Too Many Jobs, Not Enough Space: Listing Work Experience on a Resume

These are great tips, Nancy! As a resume writer, I agree that you should only include information that's relevant to a specific position and employer. I have found that the best way to go about doing this is to keep a master resume. Extract only relevant information and leave out positions/duties that you don't want to promote. For more resume tips, visit the ResumeSpice website: https://resumespice.com/

@Susan they can not ask any personal questions like that. They can not ask for your age or anything about your children. They can not ask if you plan to have additional children either. I would have questioned why they were asking such a question as it's not your children but you who would be doing the job. Refuse to answer is the best response I can offer. If they ask about such things, I would ask them why the questions. Remember everyone - when you go on an interview, it's a two-way street. Not only are they interviewing you but you are interviewing them. There may be something that comes up during the interview that gives you pause. If this is true, make sure that you resolve any doubts prior to accepting a job offer. I know that most of just jump at the offer because we have been out of work for so long and don't care what the job is as long as it's a paycheck. But remember - you spend 40+ hours a week at work - a huge chunk or your life. It would be a shame to accept a position out of desperation only to hate the work and quit. So @Susan - no personal questions are allowed. Your recourse could have been to report this manager to HR.

Quick question. Is it legal for potential employers to ask if you have children, how old they are and grades they are in, as well as where you currently live. ( it's on my resume, but they asked again) If they are asking questions that they shouldn't, what kinds of things can you do to rectify this happening to someone else. I did not want to divulge this information but I felt I had no choice, and did not get the job. This was not HR; but the manager.

Thank you! for your insight

@Keith thanks for your comments and insight. Great way to modify your resume using a combination type resume. The only downside is if you have to complete an online application in which case you must put in dates in order to continue on with the application. And employers know that if you use a sort of hybrid type of resume that you are older and are trying to cover it up. It's unfortunate but true. And keep in mind that this is nothing new. When I was in my youth and starting in the workforce, I didn't have any experience which hurt me. But it wasn't just me that was getting turned away. I saw older people being turned away due to their age. So both age and experience - in the beginning of my career was lack of experience and now, late in my career, it's my age. They get you on both ends. And I am sure someone will come back, who is the "middle" of their career and state that they have the same issues. All we can do is to create the best resume possible, using the appropriate keywords from the job posting and show, in the cover letter, why the company will benefit by hiring us. Best of luck to all.

In order to avoid, the too much experience/too many years in the workforce: AKA Ageism/ Age Discrimination; I've summarized my older experiences totally omitting the dates and basically using a Functional approach. And, then with my more current experience and education I've included the dates. To me, It is a hybrid of the Functional Chronological formats that to some degree alleviates the "you're too old" objections most hiring managers have.

Listing too much work background makes you an easy target for age discrimination and ageism. The problem as I see it in using such a streamlined approach is that invariably, and this is especially true for us older workers is that it sets off a "Red-Flag;" and so many hiring managers condemn your credentials to either the trash or recycling bins. It is a case of damned if you do: and damned if you don't! Too many years of work experience makes you a target of age-bias, ageism and outright discrimination.

Hi Katharine,
Yes I have the same issue. What I do is list my jobs that go back about ten years, then in my summary I state that I have multiple work backgrounds with over 15 years experience. I've learned that some employers are seeking employees that have lots of different experiences.
Its all about how you word it to catch an eye! Good luck.
C Cruz

@Katharine even if my fulltime "work" is volunteering, I would still put that in a separate category - outside of your work experience. Just use another subheader for your Volunteer work and include all of it under that heading. I would actually put that under my actual paid work experience. Has anyone else had experience here that could give Katharine some assistance?

I would personally leave some jobs out of my resume if it was too long. I would also mention in my cover letter that I have additional experience that isn’t directly relevant to the position I’m applying for. This keeps my resume concise and highlights the parts of my career that make me a competitive candidate for the position.

What do you recommend if your most relevant experience is not in your full-time employment history, but in your volunteer work or extracurricular activities? Can that section go at the top of the resume, or would that look too strange? I had this issue while switching careers- I hadn't had a full-time job in my field but had gained lots of experience in associations and doing unpaid work.

