...the facts of the matter are that the I turned '50' the month after we were all outsourced in 2001 and its the incredible amount of HR age discrimination that is going on that keeps me unemployed.... In a 25+ year IT career I never was out of work until I turned 50...Now I am suddenly stupid and unusable!....I have made the 'final two' out of hundreds of applicants at least 10 times these past years...only to have the 30 something with an exact same skill set get the job!! HR can lie all they want...they dont want older workers on their medical plans, and they might have to pay them a few bucks more (might!) ...they dont want ya in IT if your coming in over 50!