How Far Back Should A Resume Go?

It’s likely that your resume will be the first thing a potential employer sees from you. It’s your opportunity to introduce yourself and make a good first impression. Your resume is also likely to be competing with many other resumes, and recruiters won’t want to wade through years and years of backstory to get to the reasons why you’re the best candidate for the job. How much employment history should you include to make the right impression without boring potential employers? How far back should a resume go? In this post, we’ll help you determine how much of your work history should be on your resume to help you move into the interview stage faster.

What should I include in my resume?

Before we get into the timescale your resume should cover, we should explore the kind of employment history and experience that will make your resume appeal to recruiters.

There are plenty of ways to make your resume stand out, but one of the best is to tailor your resume as much as you possibly can to the person reading it.

The first and most obvious way to do this is to give recruiters exactly what they’ve asked for. Check the requirements of the job listing and stick to those as closely as possible.

For example, if the listing asks for no more than 5 years of employment history, resist the temptation to talk about your award-winning work a decade ago. If they ask only for relevant experience with no time limit, then talk about work you’ve done in that industry many years ago but leave out your recent stint in an entirely different job.

If the job listing doesn’t ask for specifics then, as a general rule think ‘Relevant and recent’. Rather than going right back to your high school achievements, think about what you’ve done recently that is most pertinent to the job you’re applying for.

Why ‘recent’? Why shouldn’t you include your older experiences? Well, you can (and should!) if they’re directly relevant to the role in question, but recruiters might think that historical experience is less applicable. Rightly or wrongly, some might assume that your skills have faded over time. What’s more, the software and systems you used in the past might well be changed beyond recognition by now.

For example, if you were an accountant for a non-profit twenty years ago, you may well be familiar with the financial challenges faced by non-profits, but will you be familiar with modern non-profit accounting software? The world of accounting has changed a lot in the past few decades, so accountancy recruiters may be more interested in your knowledge of modern accounting tech than in historical accounting experience.

When deciding what to include in your resume, prioritize experience with the most relevance to the role. This doesn’t necessarily have to be job experience, either. Sometimes, a qualification or completed project or course certificate that’s highly useful for the job at hand is more valuable to recruiters than time spent in unrelated employment.

Remember, though, that the further back that experience is, the more likely recruiters are to disregard it. Think ‘relevant’ and ‘recent’ when compiling a list of experience for your resume.

And if you’re thinking about being tighter with the experience. A one page resume is often three recent jobs with three bullet points each. The goal of your resume should be to focus on your biggest resume accomplishments. If you have more than three bullet points, you’re likely listing off duties instead of accomplishments. If you want to highlight your expertise, focus on the most attractive goals you’ve hit at your most recent companies. You don’t have to go too far back or include a laundry list of job experiences to attract a hiring manager. Focus on your greatest accomplishments and you’ll sell yourself even with fewer examples.

How far back should a resume cover?

There’s no solid, universally accepted timescale for a resume. A lot depends on the job you are applying for, your personal situation, and many other factors that affect how far back your resume should go.

In general, your resume shouldn’t go back more than 5-10 years. But not everyone can properly express their career and relevant experience within that time frame, and not every recruiter wants to see either as much or as little as 5-10 years.

What factors affect how far back my resume should go?

If you’re not sure how far back your resume should go, here are some factors to think about:

Resume gaps

Do you have any big employment gaps in your resume? For example, you may have taken time off to have a family. If so, it might be worth going back a bit further in order to fit in all your relevant experience. Don’t forget to explain the gap in your resume or cover letter. It’s likely that you’ll be asked about it at an interview, so don’t leave it a mystery. If you want to mask your employment gap, you might include some volunteer work, side projects, or entrepreneurial endeavors to help pad out your resume, particularly if caused by an employment gap.

Industry trends

What industry are you applying for? Some industries want to see more evidence of experience than others. For example, if you are applying for a skilled medical job then detailing a long career in your field will be very relevant. Alternatively, if you’re applying to executive roles, people want to see more information, so longer resumes make more sense. On the other hand, if you are applying for a job in a fast-moving industry like AI, experience from more than a few years back is likely to be obsolete by now. When joining booming industries, showing fewer but relevant jobs makes you a more attractive candidate. People will be looking to see you have the right skills rather than a long line of them.

