How To Handle Old Job Experience on a Resume

Today's NY Times published a news story about the difficulties older workers face in obtaining employment after a layoff. Older workers fear age discrimination, a loss of their homes from medical expenses and, most importantly, a loss of their personal self-esteem. I work with this age group in my job consulting service and they do face roadblocks, especially if they do not have high-demand skills (e.g., tech skills in the cloud, mobile and IT security sectors). But older workers get hired if they learn some inside tricks of the trade.

One of the issues older workers debate about is how to handle their job experience. They ask, if I place all my experience on my resume, employers will think I am too old, right? It's a valid concern. I have studied recruiter/employer sourcing behavior. It's like clock work: they look at the skills, the education and only the most current job; they never contact anyone for an interview for a job where the candidate's experience is not current unless it is in an area where there are no other job candidates. But this is a rare occurrence. 

So, how should a job seeker handle his/her job experience greater than 10+ years ago? Should you list all of it? Should you truncate your resume to only 10 years? And, if you shorten the time span of the resume, doesn't that amount to eliminating valuable job experience you developed over the years?

It's a tough question to answer. Let me go through a recent example to see how one job seeker handle the "age problem." After that, I will outline my recommendation on this topic.

This job seeker has more than 15 years of experience on this resume. He earned a Master's Degree in 2009 and was laid off in June 2012. Here is the basic outline of his job experience on his resume:
 
Operations Manager, ABC PROPERTIES, INC., Milwaukee, WI. (January 2005 – June 2012)

• Independently manage day-to-day business operations at Wisconsin Self Storage facility 
  Manage customer accounts, leasing, accounts receivables, delinquent accounts/collections, maintenance supervision, and security monitoring

Retail Manager, HORIZON CORPORATION, Gary, IN. (May 2001- January 2005)

• Assist with day-to-day business operations, collaborate with ownership to improve sales/service 
• Supervise and manage part-time employees; including selection, training, scheduling and accountability processes 

Assistant Testing Administrator, ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY, Peoria, IL  (August 1998- May 2003)

• Mentor and advise undergraduate Psychology students for testing/exam purposes
• Supervise exams, assist students during exams, implement testing policies, ensured lab security 

OTHER EMPLOYMENT: Team Leader (AGC), Sales (Bill Owens VOLKSWAGEN), Shift Foreman (Caterpillar), Loading Supervisor (UPS)

This job seeker only mentioned his old experience (beyond 15 years ago). He clearly wanted a recruiter to focus on his most recent management experience. This is fine. But what got him to his most current position? Look at his early positions. They were all supervisory in nature. So, they support his career path and tell his career story. But look at the last position he detailed: Assistant Testing Coordinator. This looks like a low-level, administrative job that he was overqualified for. Why does this job merit a description yet a job as a Shift Foreman at Caterpillar does not?

In essence, he has chosen to strangle his most relevant and supporting experience because he wanted to highlight only his most recent jobs. I see this as the manifestation of his concern over his age. But has it served him well? At this moment in time he is still unemployed and interviewing. He's been passed over for jobs several times. I guess his approach isn't working that well.

All resumes have compromises. One cannot mention everything. If you did it would be a career manifesto instead of a resume! But, my recommendation is a compromise: choose the most relevant experience to detail on your resume for the specific position you are seeking. Everything else should be deleted. Experience older than 10 years is fine if it is relevant to the job application because it builds credibility. Here's how I would have done this job seeker's resume if he was seeking some type of operations management position:

Operations Manager, ABC PROPERTIES, INC., Milwaukee, WI. (January 2005 – June 2012)

• Independently manage day-to-day business operations at Wisconsin Self Storage facility 
  Manage customer accounts, leasing, accounts receivables, delinquent accounts/collections, maintenance supervision, and security monitoring

Retail Business Manager, HORIZON CORPORATION, Gary, IN. (May 2001- January 2005)

• Assist with day-to-day business operations, collaborate with ownership to improve sales/service 
• Supervise and manage part-time employees; including selection, training, scheduling and accountability processes

Team Leader, AGC, Hawkins, MO. (May 1995- January 2003)

• Provide leadership to team; communicate results and issues to adjacent shifts, complete manpower plans, conduct daily quality and productivity start-up meetings.  
• Train associates and temporaries, audit training and identify future training needs. 

 Shift Foreman, CATERPILLAR, Peoria, IL (May 1990- Jan 1995)

• Oversee safety and security procedures, implements organizational policies and goals, measures performance to budget.
• Supports the general supervisor in budget analysis and adherence, assists in production control projects, manages work pack in accordance with production control plan, plans overtime and schedules resources as required.

 This version has more impact despite the employment gaps, which can be explained if asked. It demonstrates a defined career path in the operations/production area and gives credibility for his being a good candidate for an operations management position. I deleted the least relevant and earliest jobs because they didn't add value to his hiring appeal.