How many years of experience should I show on my resume?

briangl

How many years of experience should I show on my resume? My experience goes way back and I am afraid at this point I may be facing age discrimination. I have read on here that age doesn't matter. I have read elsewhere that there is age discrimination in the IT field.

Very little of my experience is in the IT field. I worked for a company for about 5 months a few years ago doing network installation type work. I am still looking for that first real, foot in the door job though.

I had an interview scheduled a couple of weeks ago and then she called me the night before and said she had interviewed someone that day and made them an offer. I had a similar situation a few months ago, someone emailed me to set up an interview. I called and left a voice mail a couple of times. Then she emailed me and said she hired someone.

pipemajor

I'm in the same boat (30+ years experience) but have found some employers WANT an experienced and proven candidate over a "punk". I have mainframe experience on System 360/370 from the 1970s - not that relevant in today's market but I do mention it. I had one manager call me to say they LIKED my legacy experience since that meant (to them) I was much more disciplined over the web developers who toss in new code without proper testing, change control/backout procedures etc.

I can take my resume to 8 different sources and get 8 different opinions.

bwcarty

Look into various resume formats. If your experience doesn't necessarily match the skills you want to use, use a format that highlights your technical skills and certifications. Make sure your resume is tuned to the position you want, and a good cover letter can really help sell it.

briangl

Thank you gentlemen. I have more questions, especially about cover letters, but I am at work. I will try to ask later.

Hyper-Me

I can tell you that were I work, i do much harder work than most of the people, but because I am younger they decided i don't need as much pay as some of the others.

Im one of 2 systems admins for a massive AD, and there are some tech trainers (who teach webkinz and other useless junk) making 2 times as much as me.

Funny thing is, young people have 0 legal recourse when this happens. Only old people an women are protected.

pipemajor

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I can tell you that were I work, i do much harder work than most of the people, but because I am younger they decided i don't need as much pay as some of the others.

Harder work doesn't necessarily equate to more valuable work. Ever worked a retail job and had to offload a full semi of freight and schlep 80lb bags of fertilizer or kitty litter all night? That is HARD work but only pays minimum or slightly better wages.

If you don't get paid what you feel is a market rate, you're free to seek out something else in the market. We had two Novell CNEs (relatively young) who told the director they could get $x across the street (hinting at a desired raise). He politely told them they'd have to go across the street to get that wage then. They shut up after that.

I went active duty as a young Lt and saw GS-13s do less work and get paid 3x what I was getting yet felt they had far less responsibility.

Some day, some punk will complain about what you get paid.

Hyper-Me

pipemajor wrote: »

Harder work doesn't necessarily equate to more valuable work. Ever worked a retail job and had to offload a full semi of freight and schlep 80lb bags of fertilizer or kitty litter all night? That is HARD work but only pays minimum or slightly better wages.

If you don't get paid what you feel is a market rate, you're free to seek out something else in the market. We had two Novell CNEs (relatively young) who told the director they could get $x across the street (hinting at a desired raise). He politely told them they'd have to go across the street to get that wage then. They shut up after that.

I went active duty as a young Lt and saw GS-13s do less work and get paid 3x what I was getting yet felt they had far less responsibility.

Some day, some punk will complain about what you get paid.

If you don't think that engineering, installing and administering active directory, DNS, WDS, WSUS, Group Policy, at 100 physical sites and with 75000 users isnt harder than teaching a room of 20 teachers to use WEBKINZ then you have a distorted sense of reality.

What it barrels down to is that if i didnt have all of these systems set up and available to use, the trainers wouldnt have anything to train on (or anything to use to trian), yet they make double what i do.

Its bull****

miller811

I am approaching 25 years experience and have been told several times, that your work history should go back 10 years. Not sure if that is true or not.

laidbackfreak

I have the last 5 years showing in detail and positions held with company prior to that going back 10 years, give or take.

My resume runs onto 3 pages, it breaks down into the following :-
1st page, personal info together with qualifications core skills etc. (HR section)
2nd page, recent career summary. (Job technical section)
3rd page overspill, bullet points of job history and other info

I could in theory lose the last page, but when I've tried that in the past I always get asked what I did prior, so this saves that question, but allows them to dig in detail if they want.
It's a fine line between getting the info on there in order to sell myself and not bore the pants off anyone.