Career changes

Are you changing careers? If so, your best experience may be irrelevant to a hiring manager. It might be worth culling some less relevant but more recent experience in order to bring your recent skills into the spotlight. If you previously worked in an industry then did a change and went back to the previous industry, you might choose to surface older jobs. However, industry trends change often. So, career changers are better off putting recent projects, skills, and education for transitioning into a new career path.

Seniority levels

Are you applying for a senior position? If so, hiring managers may want a fuller overview of your history. Evidence of long experience is nearly always beneficial when applying for senior roles. Also, for more experienced roles, people are looking for more T-shaped skills, meaning broad skills with depth in one or two areas. If you're in a more junior role, you should include relevant roles in your field. You shouldn’t include jobs in fast food if you’re applying for your first few roles in finance. You want to stick with highlighting internships or other relevant roles in the field you’re hoping to work in.

Job description asks

What is the employer asking for in the job description? Some jobs will ask for resumes to include only relevant experience, or experience within a certain time period. If so, honor those requirements. Don’t overshare more than requested in hopes that they’ll see past it. Instead, focus on selling yourself as a candidate with less information but more impactful insights.

What if I want to include older experience in my resume?

It can be hard to pare a lifetime of work and experience down to a few short years and a handful of qualifications. We’re often proud of our achievements and want to showcase them so that recruiters get a fuller picture of who we are and what we’re capable of.

The problem is that recruiters will be reading through many, many applications and may not be able to dedicate the time to get to know you through your resume. A resume should be an introduction that piques recruiters’ interest. The ‘get to know you’ bit happens in the next stages of the hiring process.

One of the first tips that anyone advising you how to write a resume will give is to keep it pertinent and easily digestible. This usually means keeping it as brief as possible. Brevity and detailing a long career’s worth of experience don’t mix well, which is why it’s best to focus on what’s most recent and relevant.

That being said, if you have a lot of relevant experience, or just feel like your past experience is worth including for whatever reason, there are some ways to it that make it easier for recruiters to digest:

• Section your resume by timeframe. For example, you might list your work experience in five-year chunks (2020-2025, 2013-2018, 2008-2012 etc). This way, recruiters can easily skip over older experience if they want to.
• Divide your resume into ‘Relevant experience’ and ‘Employment history’. In the ‘Relevant experience’ section (which ideally should come first) detail what you’ve done or achieved that will help you in the job you’re applying for. Then, in the ‘Employment history’ section you can briefly run through your past jobs, perhaps in bullet point format. Again, this helps recruiters to focus on what’s important to them while still allowing them to get a fuller picture of your working life if they want to.
• Use a resume template. There is a range of resume templates and resume builders out there which can help you fit more into your resume without sacrificing brevity.
• If you have a website or LinkedIn profile, provide a link in your resume. This way, if recruiters are interested in your past experience they can click through and get to know you in more detail.

Think ‘recent’ and ‘relevant’ to build the best resume

Deciding what to include in your resume can be tough. We view our pasts and experience very differently from the way in which recruiters will view them.

We feel personal pride in our achievements and have many memories attached to our former jobs. Recruiters, on the other hand, have none of that context. They are simply looking for experience that will help you to do the best possible work in the role you’re applying for.

In order to get the best chance of being invited to interview, focus on making life easy for recruiters. Give them exactly what they’ve asked for. If that’s a detailed list of all your past employment, give them everything you’ve done. If that’s nothing but relevant experience, pare your resume down to the achievements, projects, qualifications, skills, and jobs that will be of the most help in the role you’re applying for.

If the job listing doesn’t specify anything, think ‘recent’ and ‘relevant’. Unless you’re fresh out of high school, don’t take your employment history back more than 5 or 10 years, and give the most page space to experience that will be useful if you get the job.

To start building your resume, you can use the AI resume builder designed by Huntr to help you craft an amazing resume while keeping your resume brief. You can sign up for Huntr today.