How Many Jobs Should You List on a Resume?

When recruiters only look at your resume for roughly seven to nine seconds before making a decision, your resume needs to be short. But exactly how short should a resume be?

Ideally, it should fit your key skills, resume work experience, and achievement-based bullet points onto one or two pages.

Worried that means opting for a tiny font and nonexistent margins to save space? Don’t be. A smarter strategy for hitting the right length is to remove irrelevant content. Not everything deserves real estate on your resume. Sometimes that means including two to four of your most recent jobs and omitting some of your previous positions. 

So, how can you determine which ones to list and which to skip? This guide equips you with all the information you need, including how to include each job on your resume.

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Step-by-step guide: How many jobs to include on your resume

You probably don’t need to list every job you’ve held since high school on your resume. There’s a lot of nuance in resume writing, and no one “ideal” number of jobs. 

‍Here’s a simple step-by-step framework to help you decide how many jobs to include, based on your experience level and goals:

Step 1: Start with the 10- to 15-year rule

The question is less about how many jobs to list and more about how far back in your employment history to go. In general, you want to focus on your most recent positions and experiences. That means your resume shouldn’t go back more than 10 to 15 years.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows that most workers stick with a job for roughly 4.1 years. Most professionals will have several roles within a 10-15 year span, which makes it even more important to choose the ones that align with your target role.

Step 2: Apply the relevance filter

The point of your resume isn’t just to show that you’re skilled and qualified. It’s to show that you’re qualified for that specific job. That’s why relevance should be your first and most important filter when thinking about how many jobs to include. 

For example, if one of your older jobs is closely related to the role you’re applying for, it’s worth including—even if it’s further back in your history. 

Let’s say you’re moving from a support role into operations. Even if your title doesn’t match the job you want, the work you did might still apply. Here’s how you can reframe your experience to show relevance:

Before (Customer support role):

• Responded to inbound customer questions and escalations
• Tracked help desk ticket activity and issue resolution
• Maintained detailed customer notes in CRM system

After (Reframed for operations role):

• Coordinated with cross-functional teams to resolve escalated issues
• Optimized help desk workflows, reducing ticket resolution time by 25%
• Maintained and improved CRM knowledge base used across departments

‍Pro Tip: Unsure of which jobs to include on your resume? Create a free resume with Teal’s AI Resume Builder that pulls from your entire career to focus on relevant and targeted details.

Step 3: Consider your career stage

Resumes aren't just about what you’ve done. They should also show how you’ve grown. If you’ve moved up within a company, include those steps. It helps hiring managers see your progress and potential.

If you have more than 15 years of experience

Number of jobs to include: 4+ jobs

Even if you’ve stayed with the same employer for the past 15 years, you’ve probably climbed the ranks and potentially achieved a senior position. Displaying the positions you’ve held over the past 15 years not only shows your relevant experience but also your career progression.‍

Example:
Michael, senior engineer (18 years’ experience)
Jobs included: Four positions

• Current: Senior Software Engineer at BigTech (2020-Present)
• Previous: Software Engineer at MidSize Corp (2016-2020)
• Earlier: Junior Developer at StartupDEF (2012-2016)
• Foundation: Software Developer Intern → Associate Developer at TechGiant (2007-2012)

Note: Michael combined his intern and associate roles at the same company to show progression while saving space.

If you have less than 15 years of experience

Number of jobs to include: 2-4 jobs

You’re in the sweet spot where you have enough work history to showcase your skills, but not so many jobs that you need to narrow down. 

You’ll include all relevant positions you’ve held in your career so far. Considering the average tenure with any one employer is a little over four years, you’ll probably have somewhere in the range of two to four jobs to showcase. List all of them, but include more detail with your most recent jobs.‍

Example:

Sarah, marketing professional (8 years experience)
Jobs included: Three positions

• Current: Marketing Manager at TechCorp (2022-Present)
• Previous: Marketing Specialist at StartupXYZ (2019-2022)
• Earlier: Marketing Coordinator at AgencyABC (2017-2019)

Note: Sarah excluded her college retail job and a brief two-month contract role that ended due to budget cuts.

If you have little or no experience

Number of jobs to include: As many relevant professional experiences as you have.

Your problem isn’t that you have too many jobs—it’s that you feel like you don’t have enough to fill out one page (let alone a second page). Keep in mind that your work history can include less traditional opportunities like internships, freelance work, contract work, short term jobs, and seasonal or temporary employment.

Example:

Taylor, recent graduate (no full-time experience)

• Current: Marketing Intern at BrightStart Agency (Jan–May 2025)
• Previous: Temp Social Media Assistant at LocalBiz Co. (Aug–Dec 2024)
• Academic Projects: Developed go-to-market strategy and campaign mockups for a case competition
  
  

Note: Taylor included short-term, relevant roles that show marketing skills in action. Campus jobs and unrelated summer work were left off to keep the resume focused.

If you’re further along in your career, you can leave off old internships unless they’re highly relevant or help fill in a timeline.

We’ve seen that the most compelling resumes are the ones that reflect both experience and momentum—so take a moment to step back and ask what story your job list is telling.

Step 4: Evaluate job tenure and impact

Were you laid off after only a few months? Or did you leave quickly because a position was a bad fit? Your resume is a sales document and not a detailed breakdown of your work history. 

You have full control over what to include (and not include). If a job was short-term and doesn’t add value, you can skip it.

