February 6, 2006 at 9:02 am
Anyone have an idea how much information I should put on my resume?
Right now, much resume goes back to 1966 when I joined the Air Force and the 20 + years I spent with the AF to jobs I found after I got out of the AF to my last 12 years in my current job. Should I just list the last 12 years?
February 6, 2006 at 12:10 pm
I generally limit my resume to relevant experience. That doesn't mean that only those jobs in the same field make it on the resume. But I try to highlight experience that the company is looking for, or that I think they are looking for.
That said, I think it is pretty standard to include the last 10 years of employment history, regardless. In your case you have much more than 10 years of work history, so what I have done is list the last 10 years, and include a "Professional Highlights" area where I can list specific accomplishments, regardless of when they occurred. This makes my "Work History" section rather short (meaning it doesn't take a lot of space on paper) but then I can make the "Professional Highlights" the centerpiece of my resume where I "toot my horn" so to speak.
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If most people are not willing to see the difficulty, this is mainly because, consciously or unconsciously, they assume that it will be they who will settle these questions for the others, and because they are convinced of their own capacity to do this. -Friedrich August von Hayek
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February 7, 2006 at 3:58 am
I have been getting varied advice back and forth on this for years.
I just landed a job doing exactly what I want, after the head hunter who steered me there advised me to wipe out the most ancient of my experience and amplify the current, relevant technology skills and experience.
I agree with dcp - each resume should simply address one job description.
Length? it should be like a tasteful mini-skirt: Long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting.
A good resume introduces topics in a way that tempts (guides) the interviewer to ask questions for which you have the greatest answers.
February 7, 2006 at 7:10 am
I got to two pages, and start to drop things when I get longer. The other thing I do is reduce the amount of description in older jobs, so the last 1 or 2 on my resume only have position,company, dates on them.
February 7, 2006 at 12:14 pm
I am a contractor and my resume has a lot of milage on it. i use it on a regular basis. the number of pages and the information in the resume is all relevant. my general resume has has four pages, the goal is to deliver the punch in the first page. I customize my resume for any position i apply for.
As for how far back on the work experience, it depends on the type of work. In business the more the marrier, but in IT I wouldn't go back further than 10-15 years. Any thing beyond that would not be deemed relevant since technology changes so much so fast.
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