How far back on a resume do I need to do? I have been working for almost 20 years. My last job was 4.5 years. Also I know it is not just about listing tasks and responsibiltiies anymore. Ugh, i hate this.
You should be listing all jobs on a professional resume. So if you had a job 15 years ago, just list the job at the bottom with a date. Don't add any info. That's fine.
You should go back approximately 10 years. Skills before that are often considered "out dated".
Make sure that your dates are accurate and that you focus on skill sets, not "things you did". When you haven't worked in a long period of time, be prepared to explain (not justify) what you have been doing during the interim. For example, my husband resigned his position as an engineer when we moved from NY to FL. When asked on an application to explain his lack of employment for the last 3 weeks his explanation was simple, but direct. "My family relocated from NY with two small children for my wife's job. I have elected to take the last month to get our family settled into our new home and finalize all details associated with relocation. At this time, I am actively seeking full-time employment."
If you are not a "recent" graduate of an educational institution, put your "education history" at the end of your resume and do not put a year associated with your degree.
My husband has a BS in Chemical Engineering, but graduated in 1997. His resume says:
State University of New York at Buffalo, Bachelor of Science- Chemical Engineering; minor in Mathematics. Transcripts available upon request.
Stick to the facts, but use "current industry language" where you can!
I go as far back as is relevant to the job I am applying for. No one wants to know I worked part time in a grocery store during highschool. Nor do they care that I worked a full time cook during my college years. My professional career started right after college, which dates back 17 years, and I list all 3 jobs I've had in that time as they are all quite relevant to my job now. My only pre-college exception is the time I spent in the military, and I list that as a single line item with dates only.
I've reviewed thousands of resumes over the past 7 years, and find the best ones are those that don't have the entire life history but just the most recent 10+ years that are relevant. If you want a job in payroll and have been working in that field for 10 years, just list that. I really don't care that you had jobs as a cashier, janitor, and cook prior to that. If I really, really care what you were up to prior to 10 years ago I will ask when I bring you in for an interview.
Ten years, unless you haven't worked for ten years.
Check with your local workforce center/unemployment office for resume help - free. Or, call any Outplacement firm in your area and ask for a referral to an independent resume writer - they should be reasonably priced and they should spend up to an hour talking with you to get the information needed to write a good resume for you.
A resume does not need to list all the tasks you did on your job, it needs to show results. Results are - made money, saved money (or time), reduced risk, or improved quality. So for each job, in one or two sentences, describe the scope of your job, then list in bullet points your accomplishments, with result, followed by the actions that got those results. Example:
Billing Processor/Supervisor (title)
Led team of 4 in servicing 25 large accounts in the Midwest region, with focus on customer service and accuracy. (job scope)
> Reduced costs of x process 25% by.....(doing what?)
> Increased efficiency of (what) by (how much?) through....
> Met customer service goals 100% each year by....
Cover 10 - 15 years of experience, stopping wherever there is a logical break in your work history. Resumes can be one or two pages, both are acceptable depending on the experience you need to describe.
10 years, I think. Contact your unemployment services. They may have free resume seminars, counseling, etc. It's worth checking. Good luck!
If there are jobs in your history that are relevant to what you're applying for, list them. You also want to show that you have a stable work history. I know you've been at your current company for a good amount of time, but it can be nice to show that you had consistency before that as well.
Also, if you have 20 years of experience and you're only listing your most recent job, they won't really realize just how much experience you really do have. You'd be selling yourself short by leaving out the previous 15 years.
If the earliest jobs were generic, short-lived and/or not relevant to what you're doing now, you don't have to list them. They will probably ask about any gaps in your employment history though, so it won't hurt to list them.
Even though you have a lot of experience, if you can keep your resume to one page, that is a huge plus. I am a former recruiter and trust me - one page resumes get read more completely than longer ones.
Resumes are one page long. Any longer and I generally stop reading b/c that person obviously cannot be succinct.
They go back to the start of your "professional" career. Think somewhere in your 20s.
But know that whom you're applying to understands job titles. So "web developer" may say enough for a job 10 years ago. You don't need to keep all the explanation of web developer.
Current jobs list accomplishments, not the job description. If you've been working 20 years you should have things to brag about, like "Named best architect of the year" or "Finished all projects under budget by average of 5%".
Pixie:
Your resume should be no more than 2 pages long and go back 10 years. As a recruiting and hiring manager - as bad as this may seem - I don't care what you did 10 years ago. I care what you have done in the last 10 years. Technology changes so fast that what you did 20 years ago may be "lost" on people now...kinda like my husband still wanting to use SuperCalc for his models - it's "old technology".
Pick out the five best things you did at your last job - if you want to make it 7 great - but the KISS method is the best way to do your resume.
Here's an example of a Database Developer.
Company Name Jan 2005 to Dec 2007
Senior Database Developer
• Wrote and tuned complex queries and indexes, and made schema changes in support of a web-based ASP human-resources application
• Administered Oracle development databases and their supporting servers
• Administered SQL Server development and customer-facing staging environments
• Tuned Oracle PL/SQL procedure and queries using TKPROF and trace files
• Tuned SQL Server Transact-SQL queries design and tuning using SQL Profiler
• Designed schema extensions and triggers to maintain static snapshots of data in support of complex real-time views
They used "action" words instead of "provided", "assisted", etc.
This is an example of a person who has a lot of years of experience, this is how they covered it BELOW their last 10 years:
Employment History in Summary:
2005-2007: Senior Database Developer, Authoria Corporation
2001-2005: Database Developer, Vetronix/ETAS Corporation
1999-2000: Software Engineer, Vetronix Corporation
1997-1998: Programmer, Litton Guidance & Control Systems, Goleta, CA
1995-1997: Supervised groups of students in collaborative study workshops
for the Mathematics Achievement Program
1995-1997: Instructor for STEP, an intensive introductory mathematics program
1994-1996: French horn instructor, Westmont College
1993-1997: Teaching Assistant and Instructor, UC Santa Barbara