If you have a long work history, then I agree that relevancy and recency are your most important resume writing guidelines. I think many experts agree these days that the one page resume format is best. Think of your resume as an ad, selling you. Most people don't want to read a multiple page ad. If you have extended experience in a field then the recommended skills format might be better for your resume. But for best results in today's job market, I think resumes should be succinct.

I agree that leading with your skill set is the way to go if you are changing jobs or have an inconsistent work history. Many of us take jobs outside our fields to just earn a little extra income with the goal of moving in a different direction as soon as possible. Listing the skills acquired in those positions and emphasizing your accomplishments as they relate to the position you are applying for is essential to grabbing the hiring manager's attention and showing that you are a serious candidate.

Thanks for the comments. @Mike that is so true. We, as job seekers, have a tough time realizing just how many resumes a company will receive for one job posting. A hiring manager would never get through the resumes if he had to read all of them. @Erica as @William pointed out, lead with your skillsets. While education is certainly important, education doesn't mean much without the skills to back it up. And remember, you want to try to cull your resume down to one page if at all possible. I know it's tough when at mid-career but honestly, if you are going for a higher level position, why should the hiring manager care if your first position was at McDonald's or that your first degree was in liberal arts? The hiring manager wants to see, in about 6 seconds, if you are a viable candidate or if he should just move on to the next application.

William, while I certainly understand that position, busy managers simply don't have enough time to completely read through every resume. Grabbing their attention by leading with your skillset is important to ensure your resume stays out of the trash. That said, all hiring managers are different there's no 100-percent method.

I understand the need to keep my resume short and to the point, but as a mid-career professional, I have both practical experience and educational achievements that include multiple college degrees and additional certifications. Which should take priority if both my experiences and education are necessary to paint a clear picture of what I can offer an employer?

@Abbey when you add your experiences in the cover letter, make sure that you are showing how that experience, knowledge and skillset can help the company move forward. That's the real purpose in the cover letter now. In the past we used to write a cover letter telling them how much we need the position, why and how we will benefit. Today, it's more about how the company will benefit from hiring us.

I try to include everything that I think is going to advance my resume with a company without sacrificing format and space. If needed, I utilize my cover letter to further expand on my experience to show that I have attained professional growth. I am very careful not to be redundant, but there are certain things on my resume that I feel I need to point out further because they don't stand out enough on their own.

Conciseness and relevancy come out as very key considerations to make my resume more visible to the hiring manager. Suppose I have lots of experience, most of which directly falls in the area of the job that I am applying for, Is it appropriate for me to include the excess skills in a continuous list after the outstanding ones to avoid locking them out?

@Jane sadly ATS is here to stay - at least for the foreseeable future so we just have to adjust if we want to be hired. For every single job that is posted, a company will receive thousands of resumes. If you ever had to go through a stack of resumes, you would understand why the ATS is a necessary evil for companies. In response to your question, the rule of thumb, here in the US, is to only include about the last ten years of employment on your resume. But, even though that is all you send in, you should always have a complete resume at your fingertips and you should take it with you during an interview. Inevitably the hiring manager is going to ask what you did prior to such and such and you don't want to be stumbling around trying to figure out what to say. @Shannon on the cover letter, make sure that you are showing how the company will benefit from hiring you, not how you will benefit.

It's a good thing we (here in the US) can chop out bits of our employment histories to save a little space! In certain other countries, it's actually illegal to leave any information off your resume. As you can probably imagine, that can make for a pretty long document. Proud as I am of my teenaged babysitting experience, I'm glad I'm not legally forced to put it on my resume here in America!

I completely agree with the suggestion to keep the wording concise. The resume should be full of concrete information so you can then elaborate more within the cover letter. This also gives you the opportunity to include more positions that are relevant to the job.

I don't like the "skills first" aspect of a resume format. If I was a hiring manager, that would be red flag number one as I try to decipher what someone tries to hide. I know gaps in employment, especially since the Great Recession, aren't bad things, but a funky resume format may get the job search off to a rocky start.

While I am offended by the use of software to screen out applicants because I feel that should be the job of the hiring manager to personally make those decisions, I also understand the reality that this is how things work now. My question is regarding how many years of employment to list. Your article makes light of younger applicants who can skip their high school jobs, but what about applicants with decades of experience? What are the best practices for older job seekers?