How Many Years Of Work History Do You Put On A Resume

One of the most common questions our team of professional resume writers become from job seekers is "how far dorsum should a resume go?"

When you have spent many years building your career, you have a lot of experience you want to include on your resume. Many people include decades of experience on a resume and information technology could be the reason why their resumes aren't getting whatsoever callbacks or interview requests!

The truth is, you don't need to list every position you've ever held on your resume.

Actually!

Your resume can--and should--be a selective certificate tailored for a specific job. That means you only need to include your skills, experience, and qualifications that volition aid you in that position. You lot don't need to include a comprehensive list of your professional person life: that would exist a CV instead of a resume.

In this commodity, we'll prove you exactly how far back your resume should go and explicate why.

How far back should your resume go?

Your resume should go back a maximum of 10 to 15 years in terms of work feel. This keeps your resume highly relevant for employers and recruiters.

What if you lot actually need those years of

experience on your resume? If you really need to show the feel, which is sometimes the example for higher-level management positions, you could include information technology. We'll talk almost other exceptions to the rule further down in this mail.

Your resume's experience section should always be able to pass the "six-second resume test" when information technology comes to relevance. Essentially, put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter or hiring manager looking at your resume. Expect over the information and make up one's mind whether information technology's relevant to the job opening and if the hiring director will be impressed with it.

Why shouldn't you lot add all your years of experience on your resume?

Here are the reasons for including just x to 15 years of work experience on a resume:

1. Avoids historic period discrimination

Yes, historic period discrimination does happen and it could exist costing you the interview. If your resume goes back 20 or 30 years, it's piece of cake for the hiring manager to guess your age.

In the case that they're looking for a younger candidate, they may dismiss your resume. If they eventually call you in for an interview, they still may exist able to guess your age but you also accept the chance to prove your worth.

Good Tip

2. Increases relevancy

The hiring managing director won't intendance what you did more 10 to fifteen years ago. At some point, it just becomes amend left off your resume. Your resume is merely looked at for a few seconds so you want to ensure your resume is clear and curtailed. Irrelevant data on a resume will normally upshot in a rejection.

3. Removes clutter

Some other thing that annoys hiring managers is a chaotic resume. Including many years of experience usually does that. Your resume should never be longer than 2 pages. Keep it brusque, concise, and relevant to rapidly show the employer that you're the best match for the position.

When should your resume go back more than x years?

There are exceptions to every rule. Here are three situations when you can include information from more than than 15 years ago on your resume.

1. High relevancy

As we mentioned to a higher place, if your experience is really relevant and so y'all should leave it on your resume. Keep in mind that if y'all take thirty+ years of relevant experience, you may want to include only the last x to 15 years. That is, unless the other positions bear witness different aspects of your piece of work and accomplishments on your resume. Also, if you lot take years of relevant feel y'all're well-nigh probable applying to a higher level position where age may not really thing.

ii. Prestigious title or company

If you lot held a high title or worked at a prestigious company then you should probably leave it on your resume. Again, this would pass the 'who cares' test as information technology would capture the attention of a hiring manager.

3. Explains a gap

If you list the year of your graduation, certification, license or other projects and exit off a substantial amount of experience, it may make the hiring manager think you have a gap in your resume. In that case, y'all need to either include your work experience or remove other dates.

Whether or not you demand to remove the dates depends on what you have listed; however, proceed in mind that you lot don't need to list your graduation year.

Past the way, your instruction doesn't fall under the 10 to 15 twelvemonth rule--degrees are usually safe to include on your resume no affair when you earned them. Our 10 to 15 year range is only for work experience.

What if you've just worked at one company for many years?

If you only worked at one company for many years then information technology could exist difficult to leave the years off your resume. There is a way effectually this depending on the state of affairs.

If you've held different positions at the company, you could dissever up your work experience depending on the years you've held the title. This allows you to list more relevant positions at the meridian of your resume and fifty-fifty remove some that aren't really relevant.

For case, say Anna was looking for an accounting position and she worked at XYZ Corp. for the last 22 years.

Of those years she held the following positions:

Auditor: 6 Years (2015 to 2022)
Bookkeeper: half dozen Years (2009 to 2022)
Customer Service Representative: 10 Years (1999 to 2009)

Anna could listing the relevant bookkeeping and bookkeeping position separately with the years worked and leave off the customer service representative position from 12 years ago.

Summary

Hiring managers care more about your recent work history than what you did a decade ago. Keep your resume relevant, concise, and clutter-gratis by including but your almost recent work experience.

Good luck with your job search!