How far back should a CV go?

When it comes to writing CVs, anyone who’s established in their career will find themselves asking “how far back should a CV go?”. The short answer is 10-15 years. It’s not a concrete rule, though, so let’s explore the thinking behind it and when there might be exceptions. 

How much work experience on a CV is appropriate?

As a general rule, the Professional Experience section of a CV should go into detail for the last 10 to 15 years of your career. That’s because, usually, that represents your most senior, relevant, and recent experience. Anything you did before that is unlikely to be particularly relevant to your next steps and probably won’t sell your
key skills persuasively to a recruiter or hiring manager.

What detail is needed in the Professional Experience section?

For roles you’ve held in the last 10-15 years, recruiters will expect to see a brief summary of the remit of your role and a bulleted list of your
achievements in that position. Both parts should include
quantifiable data wherever possible, to help them understand the scale and scope of your contributions. Don’t forget to include a sub-heading with the job title, employer name, and dates of employment for every role you include here.

Should earlier roles be deleted?

There’s no reason to discount your earlier career entirely. It can be helpful to recruiters to see how you’ve progressed and got to where you are today, it’s just that they don’t need as much detail. It’s recommended that you create an Early Career Summary section, listing just your job titles, employer names, and years of employment. In fact, if you’re worried about
age discrimination, you can eliminate the dates altogether. No further detail is required for any role in this section.

When you’re creating this section, it’s entirely up to you how far back you go. If you only have two or three roles in this section, you can include them all. If there are rather more, you can choose to list every single one or you can remove the earlier ones – particularly if they’re not relevant to your more recent career. A Saturday job in a newsagent can safely be removed if you’re aiming for a Head of IT role, for example.

What are the exceptions to the rule on how far back a CV should go?

Of course, where there are rules there are also exceptions, so use your judgement on how far back your CV goes in detail. Always view the CV through the eyes of your reader. Will earlier roles help a hiring manager to decide whether to invite you to an interview? Do they show off any skills that your more recent roles don’t? There are several common exceptions, for example:

A career break

If you’ve had a
career break within the last 10-15 years, it’s sensible for the experience section of your CV to go back further. For example, someone taking 5 years out to raise a family could add that period to the recommended 10-15 years, meaning their CV will cover the last 15-20 years in the Professional Experience section. That would include a brief one- or two-line explanation for the gap.

A change of direction

If you fancy a
career change, you may find that experience gained earlier in your career is more relevant to your next steps than your more recent experience. In that case, you can write your recent experience in just a few lines and dedicate more space to your earlier career. Remember to summarise anything that’s not important, to avoid the CV getting too long or repetitive.

Additional skills

If you gained skills early in your career that would be relevant to your next steps, you can expand on your earlier career if those skills aren’t evident elsewhere on the CV. As always, focus on minimising irrelevant detail.

Focus on what your reader wants to see

A good rule of thumb when writing the Professional Experience section on your CV is to focus on what will help your reader. Prioritise information that will sell you into the role you’re applying for and summarise (or delete) anything else.

Next steps

We’ve discussed how far back a CV should go, when it’s OK to break the rules, and what information can safely be removed. You have all the information you need to create an engaging Professional Experience section that aligns perfectly with
the requirements of your ideal job.

If you’re still unsure, it may be time to call in some help. Have you considered a
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