This is How Far: One of the key elements of a successful resume is the work history section.
In this article, we discuss how many years you should go back when constructing your work history for a resume, what is standard, and what factors might require you to go back further.
If you have been in the workforce for a while, you might be wondering: How far back should a resume go? Why shouldn’t you just include all of your experience?
What amount of work history is enough to convince a recruiter or hiring manager you’ve got the chops for the role, but is not so much they don’t know how to make sense of it all? Well, the answer to this career quandary is: It’s complicated.
Generally, your resume should go back no more than 10 to 15 years. However, every applicant is different and so is every resume, and there are a few other rules of thumb that can serve as a as you decide how far back your resume should go.
Don’t Add All Your Years Of Experience On Your Resume?
Here are the reasons for including only 10 to 15 years of work experience on a resume:
1. Avoids Age Discrimination
Yes, does happen and it could be costing you the interview. If your resume goes back 20 or 30 years, it’s easy 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 be able to guess your age but you also have the chance to prove your worth.
2. Increases Relevancy
The hiring manager won’t care what you did more than 10 to 15 years ago. At some point, it just becomes better left off your resume. Your resume is only looked at for a few seconds so you want to ensure your resume is clear and concise. Irrelevant information will usually result in your resume getting rejected.
3. Removes Clutter
Another thing that annoys hiring managers is a cluttered resume. Including many years of experience usually does that. Your resume should never be longer than two pages. Keep it short, concise, and relevant to quickly show the employer that you’re the best match for the position.
When Should Your Resume Go Back More Than 10 Years?
There are exceptions to every rule. Here are three situations when you can include information from more than 15 years ago on your resume.
1. High Relevancy
As we mentioned above, if your experience is really relevant then you should leave it on your resume. Keep in mind that if you have 30+ years of relevant experience, you may want to include only the last 10 to 15 years unless the other positions show different aspects of your work and . Also, if you have years of relevant experience you’re most likely applying to a higher level position where age may not really matter.
2. Prestigious Title or Company
If you 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 it 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 leave off a substantial amount of experience, it may make the hiring manager think you have a gap in your resume. In that case, you need to either include your work experience or remove other dates.
Whether or not you need to remove the dates depends on what you have listed; however, keep in mind that you don’t need to list your graduation year.
By the way, your education doesn’t fall under the 10 to 15-year rule–degrees are usually safe to include on your resume no matter when you earned them. Our 10 to 15-year range is only for work experience.
Having Worked at One Company for Many Years?
If you only worked at one company for many years then it could be difficult to leave the years off your resume. There is a way around this depending on the situation.
If you’ve held different positions at the company, you could split up your work experience depending on the years you’ve held the title. This allows you to list more relevant positions at the top of your resume and even remove some that aren’t really relevant.
For example, 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:
- Accountant: 6 Years (2014 to 2020)
- Bookkeeper: 6 Years (2008 to 2014)
- Customer Service Representative: 10 Years (1998 to 2008)
Anna could list the relevant bookkeeping and accounting positions separately with the years worked and leave off the customer service representative position from 12 years ago.
Important Reads:
How Far Back to Go on LinkedIn
People read LinkedIn differently than they do resumes. When a reader has been hooked by a headline and a summary section, they then need to go the extra mile and keep on “clicking” to read earlier experiences.
Keeping this in mind, when experience older than 15 years is crucial to advancing the client’s story, I will include it along with the dates.
If the experience doesn’t add any huge value-add, I’ll eliminate it and err on the side of working to keep someone timeless and avoid the potential for age bias as much as possible.
Hiring managers care more about your recent work history than what you did a decade ago. Keep your resume relevant, concise, and clutter-free by including only your most recent work experience.
This could be helpful with your friends as well. Kindly share it with them on their social media handles.
Good luck with your job search!
StudentsandScholarship Team.
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