Not so much. Unless you are at a level that really does require that many years of experience – EVP, CIO, CTO, CEO, you are def competing w/ 25 – 30 y/o MBA’s, 35 y/o managers, 35-45 y/o directors – at least in high tech. Specialists,Analysts, Coordinators, Admins, Desk support – most employers want someone younger. (cheaper, trainable) One of the questions is – why aren’t you further along than this now? (other form of this question might be, why would you want this job at this time?)

RE: employers wanting employees to stay – new reality is not more than about 7-10 years. At that point the new employer wants to know why no one else snapped you up. Or why you didn’t want other opportunities. Or why you didn’t move up in old company. 3-5 years considered more the norm esp in jobs below director. Employers def don’t want you to stick around for 15-20 years ‘coz they perceive you get too expensive. They are not real amenable to your taking less pay ‘coz they perceive you will either be unhappy or leave at the first opportunity. They def don’t want you to retire from this job. There’s that nasty Age Discrimination Act thing and well, it just gets riskier to have a worker around after about 10 years – for one thing they know where all the bodies are buried. Customers even discriminate – they want your A Team to be “fresh” or at least balanced between wise and fresh.

Best you can do is to make the case for balance of the wisdom of age and the energy/fresh ideas of the young. (e.g. mentoring) Some companies do this as part of their branding and it’s very cool – Proctor and Gamble as well as Price Waterhouse have a pretty good system for doing this but it’s increasinbly rare.

Not saying it’s hopeless but it is better to deal with what’s happening out there in literally millions of baby boomer searches and interviews. Why else is it that something like 75% of people over 50 are unemployed 1 year after layoff and it’s the reverse for people under 30?