How far back does your CV go?

[123stay]

I’m asking because I’ve never been this old before, so it’s the first time I’ve got to this stage

I’ve been advised that most people go back 10-12 years on their CV and can delete jobs they did 20 years ago.

Is this really true? Is there any chance employers will wonder if I’m trying to hide something?

Also what happens if you get one of those job applications where you have to fill in an application form? (I hate those ones!)

I do boring standard office jobs, nothing fancy.

Mine covers my whole career which is 20 years, but all roles are relevant to what I do today and the cumulative experience is of value and not a given iyswim. If anything were irrelevant I would cull it at this point. However I agree that the earlier roles should be headlines only. Regardless of what you decide you should try to keep it to two pages long or less.

@123stay I have been shocked at some of the lies I’ve seen on CVs and elsewhere. Someone claimed they had graduated on my MSc the same year as me; there were only three of us that year, so it was a glaring lie. One man wrote a paper claiming some of my work as his own. One man claimed to have worked in a particular role on a particular job; I was the manager of that project and I was damn sure he had never worked for me, and yet he still tried to bluff it out when I met him. One colleague tried to present a “learning opportunity” claiming to be an expert on a particular report; he had completely misconstrued it, and when I challenged him he told me I was wrong. I made him check the author of the report…

For GCSEs, I put "10 GCSEs, including English and Maths"
Everyone seems obsessed about whether you have English and Maths, despite having 2 degrees, an apprenticeship and other qualifications, most of which I couldn't have done without English and Maths GCSEs. I even had to produce my certificates about 4 years ago - and I'm in my 50s now, not a recent school leaver. (If I'd been a year older, I would have done O-levels.)

Aren't most jobs online applications largely now? I last applied for a job 3 years ago but it all had to be filled into tiny boxes on their own site, not given in on paper or emailed as an attachment. It is far more restrictive and fiddly having to do it each time and I wish more places wanted an actual CV as you feel like a number rather than a person.

My understanding was that it varies between industries or the type of job.

It varies a lot. Some have application forms which can be a good web form, or an unwieldy Word doc that dates back 20 years and hasn't really been updated since. Some have a form that captures contact detail and then gives you a link to upload your CV. Some let you apply directly through LinkedIn. But it all depends...