Too much work history on resume?

briangl

I apply to a lot of jobs, no one ever gets back with me. I thought surely after getting my CCNA people would start to be interested. I have had my CCNA long enough that I had to renew it this past fall with the CCNA:Security. I am starting to think I may be showing my age by having too much work history on my resume. I go back 26 years with work history and that doesn't even show all of my work history. I am thinking about taking some off.

What do you think?

Danielh22185

Typically you want to go back 7 at a max. There may be diverse opinions on this but that is a common rule of thumb. Anything beyond that people are not going to show as much interest in when reading your resume. If you did something over 7 years ago but haven't done it in recent time, I as a manager would not expect you to have retained all the skills you once had when doing that job. On my resume and what I communicate to most others is to put your past 7 years (also depends on how many jobs you have held in that time) and put a disclaimer towards the bottom with the extra number of working years you have and that you are available to speak on that. A long resume is a beating to look at and you must capture your audience withing the first half of the first page (I don't recommend going over 2 pages).

briangl

Thanks. I have 2 long term jobs listed in that time frame, my current job of 9 years and a job of 11 years and maybe 3 other shorter term jobs of a couple of years each and the one job that is remotely related to I.T., doing some cabling and some hardware replacement, PC's and switches, that was 4 months. I tend to stay at jobs long term, is that seen as a good or bad thing. Until now I thought that would be a good thing, not so sure now.

paul78

I am really curious as well. My own resume is fairly diverse and I could never decide where to trim and/or remove. I do think there is value in showing the experience of 20+ years if it's related to IT. And longevity with employers is not a bad thing.

phoeneous

briangl wrote: »

I thought surely after getting my CCNA people would start to be interested.

What makes you think that?

briangl

phoeneous wrote: »

What makes you think that?

What do you mean by that? Please elaborate.

It was supposed to be in demand, a respected cert, etc. and I see a lot of people with a lot less certifications getting jobs.

networker050184

The CCNA is a great certification, but not for every job. What kind of jobs are you applying to? Do you have experience with networking?

briangl

Anything and everything. I do not have experience.

networker050184

What kind of job are you trying to get? Are you writing a resume specific to the type of role you are applying for or is it just a generic blast out?

phoeneous

briangl wrote: »

What do you mean by that? Please elaborate.

It was supposed to be in demand, a respected cert, etc. and I see a lot of people with a lot less certifications getting jobs.

Just because you have ccna doesnt automatically qualify you for anything. No certification will do that for you.

briangl

networker050184 wrote: »

What kind of job are you trying to get? Are you writing a resume specific to the type of role you are applying for or is it just a generic blast out?

I have one resume that I send to all jobs, it has my education, certs, job history on it. One job that I am trying to get right now is a network technician job where I went to school for my Cisco Networking Academy classes. I applied in early January. Apparently the job is still open. I have not heard anything from them. I more than meet the listed minimum qualifications. I have applied to them 5 times in the last 4 1/2 years for a network technician job. I never hear anything from them.

I apply to any job I can find; help desk, desktop support, any kind of sys. admin, anything to do with networking, NOC tech., etc.

briangl

phoeneous wrote: »

Just because you have ccna doesnt automatically qualify you for anything. No certification will do that for you.

What does qualify me, experience? I don't want to get into the whole no job-no experience-no job endless loop. What qualifies the people with less certs?

Zartanasaurus

What did you do at the jobs that lasted 9 and 11 years? I probably wouldn't list 26 years of work history for an entry level IT job, but that's just me. I'd also probably stop applying to a job that never responded to me 5 times over the course of 4 years.

ChooseLife

briangl wrote: »

Anything and everything. I do not have experience.

So you are saying that your resume shows 26 years of non-IT experience?

P.S. May be worth posting it here for us to better gauge why it's not getting traction

Akaricloud

I would guess there might be a few things holding you back.

First, you have 26 years of work experience but are still trying to apply for an entry level position. Most people are going to easily discard your resume and expect you'll be asking for way too much compensation. A good cover letter should be able to resolve this and explain why you are in the position that you are.

Second, is all of your work experience listed relevant to the positions that you are applying for? -I wouldn’t necessarily trim any experience out but more just pick the best descriptions that translate over to IT. If you want to post up a resume I’m sure many of us would love to help with that.
Third, are your cover letters and resumes truly perfect? –We see it far too often where someone posts up on here that they aren’t getting callbacks and it turns out their resume has a few simple mistakes that have been overlooked.

I would strongly suggest that you tailor your resume and cover letter to each company that you apply for. Obviously they’re looking for different things and having a cover letter/resume that reflects what they want to hear will help. I know it’s a pain to do but definitely worthwhile.

briangl

I will try taking off a lot of work history and see if that works. Thank you all.

bub9001

There is a fine line between having to much and not having enough. And when applying for a job it is better to focus your work history on what job your applying for.

nerdydad

Networking is key, do you know anyone at any of these companies? I once applied for a job multiple times and never heard anything, I mentioned it to someone I knew that worked at the company, and next thing I knew, I had an interview. It won't guarantee you a job, but it could get you the interview, after that it is up to you.

briangl

I am actually trying to get a job where my daughter works. She is the one that told me about the job and put in a referral for me. I didn't think they were going to get back with me, but I just got an email to schedule a phone interview tomorrow morning.

phoeneous

briangl wrote: »

What does qualify me, experience? I don't want to get into the whole no job-no experience-no job endless loop. What qualifies the people with less certs?

Could be a variety of things, most notably experience. I would think that putting 26 years of non-IT exp on your resume to apply for an entry level job is a quick way to the discard pile. Heck, most entry level IT guys that I know (or have known) were younger than 26 years in their entry level jobs. I don't want to say age is a descriminating factor but...

If your comfortable with it, post your resume and the job description. Scrubbed versions of course.

WiseWun

My resume normally lists 3-4 work experience. The rest of my work history are all on LinkedIn.