The honest answer: go back 10-15 years. Older roles only stay if they're directly relevant to what you're applying to.

Here's how to decide what to keep.

The 10-15 year rule

Most recruiters look at your most recent decade of work. Beyond that, the relevance drops fast — the technologies are different, the responsibilities are different, the world is different.

If your resume goes back 20+ years, recruiters skip it. You're not getting credit for those older roles. They're just taking up space.

When older experience earns its spot

Keep an older role if:

  • It's directly relevant to the role you're applying to. Senior roles sometimes draw on niche experience that only one old job demonstrates.
  • It's a brand-name signal. Working at NASA in 2008 still helps in 2026 if you're applying to anything aerospace.
  • It's the only example of a specific skill. Your one project leading a team of 50 was 12 years ago — keep it if "leading a team" is core to the role.
  • You're applying to academia or research roles where publication and project history matters in depth.

When to cut older experience

Cut it if:

  • It's the same kind of work as your more recent roles. "Software Engineer at X" 11 years ago doesn't add to "Software Engineer at Y" 3 years ago.
  • It's filler — barely relevant, just there to show longevity.
  • It's pre-college part-time work when you have a full-time career now.
  • It's clearly outdated tech that doesn't speak to current capabilities.

The age-discrimination concern

Yes, age discrimination exists. No, hiding it doesn't usually work.

If you cut all roles older than 8 years, recruiters can still infer your age from your earliest listed role + a normal entry trajectory. They notice. Obfuscating dates feels worse than acknowledging them.

The better strategy: make sure your most recent 10 years tell a strong, current story. If you're using up-to-date tools, leading current projects, learning new systems — that signal beats any age signal.

Summary section as the workaround

If you want to demonstrate breadth without listing 20 years of jobs, put it in a brief Summary line at the top:

"Senior Backend Engineer with 18 years of experience across fintech, healthcare, and ad-tech. Led platforms serving 10M+ users at [most recent company]."

Then list only your most recent 10-12 years in detail. Let the summary carry the breadth.

How to list a long career at one company

If you've been at the same place 10-15+ years with multiple roles:

Acme Corp (2010-2024) Director, Engineering (2018-2024) — bullets Senior Engineer (2014-2018) — bullets Engineer (2010-2014) — bullets

Saves space, shows progression, demonstrates loyalty.

Industry-specific notes

  • Tech / engineering: 10-12 years is plenty. Older tech experience often hurts (Cobol-only signal).
  • Finance / banking: 12-15 years, especially for senior roles.
  • Academia / research: Standard CV conventions apply — different document, often longer.
  • Government / military: Older experience often counts more (clearance history, deployment history).
  • Trades / skilled labor: Hands-on experience is typically valued without time decay.

The bigger pattern

Time on a resume is a proxy for relevance over time. The question isn't "how old is this experience?" — it's "does this experience still speak to who I am as a candidate today?"

For most people, 10-15 years answers that. For specialists with deep historical experience, longer is fine. For early-career folks, 5 years and under is normal.

Tailor per role. Sorce auto-tailors your resume per application as part of our AI auto-apply flow. For more on resume specifics: how long should a resume be, how many bullets per job, should a resume be one page.