Tip: If you're skipping a role, make sure it doesn't leave a gap that could confuse a hiring manager. You can briefly list it in an Additional Experience section to keep your timeline clear. And if you still want to show the full picture, we recommend adding older roles or context to your LinkedIn profile. That way, your resume stays focused while your profile tells the broader story.

Step 5: Check application requirements

Some job postings include instructions about resume length. If the job ad says resumes need to stick with one page, follow that guidance—even if it means trimming some roles.

We’ve seen candidates hesitate here, worried that cutting jobs might leave out something important. But hiring managers care more about clarity and relevance than volume. Focus on the experience that best supports your story, and trust that you can share more in interviews or on your LinkedIn profile if needed.

5 tips for making your job history stand out

Ready to pull your resume together? At Teal, we recommend starting by getting all of your employment history down on paper—your past employers, job titles, and responsibilities. Here’s a guide on how to find your work history to get you rolling.

When you write everything down in a “base resume,” it becomes a reliable resource to return to as you create a tailored resume for each position. You can select relevant pieces rather than starting from scratch every time.

Once you have your base resume ready, here are five more tips to keep in mind when listing your work experience

1. Use a reverse-chronological format

There are a variety of resume formats you can use. But a reverse-chronological resume is the most widely accepted and understood format among hiring managers, with 75% saying they prefer this format.

Using this approach, list your past positions in reverse chronological order—with your most recent job at the top. While a functional resume format might give you the wiggle room to list more, using a chronological order is more intuitive and can help your resume stand out for the right reasons.

2. Analyze the job description

Any resume writer will tell you that relevance is the name of the game. So, as you weed through your past positions and refine your bullet points, use the job posting as your guide.

What skills does the position demand? What experience level does the employer want? What duties is this role responsible for? All of those are clues you can use to determine whether an old job should be included, emphasized, or removed.

Ultimately, Teal CEO and Founder Dave Fano puts it best:

‍"The job of your resume is to showcase the top 10% of your experience that's directly relevant to the role you're applying for. It's about strategically aligning that 10% with the job's requirements to make a case for why you're the ideal candidate. Think of it as a sales document, not a history lesson. Details that aren't relevant or that don't align with a job's requirements probably don't belong on your resume."

3. Emphasize your job title

Don’t let your position title get lost or buried in your document. Give it a prominent placement and write it in bold or a bigger font to ensure the hiring manager can’t miss it. That’s especially important if you’re listing multiple roles under a single employer.

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4. Include more detail with relevant or recent jobs

This process isn’t just about determining which jobs to include—it’s also about which jobs to highlight by including additional resume bullet points.

Include more detail for jobs that are: 

• Recent: In general, the more recent a job is, the more detail it warrants. It’s the most accurate representation of your current skills and capabilities.
• Relevant: That doesn’t mean all of your older jobs should be deprioritized. If they’re directly related to the role you want, they deserve attention.

Wondering how many bullet points per job? For recent and relevant roles, you can list up to seven bullet points. But you might only need three bullet points for older or less-related roles. 

5. Double-check your verb tense

Verb tense is a small detail that can slip through the cracks when writing and editing your resume, but getting it right improves clarity and adds polish to your document.

If you are currently working in a particular role, use the present tense to start each of your bullets. 

Example:

• Assist with 15+ job fairs and recruiting events, successfully recruiting 200 potential candidates each year

For jobs you no longer work, update all of your bullet points to past tense.

Example:

• Assisted with 15+ job fairs and recruiting events, successfully recruiting 200 potential candidates each year

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How to list jobs on a resume with Teal

When you’re ready to list your experience and other accomplishments on your resume, starting from scratch is daunting.

We've designed Teal’s Resume Builder to help you streamline the process of choosing and showcasing the right jobs. Here’s how to get started:

1. Build your base resume

Your base resume is an exhaustive list that includes absolutely everything from your professional history—all of your past jobs, skills, relevant coursework, and impressive accomplishments.

It takes a bit of work, but you’re creating your starting point. When it’s time to write a new resume to apply for a job, you can simply select what information to include or remove. 

If you have some of your work history saved in an old resume or LinkedIn portfolio, you can upload it to Teal to better manage your work experience.

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2. Create a new resume

With your base resume ready to go, click “new resume” in Teal. That will create a new resume that auto-fills with all of your content. 

Now, it’s easy to go through and check or uncheck boxes to select what information should be included in this version of your resume.

For example, what if you don’t want to include a specific role? Uncheck the box and it’s immediately removed from your document. Want to remove certain responsibilities or add new ones? You can do that too.

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3. Refine and polish your document

When you’ve determined what content you want to include, you’re ready to brush up the appearance of your document.

Head to the “Design” tab, where you can select from an assortment of professional resume templates, adjust your alignment and layout, and tweak your font and colors.

And, of course, before you export your document, remember to take your time to proofread and edit your resume carefully and thoroughly.

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How many jobs to include on a resume depends on you

How many jobs to list is yet another aspect of the job search without a tried-and-true answer. 

In general, most people list somewhere between two and four jobs on a resume. But exactly how many jobs you’ll include depends on a variety of factors, including your experience level, relevance, and tenure.

Rather than defaulting to firm restrictions and recommendations, keep your focus on creating a resume that presents you as the most skilled, relevant, and qualified fit. That’s when you’ll stand the best chance of catching the hiring manager’s eye—whether you list one job or 10 of them.