How Far Should Your Resume Go?
This is How Far Your Resume should go: One of the important elements of a successful resume is the work history section. Keep reading this article to know how many years you should go back when constructing your work history for a resume.
Well if you have been in the personnel for a while, you might be wondering: How far should your resume go? Why should you not include all of your experience?
What number of work history is enough to convince an hiring manager or recruiter you’ve got the chops for the role. Your resume shouldn’t be more than 10 to 15 years. Although, every candidate is different and so is every resume, and there are a few other rules of flick that can serve as a GPS as you ask the question that “how far should your resume go?”
Don’t You Ever Add All Your Years Of Experience On Your Resume
These are the reasons for including only 10 to 15 years of work experience on a resume:
1. It Avoids Age Discrimination
Age discrimination could be costing you the interview. If your resume is far back 20 or 30 years, it’s so easy for the hiring manager to guess your age.
So in the case that they’re looking for a younger applicant, they may abandon your resume. If they later call you in for an interview, they may still guess your age but you also have the opportunity to prove your worth.
2. It Increases Applicability
The HR won’t care what you did for over 10 to 15 years. So at some point, it just becomes better left off your resume. Your resume is read for a few seconds so you want to make sure your resume is clear and short. Unrelated information will usually result in your resume not accepted.
3. It Removes Disorder
One thing that also annoys hiring managers is a shuffled resume. Well including many years of experience usually does that. Your resume shouldn’t be more than two pages. Keep it short and relevant to quickly show the employer that you’re the best for the position.
When Does Your Resume Needs To Go Back More Than 10 Years?
Below are three situations when you can include information from more than 10 years ago on your resume.
1. When There Is High Relevancy
If your experience is relevant then you should leave it on your resume. Remember that if you have 30+ years of relevant experience, you may want to include only the last 10 to 15 years except the other positions show various aspects of your work and achievements. If you also have years of related experience you’re most likely applying to a higher level position where age may not matter.
2. If A Reputable Title or Firm Is Involved
If you held a high title or worked at a reputable firm then you should leave it on your resume. This would capture the attention of a hiring manager.
3. It Also Explains a Gap
If the year of your graduation, license, certification or other projects is listed and you leave off a substantial number of experience, it may make the HR think you have a gap in your resume. So you need to either include your work experience or remove other dates.
But remember that you don’t need to list your graduation year.
However, your education isn’t under the 10 to 15-year rule because degrees are usually safe to include on your resume no matter when you earned them. But our 10 to the 15-year range is only for work experience.
Have You Worked at One Firm for Many Years?
If you have only worked at one firm for many years then it could be hard to leave the years off your resume. There is always a way around this depending on the situation.
If you’ve also held different positions at the firm, you could split up your work experience as it depends on the years you’ve held the title. This makes you list more related positions at the top of your resume and even remove some that aren’t really related.
Take for instance, Anna was looking for an accounting position and she worked at XYZ Corp. for the last 22 years.
She held the following positions those years:
Customer Service Representative: 10 Years (1998 to 2008)
Bookkeeper: 6 Years (2008 to 2014)
Accountant: 6 Years (2014 to 2020)
Anna could list the related accounting and bookkeeping position separately with the years worked and remove the customer service representative position from 12 years ago.