A resume goes back fifteen years in detail and as far as you like in one line. The reader cares about the last two roles, reads the three before that, and skims anything older. So the last ten to fifteen years get bullets, the roles before that get a line each or one line for all of them, and the first job out of school is gone unless it is the reason for something on the page today. The timeline stays whole. The depth drops with age.
Key points
- Detail for the last ten to fifteen years. One line each before that.
- A short role stays if it was a real role. Under six months, it goes, unless it explains a gap.
- One old role earns its bullets back when it is the reason for the next job.
- Drop years from education past ten years out. Keep years on every role.
- Never remove a role to make the career look different. That is the thing a background check finds.
The depth rule
| How long ago | What it gets |
|---|---|
| The last two roles | Three to five bullets each |
| Three to ten years ago | Two or three bullets each |
| Ten to fifteen years ago | One line: title, company, years |
| Over fifteen years ago | One line for all of them, or nothing |
"Earlier roles in design and front-end development, 2004 to 2010" is one line that covers six years honestly. The reader knows you were working. The reader does not need the bullets.
The timeline stays whole. The depth drops with age.
Short roles
A role under six months is a question in the reader's head: what happened? Three cases.
- A contract. Keep it, and mark it "contract" in the title. A six month contract is a complete thing.
- A job that ended fast. The company folded, the role was cut, it was wrong in week two. Keep it if removing it leaves a gap longer than the role. Drop it if the roles either side touch and nobody asks.
- Many short roles in a row. Group them. "Freelance and contract design, 2019 to 2021: clients included X, Y, Z." One heading, one date range, three bullets.
The guide on employment gaps has the sentence for the interview when the question comes.
The old role that still matters
One old role sometimes earns its bullets back. The first job in the industry you are returning to. The role at the company that the posting names as a competitor. The role where you did the thing the posting leads with, before you spent ten years doing something else.
Give it two bullets and a line in the summary that connects it. "Returning to healthcare after eight years in logistics. Three years at Halcyon Health building clinical intake tools." The reader now knows why the old role is there.
Dates
Keep the years on every role. A role without dates reads as a short one, and a resume with no dates reads as a functional resume, which the guide on formats explains is the one everyone distrusts.
Drop the year from education once it is more than ten years old. The degree stays. The year stops a reader doing arithmetic instead of reading.
Months are optional and consistent. Either every role has them or none does. "2021 to 2023" and "Mar 2021 to Jun 2023" are both fine. "2021 to Jun 2023" is a resume that was edited twice.
What never comes off
The roles themselves. A resume that removes a role to make the career look straighter is a resume that a background check contradicts, and the offer goes with it. Reduce a role to one line. Group short roles under one heading. Do not delete.
The exception is roles that do not belong on a professional resume at all: the summer job at nineteen, the part-time work during a degree, the first year out of school when it was twenty years ago. Those were never going to be read.
Reading it from the other side
The recruiter reads the last role first and the one before it second. They look at the dates to see whether the career has moved, and they stop reading roles when they reach one older than the posting's required years. A fifteen-year-old role with four bullets is four bullets they will not read, occupying space the last role needed. Cut from the bottom and give the lines to the top. The guide on resume length has the one-page and two-page rules the cut has to land inside.
Questions
I have twenty-five years. How long is the resume?
Two pages, with the last fifteen years on them in falling depth, and the first ten in two lines at the end of the experience section. The guide on length has the layout.
Does an old job title that no longer exists need explaining?
A line in parentheses: "Webmaster (front-end developer), 2003 to 2006". The reader gets both.
What about a long time at one company?
One company heading, the titles stacked under it with their own dates, bullets under the recent titles. A promotion is a role. Three promotions are three roles under one name.
Do I list a job I was fired from?
Yes, with its dates. The firing is a question for the interview, and the guide on explaining a layoff or a firing has the answer. The role is a fact.
Can I leave out the current job?
If you are employed and searching, the current job is the first role on the resume. Leaving it out is a gap that ends today, which is the worst kind.