What Jobs Do I Keep On My Resume?

The question was posed on Quora today: “How do you know what jobs to put on a resume and when to take them off?” This question is important as you need to know when too much is indeed too much on your resume.

Once you have added your most recent jobs and you start getting down into jobs that are 10, 15, 20 years old you need to ask yourself “will this add value to my resume, or am I just trying to fill up space” It is always important to remember that your resume is your sales pitch, so you want to ensure that the content listed is relevant to the new job posting you are applying for and is portrayed in a concise manner.

Let’s say you are in IT and you are currently applying for Director-level roles, I would say that the retail job you had while in school over 10 years ago does not need to be on your resume, as it doesn’t add any real value.

However, if you are a recent graduate and you are just getting your foot in the door then it is okay to include some of the irrelevant jobs you did in your past. But try and pull out as many transferable skills as you can so. Did you gain exceptional customer-service skills or work with teams on a daily basis? What did you do prior and how can it be applied to this new role.

At the end of the day, whatever the case may be just ask yourself, “does it add value” and then go from there and use your best judgment.

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