How far back should you mention in your career history on your resume?

Are you writing a resume right now, or planning to write one? Do you have trouble deciding the extent and length of your?career history? Then, you have come to the right article!

Does your resume still list work experience from 2002? Then, you may have some pruning to do. Generally, we advise our clients to mention only the last 10-15 years of their careers on a resume. This is because hiring managers usually consider experience beyond 10-15 years to be irrelevant. However, there are times when you make exceptions to this rule.

How far back should you mention in your work history?

As a general rule, recruiters consider any experience beyond the last 10-15 years on your resume to be irrelevant. This is because the skills and tools you may have used a decade ago to do your work could be completely outdated by now. If you are working in an industry that is rapidly changing, such as technology, healthcare, and financial technology, anything beyond a decade would be practically fossils.

However, if you are working in a field that does not rapidly advance or still employs skills and technologies from 10-20 years ago, you can mention work experience older than 15 years on your resume. But you should only go that far in your career when you have no other recent experiences to emphasize relevant skills for the job.

Why should you not mention anything beyond 10-15 years on a resume?

The main reason why?you should not mention older jobs on your resume?is because they are likely outdated and irrelevant to the modern job market. Mentioning your most recent and relevant experience on your resume is the norm.

Mentioning only the most recent experiences on your resume will help you?cut back on the text density of your resume. A text-dense resume is less likely to grab the attention of a hiring manager. If you mention every job you have had in the past, your resume will end up looking a lot cluttered.

Not mentioning any dates or experiences beyond the last 10-15 years will help you age-proof your resume.?Older candidates are likely to get discriminated?against because of their age during the hiring process. Omitting older work experience and not mentioning graduation dates on your resume will help you?protect yourself against age discrimination.

When is it okay to mention experience older than 10-15 years on your resume?

There are instances where you can include older jobs on your resume to emphasize work experience. Let’s look at two such scenarios.

When you are making a career transition

Let’s say that you have been working for the healthcare industry for the first 20 years of your career. Then you switched to the education sector. After spending 10 years in the education sector, you want to make a career shift back to healthcare. In such a situation, you will need to?emphasize some of your older work experience?to keep your resume relevant to the new position. However, you can create a separate section labeled “Earlier Experience,” and mention your older jobs there. Avoid listing dates but highlight a few achievements at each role.

When you have been working for one employer for a long time

Let’s say that you have been working for your current employer for over ten years. You will need to list more than one job in your work experience section. First, read this article we have written about?describing multiple jobs at the same company on a resume. Then, you can decide whether you want to mention some of your older jobs to enrich your resume with experience.