How Far Should You Go - Every Situation Differs
How far back should you go? In the industry, we use the 10-year rule, which means we cover about 10 years of work history when writing resumes.
However, there’s a more important rule: recency and relevancy.
You satisfy this rule in part by focusing your writing on the recent and relevant knowledge, skills, and training your clients have.
Employers are busier than ever, despite the promise of ATS technology, which is why you MUST write MOST about what your client has done in his/her RECENT positions that satisfy their “now” goal.
This is all well and good when the client is pursuing another similar position.
But what if the client is changing careers?
Let’s take a Purchasing Supervisor for a machine manufacturer as an example. With a crisp hospitality certification in hand, she shifts her focus to hospitality management.
We immediately recognize the importance of her supervisory skills—that's easy. Yet, we also recognize that the manufacturing industry is less desirable for her new job focus.
With this in mind, our resume writing strategy would avoid writing anything about manufacturing, machine work, equipment buys, and production.
Once we recognize the job details to stay away from, we look for recent and relevant skills to build upon that are relevant to hospitality employers.
For example, she has experience:
- Managing staff and dealing with high-turnover staff environments
- Auditing and controlling departmental finances/costing
- Implementing new standard operating procedures (SOPs) to drive operational efficiencies
- Hiring and onboarding new hires and conducting annual performance reviews
- Purchasing products and services while supporting building maintenance and safety
Did you notice that we “dialed the content” of her recent job so that it expands upon what's most recent and relevant?
