Hiring managers don’t have long to review each resume. Presenting them with a 10-page account of your professional history is never going to win them over. But how far back should your resume go?
To answer this question, you need to consider what information is vital to your application. You want to keep your resume short and snappy, while illustrating why you’re right for the role.
In this guide, we will cover what you should include in your resume and how long it should be.
How far back should your work history go?
The answer to this question depends on your work experience and seniority level. Let’s take a look at the general answer plus the various scenarios in which it may change.
How many years of experience should be on a resume?
You should include up to between 10 and 15 years of experience on your resume. If you have been working for longer than that, you can leave out jobs that have passed that sell-by date.
Whenever you are considering how back your resume should go, remember that you can be more concise than you think in terms of squeezing your resume into one page. For example, when detailing your work experience, avoid using full paragraphs under each title. Including bullet points that outline your top accomplishments will help you to save space.
Still not sure how far back your resume should go? Let’s take a look at different career stages and discuss the right resume length for each. Check out our expert-backed advice here:
How far back should a graduate resume go?
As a graduate, you need to know how far back to go on your resume. This document should usually be just one page long, especially as you don’t have much experience.
However, you should include your academic grades at school, college and university. You also want to detail major projects and societies that you were involved in (but only if these activities are relevant for the role in question).
It is important to center your resume around the transferable skills that you have acquired in your work experience and in the earliest years of your career.
Your future employer won’t expect a long list of achievements, but they will want to sense that your journey has been leading to this career choice. For recent graduates lacking work experience, including your GPA may give hiring managers an idea of how well they'll perform.
Mind the gap!
It’s best not to leave any gaps in your work experience (if you can help it). However, life happens. If there is a gap for maternity leave or a career break, a quick note and a one-line reason for the break will be fine. You will have a chance to explain at the interview.
How far back should a mid-career resume with 5-15 years of experience go?
The mid-career resume can often still be restricted to one page. To do this, you should minimize your education details. There is often plenty of space to talk about your last 3-4 roles that span the past five to fifteen years.
However, if you have worked for a significant number of employers over this period, it may be worth doing each role justice and increasing the resume size to two pages. Just make sure that it is all relevant if you decide to make this leap.
How far back should a senior professional’s resume (15+ years) go?
When you get over the 15-year mark in your career, things tend to get tricky when it comes to writing a resume and talking about your experience at an interview. Your older experiences do tend to lose their shine amidst the mists of time.
Don’t be tempted to waste resume space on work experience that is over the fifteen year mark. We are sure that you have achieved a lot in the more recent past.
List a couple of previous roles if they are in the target industry and suitable function, the simple fact that you were a sales director fifteen years ago (for example) means that you must have had a pretty solid junior sales career beforehand. That is safely assumed by most employers.
How long should your resume be?
Ideally, your resume should be between one and two pages long. Any longer than that and you run the risk of overwhelming the hiring manager and ruining your chances of success.
But when should you choose a one-page resume over a two-pager? To decide which route is right for you, you need to take a close look at what you want to include. Use our dos and don’ts section below to get the basics down before you get started.
- Aim to create a one-page resume that includes your relevant information.
- Only include job positions from the last 10-15 years of your career.
- Use two pages if you’ve had a long, relevant career and you need the space to share this.
- Keep your writing concise and always edit to make extra space.
- Cram your resume with unnecessary detail to try and make it longer.
- Include work experience that does not align with the vacancy at hand.
- Use two pages simply because you think it will make you look more impressive to the hiring manager.
- Use full paragraphs where you could use bullet points instead.
Follow this golden rule!
Only put relevant information on your resume. These seven words would sum up this blog, but you have to consider what is relevant for the hiring manager and not what seems relevant to you.
Let go of your fond memories of past glories and be honest with yourself about what an employer would find truly impressive. If something from fifteen years ago seems like an average sort of achievement for anyone in your position, don’t bother including it.
When is it okay to have a two-page resume?
In this blog, we have explained that having a one-page resume works the best. That is true in most cases. However, there are times when you need to break the rules.
If you have had a long, illustrious career and every position was relevant, you may need to use a two-page resume to share your prowess. Simply make sure that you are including the most powerful points on this document and not filling it for the sake of it!
Note: If you feel the need to increase the text font to fill the space on a two-page resume and you’re scratching around for barely relevant bullet points, go back to a one-page document.
What about academic resumes?
Academic resumes — also known as CVs — are the main exception here. It is perfectly acceptable to have a five-page resume if you are an academic with a ton of research papers that are relevant to include in the application. In this case, you can break the mold and include as many pages as you need to prove your value to the hiring manager.
Key Takeaways
Perspective is everything in a job search – looking at your application through the hiring manager’s eyes will highlight your strengths and uncover your weaker points. Typically, you should only go back 10-15 years or as far back as it is compellingly relevant for the role.
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