How far do you go back on a resume?

johndoee

Just curious. I personally go as far back as my first job out of high school, the military. Just curious how far everyone else goes back on a resume. I just did a background check for a company and I had to provide 10 years. So, my resume had to span 10 years to coincide with the background investigation. I spanned 10 years anyway so it wasn't an issue

What do you do?

If could be assumed that if you stop at X amount of years that you were unemployed or didn't have a job. Based on birth date and the (unaccounted for) dates on the resume a lot of assumptions can be made. Tell me what you think

LeBroke

I only list starting with my first tech jobs, which goes back about 6 years. My retail and coffee shop experience isn't relevant to tech at this point.

NetworkNewb

As far as I think the experience in previous positions will help me get the next position. Been in IT for about 5-6 years and only include those positions. I don't think employees will care if I drove a forklift for 5 years before than. Wouldn't go by X amount of years, but by if it helps your case for getting the next position.

LonerVamp

First, I keep information around for everything I've done. Never know when that 20 year background check comes up...same with rental history, residences, etc.

Second, when I read resumes, I go as far back as they include. I like having context on someone's progression or story before I even talk to them.

Third, on my resume, I include jobs that are relevant to the career I'm in right now, so things in college I don't include. My career has been about 13 years now, so I'm pushing out those old ones a bit, but mostly I just distill them down to as few bullet points as possible so they take up less space. My personal problem is my job from 13-11 years ago was tech support-to-desktop-to-sysadmin. Pretty meaningful to my trajectory.

Fourth, for the most part, the only things that should matter are your last position(s) and your last 2-5 years of experience.

I think good rules to follow are:
- think hard about going beyond 10 years in any depth at all
- keep resumes down under 4 pages (2 page back/front). I know others will cry that that's too long, but screw them. Unless you get to write a cover letter, 2-4 is fine.

Lastly, we have this thing called LinkedIn now. So you can use that platform to put all relevant information, even 20 years back, if you want, and leave the resume more tidy with a linked to the LinkedIn page if someone cares. Even on LinkedIn, though, I'd only include relevant positions or explanations of gaps.

DatabaseHead

No more than 10 years...... IMO

+/- 2 years.

shochan

I definitely have all my IT experience on my resume (19yrs)...now a couple of those businesses have either downsized or are gone...but you have to keep your gaps of no employment in tack, otherwise, you are having to explain it all verbally. My resume is only 2pgs, pretty condensed, to the point of what I know in IT.

EANx

I'd go back 10 years but here are the broad rules for what I like to see in candidates

1) No more than two pages
2) Your last ten years of experience in IT. If less than ten, all of your experience plus your last non IT job. That lets me know you didn't leave anything off.
3) If your last ten years have been with just 1-2 positions (like those people who do helpdesk for seven years), go back farther than ten. I like to see 3-5 jobs showing increasing responsibility and personal growth.

Mooseboost

I think it is important to keep track of all previous positions for your records but you should limit the experience you actively send on your resume to 10 years. I think the exception would be very senior positions where more than 10 years of experience may be relevant or required.

Blucodex

No more than 10 years. Not gonna get dated.

EnderWiggin

I go back two pages' worth. Gotta remove something to add something.

TheFORCE

NetworkNewb wrote: »

As far as I think the experience in previous positions will help me get the next position. Been in IT for about 5-6 years and only include those positions. I don't think employees will care if I drove a forklift for 5 years before than. Wouldn't go by X amount of years, but by if it helps your case for getting the next position.

this is the method you should follow.

Will it really matter if 8 years ago I was doing helpdesk when the past 3-4 years I've been at the VP and AVP level? I think not.

chrisone

I don't put any of my help desk or systems support positions. I only put network administrator, network engineer, network security engineer, and security engineer positions. As long as it spans over 10+ years I am solid.

TechGromit

I lump all the jobs I did at one employer for 15 years into one entry, instead of breaking each one out, what I did on this job for x number of years and so on. For my next resume update, I'll probably lump in everything I did at another employer for 8 years, instead of listing each position out. I guess you make a good point dropping my first 15 years in IT, didn't think about I'm dating myself, I guess I really haven't experienced any age discrimination in my career yet.

dave330i

2 pages worth. Anything more than 2 pages, I stop reading and initial evaluation goes down.

Paycheck

I keep my resume to three pages. I've had many short term contract jobs though, so at the end I have to lump them together into some sort of conglomeration like "2010-2013 Various IT support contract assignments", and give 4-6 lines of general bullet points for what I did in the jobs.

DatabaseHead

Blucodex wrote: »

No more than 10 years. Not gonna get dated.

+1

Exactly why I don't go past 10 years. They usually never make it past the 3 job anyway.......