One of the most common questions veterans ask when building a civilian resume: how far back should I go? Twenty years of service generates a lot of assignments, qualifications, and accomplishments. Listing all of it produces a bloated document that nobody reads. Cutting too much leaves out experience that could land you the job. The answer depends on what you are targeting.

For private sector roles, the standard window is 10 to 15 years of relevant experience. Federal resumes follow different rules because the hiring process weighs specific qualifications against the job announcement. Defense contractor positions and cleared roles add another layer, since your full career history sometimes matters more than your recent one. There is no single answer that works for every veteran.

After reviewing thousands of resumes as a federal hiring manager across environmental management, supply, logistics, and contracting roles, I can tell you that the biggest mistake is not going too far back or cutting too much. It is failing to make a deliberate decision about what stays and what goes. Most veterans just dump their entire career onto the page without thinking about what the hiring manager actually needs to see.

This guide breaks down exactly how far back to go based on your target sector, what to keep regardless of age, and how to handle a 20-plus year career without writing a novel. If you are working on your military service section, this will help you decide what makes the cut.

What Is the Standard Rule for Resume History Length?

The general guideline across industries is 10 to 15 years of experience on a resume. This is not a military-specific rule. It applies to anyone transitioning between careers or applying for mid-to-senior level positions. For most private sector jobs, hiring managers care about what you have done recently. A position you held 18 years ago rarely influences a hiring decision for a project manager role today.

That said, this is a guideline, not a law. The 10 to 15 year window works well when your recent experience directly supports the role you are targeting. If your strongest qualifications come from earlier in your career, you may need to reach further back. The key is relevance, not chronology.

For veterans specifically, the challenge is that military careers often span 20 or more years with assignments that have no civilian equivalent. You cannot just list "E-7 at NAVFAC" and expect a hiring manager to understand what that means. Every entry needs military terms translated into civilian language, which takes space. That is why being selective about what you include matters even more for veterans than for civilian applicants.

When Should You Go Beyond 15 Years?

There are specific situations where going further back makes strategic sense. This is not about padding your resume. It is about making sure the hiring manager can see qualifications that directly match what they need, even if those qualifications came from earlier assignments.

Clearance-related roles: If you are applying to defense contractors, intelligence agencies, or any position requiring a security clearance, your full career history often matters. Clearance investigations look at your entire background. Listing your full military timeline shows continuity and makes the investigation process smoother. It also demonstrates long-term reliability, which is exactly what these employers want to see.

Senior leadership positions: Executive and director-level roles benefit from showing career progression. A hiring manager filling a VP of Operations position wants to see how you grew from leading a team of eight to managing a department of 200. That progression might span 18 or 20 years. Cutting it to fit the 10-year window removes the evidence of your growth trajectory.

Niche technical fields: If your early military career included specialized training or certifications that directly apply to the role (nuclear engineering, explosive ordnance disposal, cryptologic operations), leaving that off because it is "too old" removes your strongest qualifications. Technical expertise does not expire on a resume just because it happened 15 years ago, especially if you have maintained the skills.

Career changers returning to an earlier field: Some veterans held technical roles early in their career, moved into leadership positions, and now want to return to technical work. A systems administrator who became a First Sergeant might want to go back to IT. In that case, reaching back to the earlier technical assignments makes perfect sense because that is where the relevant experience lives.

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How Do You Handle a 20-Plus Year Career?

This is where most veterans struggle. Twenty years of service means eight to twelve different assignments, duty stations, and job titles. Listing every single one with full descriptions produces a five-page document that nobody will read. Having managed environmental, supply, logistics, property, engineering, and contracting programs across a federal career, I know how hard it is to decide what stays and what gets cut. Every assignment felt important at the time.

The solution is a two-tier approach. Give your last 10 years of experience full treatment with detailed bullets, metrics, and accomplishments. For everything before that, summarize in a compact block that captures the key facts without taking up valuable space.

The summary block might look like this: "Prior Military Service (2002-2014): Held progressive leadership and technical roles including Division Leading Petty Officer, Maintenance Supervisor, and Team Leader. Managed teams of 12-45 personnel. Maintained 98% equipment readiness across $15M in assets."

That covers 12 years of service in four lines. It shows progression, scope, and results without eating up half the resume. If you are writing a retired military resume after 20 years of service, this two-tier approach is essential.

What Should You Always Keep Regardless of Age?

Some accomplishments earn their spot on your resume no matter when they happened. These are the items that demonstrate something exceptional, not just routine duties from a previous assignment. Before cutting anything older than 10 years, check it against this list.

Major accomplishments with measurable impact: If you saved the government $2M by redesigning a supply chain process in 2008, that still matters in 2026. Large-scale results do not lose their value with time. The metric speaks for itself. Keep these and make sure the numbers are front and center.

