Carl Martin ⋅ Salinas, CA Monterey County ⋅ 15 years experience

There are many ways. Leave it alone until you apply for the next job. Then suppress, or minimize the details on jobs that are not related to the new position you are going for. If there are significant gaps in your work history, remove the dates you worked there and replace them with the 'years of experience'. Most employers are looking for that. The details, like dates are important on the actual application after you've been hired. This is for your resume. Applications are different. unless you been with the same employer over 15-20 years, there's no need to list jobs from that far back unless you are showing your progression through the years...I.E., In the army, you start as E-1. After years of service, you move into E-5, E-6 and even E-9. Your resume, like your life, is fluid so make sure you're polishing it and refreshing it regularly.

Steven Sablan ⋅ Carmel, CA Northrop Grumman ⋅ 23 years experience

Robert, unless you’re applying for a government position, I recommend using a functional style resume. Unlike the more common chronological resume, which lists every job you’ve had in order, a functional resume allows you to pick and choose from your experiences to put the most pertinent ones for the job for which you’re applying up front and leave out those experiences which are not pertinent to the position. That said, at the beginning of your experiences section of your resume, I recommend putting US Army up front along with the dates served (just the beginning and end year suffice).

Gail Baccetti ⋅ Lake Geneva, WI Retired ⋅ 42 years experience

Hi, Robert,

I'd be happy to help you. I have a template you can use, and I also can send you my resume as an example. I'm happy to discuss your questions on the phone, either before you get started and/or as a review of your progress. Please contact me at gbaccetti@hotmail.com, and I'll forward the documents to get you started.

Gail

Mitch Phillips ⋅ Birmingham, AL AT&T ⋅ 31 years experience

Robert,

Thank you so much for your service! I can't speak from a veteran's point of view, but from a business perspective I would suggest you tailor the contents of your resume to demonstrate the skills and experience companies want. You don't necessarily have to have experience in specific areas to be a good fit. A broader view of your skills and talents may show prospective employers that you can adapt and fit into multiple areas. Provide examples of leadership skills, innovation, decision making, strategic thinking, commitment to learning and continuous self-improvement, a drive for high performance and results, teamwork and collaboration, personal accountability, etc. Those assets should transfer well from the military to the business sector.

Thanks!
Mitch

Bob Molluro ⋅ Wilmington, DE Benchmark Consulting Services ltd. ⋅ 30 years experience

Robert, did you know that as veteran the company that employees you is entitled to a tax credit up to $9,600. Most employers don't this either. I can show you what to add to your resume that will point this out plus how the employer can take advantage of the credit. Just send me an email to ramco1@verizon.net if you want to learn how. Anyone else reading this feel free to contact me for some guidance.
Warmly,
Bob

Gerald Mannikarote ⋅ Houston, TX dMann Training Technologies ⋅ 20 years experience

One way to do this is to do the half and full approach: half of your resume is on LinkedIn, and all of it on LinkedIn.
So on your resume, put all the pertinent information (you could even have gaps) on one page. Then you could elaborate all of your info on LinkedIn. Add a hyperlink to the electronic version of your resume to your LinkedIn page. On your print version of your resume, you could add "Please find me on LinkedIn for more information".
This way you can have the best of both worlds.
Warm regards,
Jerry

Robert Tarter ⋅ Ashburn, VA Harris Corporation (former employee) ⋅ 37 years experience

Robert, I served 23+ years in the Air Force and know exactly what you are going through with resume writing. I also agree with Carlos Martinez comments/answer, compress your details in smaller space. One of the keys I found useful in resume writing is to use the ACTION-->RESULT, in a bullet-type format. This may be similar to your military performance reports, it certainly was when I was in USAF. In a lot of cases this helps the reviewer to quickly review your resume and determine if you are a potential/viable candidate. Most reviewers/hiring managers/recruiters don't spend a lot of time on resumes, so you must QUICKLY capture their attention and STAND-OUT!! As noted from the excellent comments above, you should develop a base resume, then tailor it to the job (description) you are pursuing.

Qualify/Quantify as much as possible, $ saved, man-hours saved, # of personnel managed, $ worth of equipment/resources managed, etc.. If you received medals, such as Achievement, Commendation, Meritorious Service, there might be some very good content/info on the narrative you can extract that may include some of the qualify/quantify info I've noted above. My perspective and suggestions are based on being a USAF Veteran and working 13+ years in DoD industry. Thanks for your service!

Victoria Leo ⋅ Federal Way, WA Business Owner ⋅ 27 years experience

DON"T, DON'T - for goodness sake, don't waste your time with a functional resume. They should have died a decade ago. Employers hate them and HR scanners will throw you right out. Why? because you are trying to obscure what they want to know. Either give them what they want - chronology, chapter and verse - for 10 years (nothing older than that is relevant), or don't waste your time. Giving them 25 years just tells them that you are older than their target hiring age, another point against you.

And DON'T go for 1 page. 3 is the max. Eliminate all the old jobs and eliminate any info that isn't immediately relevant to the job you want, anything else that telegraphs your age. No dates on college degrees and NEVER include high school.

I'm a long time career coach.....

Claudio A ⋅ Norwalk, CT ⋅ 10 years experience

I would really start by thinking what are the 5-8 top things that make you a good fit for X type of role. These would be your highlight executive summary points. Think of it as preview to the movie. Could be strong points that are check the box for those type of jobs you’re applying as well as areas that are differentiator.

In the body you can add no more than 5-6 bullets for roles that are relevant. Again this is a resume not a CV!!!!

Overall, you need to change hats and look at your resume from the perspective of 1) keywords that will get you picked-up when using online systems (match keywords which will bump up your rank) 2) clean/easy look from the perspective of the hiring manager. They need to look at your resume for 15-20 seconds and feel that you should be contacted.

I would stress to stay busy with good energy and think of things that will give you an edge compared to the crowd of candidates!

Jai Chotalia ⋅ Hermosa Beach, CA Visa, Toyota/Lexus, & Disney ⋅ 12 years experience

Couldn't have agreed with some of the other folks in addressing your questions. If I may also add, you can create a generalized yet targeted resume for example if you're only applying for Tech jobs then you can start condensing now so that you can start applying quickly before the job is filled by others.

Happy to help edit if you can email me a copy and tel me what you're job intentions are. Just trying to help. Thanks!

Jaichotalia@gmail.com

Thomas Pear ⋅ Cape Coral, FL Keiser University ⋅ 16 years experience

Robert,

I wish there was a like button on this website because I feel Carlos Martinez's answer hit the nail on the head.

Thank you for your service!