(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: I've had a long and successful career in quality assurance with high-tech companies, often acting as part of the design team for new products and learning one new technology after another. Now that I've been downsized, every job ad I see requires a BS degree, and all I have is an associate's degree in applied technology in aerospace electronics. How can I get around the fact that although I am highly skilled, my resume doesn't contain the key words "bachelor of science"? Going back to school now isn't practical financially, and by the time I finished the degree I'd be close to retirement age. What can I do? -- No BS

Dear No: First, bear in mind that answering job ads is often not the best way to find a job. Research by Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the classic career guide What Color Is Your Parachute? (Ten Speed Press, $16.95), shows that for highly skilled and experienced people such as yourself, responding to help-wanted ads (either in print or online) leads to a new job only 5% of the time. By contrast, knocking on doors of companies that aren't advertising--and talking to people who know people in the places you might want to work--yields a 47% success rate. Surely in your long career you have had lots of colleagues, bosses, and customers. Start calling them to see if you can stop by for a chat. At your age and level of experience, academic credentials are far less relevant than they were earlier on, because even if you had received a bachelor's degree 20 years ago, wouldn't it be obsolete by now anyway in a field that's evolving as rapidly as yours? Isn't the fact that you've kept up with new technologies far more important? You bet it is.

Moreover, Richard Bayer, chief operating officer of the Five O'Clock Club, a national career-counseling network (www.fiveoclockclub.com), says that "almost all job hunters have something they think will keep them from getting their next job--too old, too young, wrong sex, wrong color, overqualified, undereducated, or what-have-you. But whatever the perceived obstacle, it can almost always be overcome, so be upbeat and confident in your approach." Construct a resume that emphasizes your technical skills, highlighting any certifications or other formal training you've accumulated over the years, which, says Bayer, "more than compensate for two years of classroom time you didn't get when you were 19. An employer would have to be awfully small-minded to insist on a bachelor's in this situation."

If you must get the words "bachelor of science" on your resume somewhere, Bayer suggests, "you can always note that you did earn X number of credits toward one, since an associate's is roughly half of a bachelor's, and that you--and your employers up to now--felt that was all the classroom schooling you needed to get going."

If you aren't already active in professional associations and industry groups, Bayer adds, start now: "Go to conferences, meet people, write articles for trade journals in your field if you can. These are great ways to showcase your expertise and widen your contacts." Spend more time out there talking to people and less time poring over job ads. You'll do fine.

Dear Annie: I work for a tech company that's headquartered in an Asian country. In two rounds of downsizing over the past year, management here has been doing two things that seem strange to me. First, the actual number of people they lay off is far greater than what they tell the press or the public. In the first downsizing, for example, they announced they were going to let about 200 people go, but the actual number was closer to 600. And second, while they're supposedly eliminating jobs, they're bringing in foreign workers on H-1B visas to replace the people being sacked. Is there anything illegal about these practices? -- Just Curious

Dear J.C.: It depends. There's no law against telling fibs to the press--indeed, some companies have raised it to an art form--as long as management is supplying the real layoff figures to the appropriate authorities. "Regulators get very nervous about cash flow projections in state unemployment funds," notes John Michels Jr., a labor lawyer and partner in the Chicago office of McGuire Woods. "At the very least, companies have to give the state department of labor an estimate that's within 10% or 15% of the actual number of layoffs taking place, or the state will see a flood of unanticipated unemployment claims and come in to investigate." That could get expensive, not to mention embarrassing: When reporters realize they've been fed a lot of blarney, they sometimes turn nasty. As Lyndon Johnson used to say, "You never want to get in a pissing match with people who buy ink by the barrel."

As for your second point, what your employer is doing definitely smells funny. "The basis for bringing people into the U.S. on H-1B visas is supposed to be that you can't find the requisite talent locally," says Michels. "The INS and the U.S. Department of Labor will come down on you pretty hard if all you're doing is importing the same skills from Bangalore or somewhere at one-third the pay."

And how would the feds know that this is going on? Well, sometimes they are tipped off by irate layoff victims. Know anybody who might want to make a phone call?

Send questions to askannie@fortunemail.com. Annie offers advice weekly at www.askannie.com.