How Far Back To Go On Resume

How far back should you go on a resume? This is a question that many applicants have about their resumes, in regards to their employment history. The thing about it is, you want enough of an employment history so that employers know that you are a professional, and have experience in the field and/or position that you are applying for; but do not want to offer too much information as you do not want to bore them with a longer than necessary resume length.

The standard industry answer to this question has long been a standard of ten years employment. So, in the chronology of your employment history, you should list the most recent employment first, and travel back approximately ten years. Though some reference sites say five years is enough, most often employers would rather see ten-if possible.

Why so much time, you may ask? It does seem strange that a company would need to see that much of your background, especially if you have had a great career position in your most recent or second to most recent jobs. Employers are interested in ten years as it shows a pattern of behavior in your career-one that could not be judged in such a short time as five years-but could be more accurately with ten years. The patterns they are looking for are varied, and include how long you stay with a company on average, if the positions match, if the positions and level of responsibility increases, if the same industry is worked in, and what similarities or differences exist between the positions in which you have worked. All of these show what you might offer or not be able to offer a company that you work for in the future. So, for example, if you have a number of short lived positions with employers; potential employers will see that as an inability to commit to a position. Or maybe, you have positions in various unrelated jobs; that looks like you haven’t had a clear focus of your career and maybe subject to change after being employed with their company.

This said, maybe you do not want to go back that far into your employment history, as you do not want employers to see things like this in your past-that might discredit a chance at working for them. What do you do then? There are a couple things that you can do to soften the negativity that might come with discrepancies in the past ten years of your career history. The first is that you can choose to write a functional resume, which is a format that focuses on skills and achievements-rather than employment history. Secondly, you should always include an objective to piece together a disjunctive past in employment. Third, consider elaborating why the discrepancy occurred in the body of your cover letter.