How Far Back Should A Resume Go?
Recent Blogs
 By Vidhi Mishra       Jan 24, 2023



Due to the ever growing population in today’s generation, job searching is more common than before. If you're not receiving many job interview calls or responses to your job applications, it might be because you've included every role you've ever held since the beginning.

To be honest, recruiters and hiring managers aren't interested in seeing your whole employment history. Certain factors must be considered while creating a professional resume as it serves as the foundation for your job application. The common practice to build a resume is to keep work experience of 10 to 15 years in the experience section. It can depend on a person’s work history and experience. In general, if a position provides you with useful experience and abilities that are relevant to your employment aim, you should include it on your resume.

By the end of this article you will have a proper knowledge on how much valuable work experience is needed in a resume.

2. Entry Level Positions

This position mostly consists of students having low or almost no experience in the relative field.

How far back should a resume go when you don’t have any experience?

With no job titles under your belt, you can try listing out the academic achievements and other achievements that you have gained until now. If you are in college and have engaged in any meaningful extracurricular activities, they can also be added to your resume. For entry level positions, consider highlighting any leadership responsibilities you’ve held as well as the volunteer experiences that demonstrate your creativity. Most hiring companies can tell when a resume is full of filler.

Continuing educational classes can be added to a portion of your resume devoted to special interests or hobbies, since this reflects an ambitious commitment to enhancing your technical abilities. The main focus should be on the post graduation experience whether it be your part time job, full time jobs, unpaid internships or volunteering. Proper guidance is most significant and important during this period which is why you should refer to our Services for maximizing opportunities with your limited skill set.

2. Mid Level Positions

People in these positions usually apply at a mid level vacancy having 2-5 years of experience.

How far back should a resume go when you have mid level experience?

This is the time to filter out college experience. Now that you have gained more experience, it is the time to start presenting the history of your career experiences on your professional resume. Make sure your cover letter and resume format is relevant to the specific job or industry you are seeking for each time you apply for a new job. At this stage in your career, your resume should simply include your most recent and relevant job experience following graduation. That means excluding the academic projects, awards from your resume.

In addition to a job experience area you can include your skills as this area helps demonstrate to your hiring manager that you have the necessary skills and abilities for the post. You can highlight a few key traits you have, such as communication skills, adaptability, and dependability. Make cautious not to overdo it and just mention those you are passionate about. You can also add personal projects that fit with your job possibility are a wonderful approach to demonstrate to a hiring manager your devotion and internal determination to succeed in your work.

3. Senior Level Positions

When it comes to senior positions, the recruiter often looks for candidates having lots of professional experience.

How far back should a resume go when you have 10-15 years of experience?

By the time you have been working for 10-15 years, it is recommended to list out the work experiences from your career histories depending on your job application. You can use the job you are applying for as a guide to decide whether to keep or discard a past job position on your resume. When you have multiple job titles under your belt, you may want to consider dividing your work experience into two categories:

Related Experience:

Include the roles and responsibilities that are related to your job target with proper details that highlight your accomplishments.

Other Experience:

You can list unrelated positions you had within the last 10-15 years without proper job description so that there are no visible gaps on your CV format.

Assume you worked as a software developer for a software company for four years. You were then given a position as managing director at another company, where you worked for the following eight years.

For this career change, you should definitely minimize details of your four years as a software engineer in order to include more information about your accomplishments as a managing director while updating your CV. In this case, you can also include you part time job if they are more relevant to the job description. Hiring managers are more likely to be interested in what you have accomplished in your most recent position than where you worked more than 12 years ago. Doing this will keep your experience clear and to the point so that the recruiter doesn’t have to research for it in a more extensive career history.

4. People Returning To Work After A Large Break

If you've taken a gap from your work that causes most or all of your experience to fall outside of it - for example, to raise children, recover from an accident or even taking care of family - you'll need to go back a bit further on your resume. This is OK, but you should explain why your most recent job experience is so distant. This can be done in a cover letter or at the top of the page in a resume summary. Cover Letter Writing with proper format can indefinitely increase your chances of landing a job.

However, you should consider how relevant your previous experience is while deciding what to include and exclude. And make sure to add everything you've done during that time, whether it's part-time work, a side business, or anything else to keep you current in your industry.

Mistakes To Avoid While Making Resume

  • Do not add work experience that exceeds more than 15 years in the resume formats.
  • Avoid listing all of the experiences you have ever had.
  • Don’t make your resume too long as your recruiter will not be interested in reading a long list of details of your work in the experience section.
  • Avoid mentioning too many irrelevant experiences, since this may make the recruiting manager believe you lack the requisite skills.

What Should You Include In Your Resume?

There are several sorts of resumes to examine. The length of your resume is determined by your employment history and the sort of job you are seeking for. Consider the industry, and the role in the company that you are applying for. Examine the job description to determine exactly what talents they need if your experience fits, the next thing you should do is to portray that experience in a way that demonstrates your trustworthiness.

Overall, it is up to you to mention what comes naturally while applying for a job or gaining new experience. Some resumes, such as those in academia, are more descriptive and may exceed more than two pages. For most jobs, it is preferable to keep them as brief as possible. Most essential of all, you should highlight the experiences on your resume to show as the greatest candidate possible for that position. It will make the job searching process a lot quicker and efficient.

Why Choose Us?

Resume Making Service is a resume writing and personal brand profiling service. It is a leading company in career and job seeking solutions and a game changer in employment services. We succeed because we genuinely care about your success. We want to work as architects in your future. This is why our clients keep referring their friends and family to us for career advice.

Our expert specialists meet all of the credentials and experience necessary for this role. We provide customized, personalized resume writing service that begins with expert tips and consultation to analyze your accomplishments, social and emotional intelligence, skills, and professional assets as well as resume guides.

We match this information for the next move in your career by providing proper Career Advice for Jobseekers . Whether it's an internal promotion, a new post, a different industry, or a total career transition, we have your back covered. We provide counseling to people and not only that, but our one-of-a-kind job interview preparation service can help you prepare for any interview.