[Jammie]

In Florida, how many years back do I have to go with my employment history? Keep in mind that I'm from out of state. I've never had this experience before since I've always lived in the same area. Does anyone know?

[heydade]

it all depends on the employer...they usually look for past 10 years I believe ? again..all depends on your employer

[kshe95girl]

Jammie, the average employment form that they use down here goes back 4 jobs..... they are sooooo used to transplants here!
Are ya thinkin' of heading south????? Gotta place on my fabled cocktail porch ready for ya!

[Jammie]

Thank you for the answers. I was just trying to get the phone numbers together and wondered how far I need to go back. Too bad I have to go back 4 employers cause that's a long time ago. If I could just stick with ten years, it'd be simple cause that'd just be the employer I'm leaving to move down there.

Kshe, so far it's looking good. DH will be 62 in a few days and he's finally ready to go. In fact, he's very enthusiastic. He's having surgery tomorrow and as soon as he has a chance to recover a bit, we're flying down to check things out in Lakeland. Neither of us have been there (just near there), but he just loves the pics of it on the internet. We have relatives in several places there and Lakeland is one of them. They love it.

I'll be over for the cocktails, too.

I guess I'd sort of forgotten that many of their applicants are out of staters. I was hoping to only have to go back 20 years cause that'd be so simple. I also thought I'd use about 10 co-workers as references, some present and some past. Just a bit nervous about it cause since I've lived here all my life and it's not very populated, I've never really had to go through scrutiny to get a job. Not that I'm fabulous or anything, but it's just different when people are familiar with you.

[Strel]

Originally Posted by Jammie

In Florida, how many years back do I have to go with my employment history? Keep in mind that I'm from out of state. I've never had this experience before since I've always lived in the same area. Does anyone know?

It depends on the job, but if I saw something less than five years (or gaps in employment), I would start asking questions.

Actually, I would be a little suspicious of someone that didn't give a more or less complete history since high school or college.

[vpcats]

Originally Posted by Strel

It depends on the job, but if I saw something less than five years (or gaps in employment), I would start asking questions.

Actually, I would be a little suspicious of someone that didn't give a more or less complete history since high school or college.

I'm not so sure about that. Take me for example.

Besides my after school job in high school, which was at Woolworth's - see where I'm going????? Long way back.

Then in college, my PT job in Wall Street and AT & T, as a overseas operator, when you still had that huge board and had to plug people in manually,

Then, as a ESL teacher when I lived in Peru and taught 1st and 4th graders in a private school (almost killed them ), also adults in the evenings...
other than that, I had one employer for 21 years - different positions but in the same department. Next and current job - 11 years - 3 positions, same department.

You know how long my resume would be if I wrote all that down???????

It wouldn't even get me in the door but I'd certainly have no gaps.

[Ladywithafan]

I wouldn't worry so much about gaps in employment; people with no gaps and continuous employment don't even get call backs.

[Jammie]

Yes, I see what you're both saying. I don't have any gaps, but I just didn't want to make it long and boring. I haven't really had that many different places of employment, but I'd be going back 35 years and that's not including my first job at the concession stand of a movie theatre.

SO, summarizing the advice given here, I should safely just be able to go with my last three employers which will put me back in time over 20 years. I should also be ok by narrowing it down to providing a total of 9 previous and present co-workers. Now I just need to make sure I chose the right ones.

Ladywithafan, we posted at the same time. That's kind of scary about no call backs.

[vpcats]

Jammie, depending what job and where, you may just want to "summarize" to include brief references to the very, long ago experience. If it's not pertinent, don't take too much space.

I think the cover letter is your ammunition. That's where you grab attention and sell yourself. The resume is just facts, or embellished facts sometimes, which can be discussed at length if necessary during a interview.

There are different resume styles too depending on what you want to highlight more, or less.

Every interviewer knows all the tricks so I would concentrate on the cover letter.
Also, write a skeleton letter and fill in the blanks with the key words used in the job ad. There are systems out there that will search and match applicants electronically based on "hits".

PS... I think you should include the concession stand! :-)

As for references, you dont' have to list them out. Just include a statement about References available upon request.

[Strel]

Originally Posted by vpcats

I'm not so sure about that. Take me for example.

Besides my after school job in high school, which was at Woolworth's - see where I'm going????? Long way back.

Then in college, my PT job in Wall Street and AT & T, as a overseas operator, when you still had that huge board and had to plug people in manually,

Then, as a ESL teacher when I lived in Peru and taught 1st and 4th graders in a private school (almost killed them ), also adults in the evenings...
other than that, I had one employer for 21 years - different positions but in the same department. Next and current job - 11 years - 3 positions, same department.

You know how long my resume would be if I wrote all that down???????

It wouldn't even get me in the door but I'd certainly have no gaps.

You aren't sure I would be suspicious?

Long CV's don't bother me. In fact, I prefer them. More information means a better hiring decision.

Naturally if you are ...older, like me....then I might not care what you did more than 10 years back or more than a couple of jobs back if you were at the same place a long time. It all depends on the circumstances.