How Many Jobs Should I Include On My Resume?
Hiring managers these days have hundreds of applications coming to their table every day. They hardly have the time, resources, and capable hands to sort it out. Hiring managers spend less than 5 minutes on a candidate’s resume. The choice to move you forward or discard you will be decided in minutes, you have to make every minute count. You must give a clear picture of your accomplishments, skills, and experience. One of the most important parts of your resume is the job list section. This section gives details of your prior work experience, job responsibilities, and skills.
A clear and concise overview of your relevant experience will help convince an employer of your capability to carry out the task related to the role you are applying for. It is your opportunity to highlight the contributions you have made to previous employers, the skills you gained from there, and what you are capable of contributing to any future company. When writing a resume, the most important factors to consider is relevancy and clarity. The standard size of a resume is 2 to 3 pages for an experienced person and 1 for an entry-level candidate. Every word that is written on that paper should be communicating an idea. Every word should send a message. The hiring manager needs to be able to quickly scan through your resume and get a picture of who you are. Your resume should be clear and precise. You might not have the opportunity to be there physically to prove the hiring manager’s thoughts wrong. The hiring manager might not also have the time to call you to confirm certain details. Do not put your fate on a weighing scale. A candidate’s resume should be easy to read, and well organized.
A well-structured resume is a key to landing an interview invite. Do not let an employer kick you out before you even get the chance to prove your worth. Having said all this, you might be wondering how a professional with several years of experience will be able to put it on 2 to 3 pages of a resume. The key is knowing what is relevant. This is why the requirements for most job adverts will say “RELEVANT JOB EXPERIENCE”. The employer knows you have a cascade of experience, but is it relevant to the role you are applying for? The number of jobs you should include on your resume depends on the specifics of the company and the position you are applying for. The jobs that are most relevant to the position or job role should be considered first. Indeed, a resume job list section is usually written in descending order, with the most recent on top while the older ones come after, but if the experience that is most relevant to the job is amongst the old job experience do not discard it in the quest to give a concise resume. Instead, remove a much recent work experience that is irrelevant to the role.
How to list the right number of jobs on a resume
There is no specific number of jobs to be listed on a resume. Just bear in mind that your resume should be concise and relevant to the job role. Generally, it is advised to outsource the writing of your resume to experienced resume writers that know the pros and cons of a resume. But on the other hand, if you have chosen to prepare your resume on your own, the. The following guide can help you ensure your resume job list section is clear, concise, and relevant.
Use the job description as a guide
A resume should be dynamic. There is no general resume for all jobs. The crafting and shaping of your resume should depend on the job you are applying for. Your resume should be molded to fit the job listing or description of the company you are applying to. Pay attention to every detail in that job description, it will not only aid you in writing your resume but also during your interview. Prioritize experiences and skills that are relevant to the specific job opening. With the ATS doing its wonders on resumes, it is relevant to include those keywords that will put you on top of the list. If that role is one of the earliest roles you held, put it in and scrape out an irrelevant role from the job list. If an entry-level, volunteer, or internship position you held in the past will make the best impression of your relevant skills then consider putting it before a full-time position that has nothing to offer to the current job opening.
Create a Meaningful timeline
A comprehensive resume will give a hiring manager an idea of where you started, how you have progressed to date and a little bit of intel on how the future is going to be. Your job history outlines your professional timeline. Gaps in employment history are always a cause for alarm to most recruiters. A smart recruiter would not just eliminate a candidate because of that but would invite the candidate to fill in the gaps. To be on the safe side it is better to present a resume with not much gap in the employment history. But if for any reason the gap is unavoidable, then always explain the reason in your cover letter. Better to be safe than sorry.
Format your job list section properly
Allow Google to be your best friend. There is nothing that Google cannot help you with. The answer to every question is just one click away. If you are confused about how to carry out a specific task, why not check out how others did it. Consult online templates and resume samples by experts to get an idea of what your resume should look like. The job list section of a resume is usually written in reverse chronological order, including the date you were employed to the date you left the position. Maintain a consistent font size, style, color, and bullet. Also, maintain consistent grammar and style. If you are using American English, use it till the end.
Work experience should span between 1 to 15 years
Generally, the maximum acceptable years of experience on a resume is usually 15 years. Listing more than 15 years of work experience will not disqualify you but will only elongate your resume. Remember the standard for a resume is 2 to 3 pages, maximum of 4. To maintain this guideline it is advisable to limit your work experience to 15 years. Most employers are satisfied with a maximum of 15 years of experience. Naturally, you might feel the need to ensure that your experience level sufficiently describes who you are. To keep the list concise and precise, you can simplify your entries. The old or more irrelevant experience should only contain the employer’s name, job title, and the number of years you held the role. No need to describe the job function as this will occupy space.
Move some details to the qualification summary
A qualification summary acts as a resume introduction. It’s a great way to summarize your strengths and accomplishment using 5 to 6 bullet points. It acts as a mini-extension of a candidate’s work history. If you have other skills or work experience that you do not want to include in the main work experience section, you can chip it in the general summary. This will ensure that the hiring manager will have an idea of that skill or experience you have excluded from the job list section. Another excellent way is to include it in your skill section. You might have excluded the role from the job list section because it is not directly relevant to the position you are applying to, but there might be some skills that you gained from that role that is relevant to the position you are applying to. Add those skills you gained in the resume skill section.