CV Once

Writing a CV after a long career

Detail for the last 10 to 15 years, one-liners for earlier roles, and no dates that do no work.

With twenty or thirty years of work behind you, the problem isn’t finding things to say. It’s choosing. A CV that gives every role equal space runs to four pages, buries your recent achievements and makes your age the most obvious fact on the page. A CV for a long career gives the most room to recent, relevant work and summarises the rest.

How far back to go

A common rule of thumb is to cover roughly the last 10 to 15 years in detail. That’s guidance, not a rule, and it bends either way:

  • Go further back if an older role is directly relevant to the job (for example, you’re returning to a type of work you did earlier) or if it’s the source of a big, still-relevant achievement.
  • Go less far back if your recent roles are long and rich, or the early ones are in an unrelated field.

The test for each role: would the reader miss it? If not, it can shrink to a line or go.

The “Earlier career” section

Roles before your cut-off don’t have to vanish. List them briefly under a heading such as Earlier career or Previous experience, one line each, with or without dates:

Earlier career - Regional Sales Manager, Halden Foods - Area Sales Executive, Halden Foods - Graduate Sales Trainee, Brightwell Packaging

or, as one line:

Earlier roles in sales and account management at Halden Foods and Brightwell Packaging.

This shows the shape of your career (progression, sector, employers a reader might recognise) without spending space on detail. If an early role contains one standout achievement, give it a single bullet.

Tip: Leaving dates off the “Earlier career” lines is a common and accepted choice. Keep full dates on your detailed roles, so the main work history reads normally.

Graduation years and other dates

Your degree still matters; the year you got it usually doesn’t. Many experienced candidates drop graduation years from the education section:

Before: BA (Hons) Economics, University of Westmoor, 1991

After: BA (Hons) Economics, University of Westmoor

Two cautions:

  • Be consistent. If you drop the year from your degree, drop it from older qualifications too. A school-leaving year left in gives the game away anyway.
  • Don’t misrepresent. Leaving a date off is fine; changing one isn’t. Application forms and background checks may ask for exact dates, and you should give them accurately when asked.

The builder checks that your date formats are consistent and that end dates come after start dates. An undated “Earlier career” list is fine; mixing “2019” with “Mar 2021” in your detailed roles isn’t.

What to cut from a long-career CV

  • Old technology and outdated skills. Listing software that no one uses any more dates you without helping you.
  • Long lists of early training courses. Keep recent and still-relevant qualifications.
  • “Over 25 years’ experience” in the summary. It’s tempting to lead with tenure, but it invites the reader to calculate your age and tells them little. Lead with what you do and what you’ve achieved instead.
  • Personal details. In the UK and US, date of birth isn’t expected and is usually left off. The builder flags it. See personal details.

Before: Highly experienced sales professional with over 30 years in the food industry.

After: Sales director who has built and led national account teams in food manufacturing, most recently growing grocery revenue at Halden Foods from £42m to £61m over four years.

Recent roles: show current impact

Use the space you’ve saved to make your last two or three roles strong, with measurable results. A long career also gives you something early-career candidates don’t have: patterns. Show them.

Before: Managed various restructuring projects over the years.

After: Led three regional restructures (2016, 2019, 2023), each delivered on time and with retention of key account staff above 90%.

Show you’re current where it’s relevant: recent training, tools you use now, or how your work has changed. This addresses an unspoken worry (that experience means being set in your ways) without mentioning it.

Length

For a long career, two pages is common in the UK and acceptable for senior US résumés; three can be fine for some senior or technical roles in Europe, but it’s rarely necessary. If you’re over two pages, the cuts above are usually enough. See CV length by country.

Age discrimination: what the law says

Age is protected in employment in many countries. Two examples:

  • United States: the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protects applicants and employees aged 40 and over from age-based discrimination in hiring, promotion, pay and other terms of employment. It applies to employers with 20 or more employees; state laws may go further. The EEOC publishes guidance.
  • United Kingdom: the Equality Act 2010 lists age as one of nine protected characteristics, and protects people of any age, not only older workers. Treating someone less favourably because of their age is unlawful unless it can be objectively justified.

Other countries have their own laws, including the EU’s employment equality framework, which member states implement nationally.

These laws make age discrimination unlawful, but they can’t stop a reader from drawing conclusions from your dates. That’s why the editing choices above (detailed recent history, summarised early career, no graduation years) are common: they keep the focus on what you can do now. They’re your choice, not a requirement, and some people prefer to show their full timeline. Either is legitimate.

Watch out: Don’t try to look younger by misstating anything. Omitting old dates is editing; changing them is dishonest and can cost you the job later.

A structure that works

  1. Contact details
  2. Summary: what you do, your level, one or two headline achievements
  3. Key skills or areas of expertise (short, matched to the job ad)
  4. Experience: last 10 to 15 years in detail
  5. Earlier career: one line per role, or one line for all
  6. Education and qualifications (no years if you prefer)
  7. Professional memberships, if relevant

The Meridian template’s coloured date lines keep a long work history easy to scan, and the Ledger template suits traditional fields such as finance and law.

Next: see dates on a CV for formatting dates consistently.