Cutting old jobs and old skills you're attached to
Okay you guys. Today's the hard one for some of you. We're talking about cutting things off your résumé that you don't want to cut.
Not gaps this time. Not vague lines. Actual jobs. Actual skills. Things you did, things you were maybe even good at, that don't belong on the page anymore.
This is the lesson where people get quiet on me. That's fine. Sit with it.
Why this is hard
You spent years doing that job. You got good at that software, that machine, that system. Cutting it feels like saying it didn't matter.
It mattered. That's not the question. The question is whether it helps you get this job.
I had a woman in a class a while back who would not cut her skills from ten years prior. Kept insisting they were still relevant. I didn't argue with her. I asked her one question: is that the job you want now, or the job you had then? She didn't answer right away. Cut them the next week on her own.
I'm going to ask you the same thing today, about your own résumé, so have it out.
The test
For every job and every skill on your résumé, ask: does this get me closer to the job I'm applying for right now?
Not "was I good at this." Not "did I like this." Does it serve the application in front of you.
If the answer's no, it goes. Doesn't mean you erase it from your memory or pretend it didn't happen. It means it doesn't earn space on one page.
Old jobs specifically
Rule of thumb I use: if a job is more than ten to fifteen years back and it has nothing to do with what you're applying for, it's a candidate for cutting. Not automatic. A candidate.
Ethan pushed back on this with his own résumé once. Had a job from 2009 he didn't want to lose. I cut it anyway. He got hired. Hasn't brought it up since.
If you've got twenty years of work history, you don't need all twenty years on the page. You need the parts that make the hiring person say "oh, this person can do the thing I need." Everything else is weight.
If there's something from way back that's genuinely relevant — you managed people then, you're applying to manage people now — keep it, but keep it short. One line, not the paragraph it might've gotten fifteen years ago when it was your current job and you were proud of it.
Old skills specifically
This one trips people up more than old jobs, honestly, because a skill feels less attached to a specific time. You learned it once, so it feels permanent.
Software goes out of date. Systems get replaced. A skill that was impressive in 2012 might be assumed baseline now, or might not exist anymore in the workplace you're applying to. Neither one helps you.
Same test. Does this skill answer something the job posting is asking for? If yes, keep it and make sure it's stated in the same language the posting uses. If no, it's taking up a line that could hold something that does answer the posting.
Where this gets tricky: skills you're proud of but that don't fit
This is the actual emotional part, so let's just say it. Sometimes the skill you want to keep isn't the skill the job needs, and that's uncomfortable, because you're proud of it and it feels like part of who you are.
Your résumé isn't a memoir. It's a tool for one specific purpose: getting you an interview for one specific job. You can be proud of the skill and still leave it off this version. Nothing says you can't put it back for a different job where it fits.
This connects to something we talked about back at the start of the module — the whole reason I'd rather send five tailored résumés than fifty generic ones. A general résumé that tries to hold everything you've ever been proud of ends up serving nobody, because it's not actually speaking to any one job. Cutting the stuff that doesn't fit isn't losing it. It's making room for the version of you that fits this job to actually show up clearly.
Same principle as household work, if you remember that lesson. Jennifer felt like she had nothing to put down after years home with kids, and the fix wasn't inventing experience, it was translating what she actually did into the words a hiring person recognizes. Cutting old jobs and skills is the same move in reverse. You're not inventing anything and you're not erasing anything either. You're choosing, on purpose, what earns the page this time.
What to do right now
Pull up your résumé. For every job, every skill line, ask the test question out loud if you have to: does this get me closer to the job I want right now.
Anything that doesn't pass, move it to a separate document. Don't delete it off the face of the earth, just get it off this page. Call that document your master list if you've already started one — it's the same idea, just working in the other direction today.
I'd cut more than you think you should. But it's your résumé.
Before next time
Bring your trimmed résumé and the job posting you're aiming for. We're going to hold them side by side and see what's still missing.