How Far Back Should a CV Go? What to Cut After 10, 15 and 20 Years

The job you had in 2008 is real experience. It is also, for almost every application, irrelevant. The question is not whether an old role counts, but whether it earns space on a page a recruiter reads in seconds. Here is the rule most recruiters apply, and the exceptions that genuinely matter.

The rule: detail 10–15 years, summarise the rest

• Last 10 years: full entries with achievements and numbers. This is what you are being hired for.
• 10–15 years ago: shorter entries, two or three lines each, no more than one or two bullets.
• Older than 15 years: one line under a heading such as «Earlier career»: «Earlier roles in retail management and customer service, 2005–2010». No dates per job.

Why cutting helps rather than hides

Three things happen when old roles stay in full. The CV grows to three pages and the recent work gets less attention. The reader does arithmetic on your age, which no one wants to invite. And outdated tools and titles create noise in keyword matching, pushing the current skills down. Shortening early roles concentrates the reader where you want them.

When an old job still deserves its own entry

• It is the only place you did the exact thing the job ad asks for (a specific industry, system or market).
• It carries a well-known employer name that opens doors in your field.
• You are changing careers back towards it, and the recent decade is the detour.
• It explains a credential or licence you still hold.

A CV is not a record of employment. It is an argument for one job, and old evidence only belongs when it supports that argument.

How many jobs should the CV list?

There is no magic number; the time rule does the work. Most professionals end up with four to six detailed roles and a one-line summary of the rest. If your career has many short jobs, group similar early ones: «Agency and contract roles in graphic design, 2012–2016 (clients included …)».

Country differences

In the US and Canada, the 10–15 year rule is firm and also protects against age bias. In the UK and Ireland, two pages is the norm, so cutting is practical anyway. In Germany and Austria, the tabular Lebenslauf traditionally lists everything, but modern recruiters accept a summarised early career; what they do not accept is unexplained gaps, so keep the summary line's date range. In the Gulf, long, complete histories remain common; summarise rather than omit, and keep the total under three pages.

Education and the same rule

Your degree stays whatever its date, but graduation years can be left off after about 15 years of experience, and school-level qualifications disappear once you have a degree. Old certifications that expired or that no one asks for anymore go too.

Let the analysis decide what to keep

CV Analyz scores each section's relevance against the job you are targeting, shows which early roles are adding length but not points, and rewrites the rest with the recent decade in front.