Seems to work I get calls when I send it out

briangl

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I can tell you that were I work, i do much harder work than most of the people, but because I am younger they decided i don't need as much pay as some of the others.

Im one of 2 systems admins for a massive AD, and there are some tech trainers (who teach webkinz and other useless junk) making 2 times as much as me.

Funny thing is, young people have 0 legal recourse when this happens. Only old people an women are protected.

I am one of the older people here, but unfortunately am in a job at the bottom of the food chain. It is known to be the lowest paying job in the company. I probably do the most physically demanding job here, also. I don't mind that part of it, it keeps me in shape. That's actually the only part of the job I do like. I have finally admitted to myself that there is zero chance of advancement here. I was eminently qualified for a job in the IT department a while back, yet they hired someone from outside the company because they had 3 years of experience. I have been told that this person is habitually late, by an hour or more and that he is the worst hire they have ever made. What legal recourse do I have? (That’s rhetorical)

briangl

bwcarty wrote: »

Look into various resume formats. If your experience doesn't necessarily match the skills you want to use, use a format that highlights your technical skills and certifications. Make sure your resume is tuned to the position you want, and a good cover letter can really help sell it.

I am probably not going to change my resume format at this point. I think it is the best I can do. I am trying to emphasize my education, grades/GPA , certifications and what little experience I do have.

While I know that information on cover letters is all over the internet and on this forum, I will ask for advice here. Would there be any difference between a cover letter when answering an ad versus cold calling a company? I tend to make my cover letters very brief when answering ads, like listing my certs and saying I am interested in the job. I am not a salesman and hate talking about myself.

JDMurray

miller811 wrote: »

I am approaching 25 years experience and have been told several times, that your work history should go back 10 years. Not sure if that is true or not.

I max out my paper resume at four pages and 25 years of experience. My online resume is unlimited in both. Because recruiters/employers are so nuts about gaps in employment history, I don't bother with having multiple resumes for different specialties because it's just too confusing.

msteinhilber

Hyper-Me wrote: »

If you don't think that engineering, installing and administering active directory, DNS, WDS, WSUS, Group Policy, at 100 physical sites and with 75000 users isnt harder than teaching a room of 20 teachers to use WEBKINZ then you have a distorted sense of reality.

What it barrels down to is that if i didnt have all of these systems set up and available to use, the trainers wouldnt have anything to train on (or anything to use to trian), yet they make double what i do.

Its bull****

One could also look at it this way: If the trainers did not train any of the user's how to use the software they have access to, then what good would anything that you did really be anyways? Nobody would know how to use it.

I have no idea what the technical trainers in my organization make because I don't desire to have any of the conflict that you are experiencing since you know they make double what you do. And if I did know that they made more, it wouldn't bother me to be honest. It wouldn't bother me because I've been that guy standing in a room with 20 or more people there for training from time to time. I do not envy people that do that sort of training by any means, in my opinion they DESERVE to get paid well for having to put up with the average end-user.

Hyper-Me

msteinhilber wrote: »

One could also look at it this way: If the trainers did not train any of the user's how to use the software they have access to, then what good would anything that you did really be anyways? Nobody would know how to use it.

I have no idea what the technical trainers in my organization make because I don't desire to have any of the conflict that you are experiencing since you know they make double what you do. And if I did know that they made more, it wouldn't bother me to be honest. It wouldn't bother me because I've been that guy standing in a room with 20 or more people there for training from time to time. I do not envy people that do that sort of training by any means, in my opinion they DESERVE to get paid well for having to put up with the average end-user.

Well coincidentally I am the one that trains THEM, so im the one in the room with 20 trainers who dont know anything. (they are worse than the end users most of the time). and the end users still come to me for questions because the trainers dont know anything further than what their notes tell them, because they dont actually LEARN anything to reteach.

Plus we all know what each other makes because its public knowledge. Government work.

msteinhilber

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Well coincidentally I am the one that trains THEM, so im the one in the room with 20 trainers who dont know anything. (they are worse than the end users most of the time). and the end users still come to me for questions because the trainers dont know anything further than what their notes tell them, because they dont actually LEARN anything to reteach.

It sounds like you could be doing a better job training your trainers then.