Deployments, if you are targeting defense or government: Combat deployments, humanitarian missions, and operational deployments show you have performed under real-world conditions. Defense contractors and federal agencies value this. For private sector roles outside of defense, deployments matter less unless they directly demonstrate skills relevant to the position.

Leadership roles that show progression: The hiring manager needs to see that you did not just hold one leadership position. They want to see growth. If your first team lead role was 16 years ago and you ended your career leading a 200-person department, both data points tell the story. The early role becomes the starting point of a progression arc that makes the later role more impressive.

Specialized qualifications still relevant to your target: Hazmat certifications, nuclear qualifications, special operations experience, foreign language proficiency. If the qualification directly connects to the job you want, it stays on the resume regardless of when you earned it. Just make sure you note whether the certification is still current.

What Should You Cut from an Older Military Career?

Knowing what to remove is just as important as knowing what to keep. Veterans tend to hold onto everything because every assignment meant something at the time. But a civilian hiring manager scanning your resume does not need to know about your first duty station unless it directly supports your application. Here is what to cut without hesitation.

Basic training and initial military education: Boot camp, basic training, A-school, MOS-producing school. Unless you are applying for a training or education position and want to reference military training methodology, these do not belong on a civilian resume. Every veteran went through initial training. It does not differentiate you.

Irrelevant early assignments: If your first assignment was mess cooking or a basic administrative role and you spent the next 15 years in cybersecurity, the early assignment adds nothing. It takes up space that could be used for relevant accomplishments. Cut it or fold it into a one-line summary.

Collateral duties that do not translate: Command fitness leader, urinalysis program coordinator, voting assistance officer. These were important in the military but add nothing to a civilian resume. The exception is if the collateral duty directly relates to your target role. A command fitness leader applying for a corporate wellness position could include it. Everyone else should skip it.

Routine administrative tasks: "Maintained personnel records for 35 service members" or "Completed quarterly training reports." These are basic job functions, not accomplishments. Hiring managers want to see what you achieved, not what you were assigned to do. Focus your work experience bullets on results, not routine tasks.

How Does Federal vs Private Sector Change the Answer?

The sector you are targeting fundamentally changes how far back your resume should go. Federal hiring works on a qualification-based system where specific experience at specific grade levels determines whether you even make the referral list. Private sector hiring is more about demonstrating recent impact and cultural fit. The rules are different, and your resume needs to reflect that.

Federal resumes: Go back as far as needed to document all qualifying experience listed in the job announcement. Federal announcements specify exactly what type of experience you need, how many years, and at what level. If that experience comes from an assignment 17 years ago, it needs to be on your resume. Federal hiring managers and HR specialists compare your resume against the announcement requirements line by line. Missing a qualifying experience means you do not get referred, even if you are perfectly qualified. Keep your federal resume length to two pages even when covering a longer career history.

Private sector: Stick to 10-15 years unless your situation falls into one of the exceptions above. Private sector hiring managers spend seconds scanning your resume. They want to quickly see relevant experience, measurable results, and skills that match the job description. A 20-year career history works against you because it buries your best qualifications under a wall of older content.

Defense contractors: These sit somewhere in between. Contractors often want to see your full military background because they are hiring you partly for your understanding of military operations. But they still want a clean, readable document. Use the two-tier approach: detail the last 10-12 years, summarize earlier service, and make sure clearance-relevant experience is visible regardless of age.

The bottom line: do not pick an arbitrary cutoff date. Read the job announcement, identify what experience they need to see, and build your resume around that. Sometimes that means going back 20 years for one specific role. Other times it means cutting everything before 2016. The job drives the decision, not a blanket rule. Avoid the resume mistakes that come from defaulting to a one-size-fits-all approach.

Making the Right Call for Your Resume

Deciding how far back to go on your military resume comes down to one question: does this experience help the hiring manager say yes? If an assignment from 2005 directly demonstrates a qualification listed in the job announcement, it belongs on your resume. If it does not connect to what you are applying for, it is taking up space that could go to something more relevant.

Start by reading the job announcement carefully. Identify every qualification, skill, and experience type they list. Then work backward through your career and mark which assignments demonstrate those requirements. Your most recent 10 years will usually carry the bulk of the weight. Older assignments earn their spot only when they fill a qualification gap that recent experience does not cover.

BMR's Resume Builder helps you make these decisions by matching your military experience against specific job announcements. It identifies which parts of your career are most relevant to each role and translates them into civilian language automatically. You can build two tailored resumes for free at bestmilitaryresume.com.

Every resume should be built for the specific job you are targeting. The right answer for how far back to go changes every time you apply. Stop thinking about your resume as a complete career history and start thinking about it as a targeted case for why you are the right person for this particular role.