Re: How to mention distant-past experience on a resume?

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

I'm too old to care anymore.

I put it all in. If they pass me up because of age, it is their loss. And 
when I see them advertising again, I up my rate on them since I know they 
hired wrong when they passed on me and now it is clean up time.

I've even told some that in interviews when they say my rate is on the high 
end and wonder if I'd lower it to be competitive. I tell them it was 
competitive before you hired the last guy instead of me, so now I'm cleaning 
up his mess, not just doing your work.

But then, I've been contracting a long time, and ensure I have several 
months of padding to live on without touching critical funds for any 
downtime.

If you are living paycheck to paycheck, then getting that job is more 
critical for you.

The experience thing is a tricky game. If you have something important to 
this job 20 years ago but you have trimmed out irrelevant jobs from 15 years 
ago, they get suspicious of the holes. As soon as they pull your high school 
records, they have your age. Hiding it on the resume doesn't do any good 
really. It might just get you further up the process before they 
discriminate on age.

And you risk leaving off a piece that might be just what they are looking 
for. I'm working at a place now that experience during high school summers 
was important in getting the job. That is ancient history, but it made a 
difference.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave C" <davec2468 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "Tech Writing" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 11:07 PM
Subject: How to mention distant-past experience on a resume?


...without disclosing one’s age? If it wasn’t valuable experience pertinent 
to the job, I wouldn’t put it up. But the experience prior to ’90 could be 
valuable to show.

Currently this category under Experience looks like this:

Work Experience:
2003-present Business Owner
blah, blah

1990-2003 Writer (contract)
Client #1
blah, blah

Client #2
blah, blah

1983-1990 Writer (full-time)
Employer #1
blah, blah

Employer #2
blah, blah

Maybe just eliminate the last range of years and replace with “Permanent 
Employment” or such, and a length of time employed there?

Ideas?

Thanks,
Dave



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