Resume Writing - How long should the experience portion of my resume be?

Host: How long should the experience section of a resume be?

Louise Kursmark: That is a big, it depends, answer. The answer really is that how much as important, what is relevant to your current goals. The important thing to keep in mind is that the resume is a marketing document. It is not a listing of every job that you would have ever held. So, you don't want to be fooled into thinking that you must include everything that you done in your resume.

You want to pick and chose the most relevant, most significant experiences that present a cohesive picture of who you are and put them on a resume and be willing to talk about other periods of time or other experiences in the interview. That's okay to do, you don't need to include them on a resume or feel that you are getting defensive about including them on the resume. So, some people like to say I am going to back ten years, I am going to go back 15 years. I don't want to go back too much father because I don't want to appear too old. That is the common concern, I would suggest that you use the experience as appropriate and include that was just going to be beneficial to your current situation when writing your resume.