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Informational interviews are about spending time with someone in higher up in your career field (or potential career field) in a highly focused conversation that provides you with key information you need to launch or boost your career.

I think your problem is you are going about the informational interviewing process all wrong. You shouldn’t just randomly ask people for an interview. Nor should you ask really obvious questions in the interview.

It’s the job-seeker’s obligation to be prepared – to conduct research and have a working knowledge of the career field and about the person you are interviewing.

Remember that your goal in an informational interview is to glean advanced knowledge from the person you are interviewing, to build rapport and a relationship – and ideally add that person to your network of contacts.

Learn more in the Informational Interviewing Tutorial found on Quintessential Careers.

You can deal with the gap in a couple of different ways on your resume – and you SHOULD be prepared to discuss it at the interview.

Have you literally been doing nothing the past two years? No part-time work? No temping? No volunteering? No freelancing? What about continuing education? Any of these things could easily mask the gap. And if you haven’t been doing any of these things, now might be the time to start!

You could also consider using a functional style resume, where your resume is organized around skills clusters rather than a chronological order of work experience. But beware, because this style of resume has lost some favor over the last few years.

As for your age issue, remember to remove all older jobs (more than 15 years) and take dates of all your degrees/educational experiences.

Finally, consider adding a qualifications summary at the top of your resume – the two to four things that make you the ideal job candidate. It is not only a trendy item that employers like, but it helps give your resume focus.

Find more advice and resources for older job-seekers in this section of Quintessential Careers: Job and Career Resources for Mature and Older Job-Seekers -- Including the Baby Boomers.

And I hate to say it, but you should feel nervous! I usually talk about the value of a positive resignation letter – you never want to burn your bridges by leaving on bad terms – but in this case I cannot imagine what you could say that placate your employer.

But whatever you do, don’t start of the letter saying you are leaving because you kept interviewing once you had this job and now you are leaving because you received an offer for a much more high-paying job. Wow. Salt in the wound.

Simply write a very short and sweet letter thanking them for the opportunity and apologizing for leaving so quickly and suddenly. Volunteer to help in any way you can and state your last day of employment.

Finally, please remember that money is not everything. Money will not bring you happiness if you are not in a career/occupation that you are passionate about. If you are generally unhappy, find the time to conduct some career assessments.

Read this article published on Quintessential Careers: Resigning with Class: How to Diplomatically Resign From Your Job.

Your key task to rebuilding. If you decide to stay in the same career field, you should focus on building up your confidence, skills, and references. Consider temping or freelancing. Since it’s been a couple of year, you may need to brush up on your skills by getting more education.

If you decide it’s time to make a drastic change, I think your best course is to spend the time and energy conducting a detailed self-assessment of yourself. Examine your likes and dislikes, what you enjoy doing and what you hate doing, what excites you and what turns you off. Examine your strengths and weaknesses. Take some online career assessment tests. Research careers. Consider working with a career professional to map out some possible new careers.

Finally, no matter what you do, make sure you really examine why you have gotten fired six times. If you are unsure, consider asking one or more of your former bosses to give you the straight information about why you were let go.

Use some of the many resources found in the Career Resources Toolkit found on Quintessential Careers.

Dr. Randall S. Hansen is currently Webmaster of Quintessential Careers.

Dr. Hansen is an associate professor of marketing at the School of Business Administration, Stetson University. He has been a published career expert for the last 10 years and an employer and consultant with hiring/firing decisions for the past 15 years.

Through his experience as a professor of marketing, Dr. Hansen uses proven marketing techniques and applies them to job-hunting. He is currently working on such a book. Some of his work can be seen at his personal Web site.

He and Katharine Hansen co-wrote the very successful job-hunting book, Dynamic Cover Letters, published by Ten Speed Press. You can order copies from Barnes and Noble of this cover letter bible. He is also author of several career-related magazine and journal articles.

Finally, Dr. Hansen has been an employer and has firsthand experience in the hiring process. He also stays active in the field by reading magazine and journal articles and by talking with employers on a regular basis.