It’s a question I get from time to time and worth repeating again.

And it’s personal taste but I want to advise this: tell us or we will never know.

That is to say, add as many old positions as needed that will roll up to show how your past makes you who you are today. Tell us. Holding back on self-marketing may indeed hold you back.

I started in 1979 and show all my various corporate jobs, focusing on my skillset being burnished as my roles matured, and instead of parroting how much I saved each employer and why I thought I was important there. In a past century, really, who cares, other than to know you have become better with age?

So I remark on the accomplishments I bring to clients today at our current metaphorical table, not cobwebbed ones from the deep past.

Yes, you’re like a fine wine, maturing and improving.

But sometimes you just have to roll up a past corporate series of jobs into a functional discussion, especially when the first formative part of your career had you changing industries.  You need to showing best what you do today, while drawing on those early years as fundamental to how you perform in your encore (second) act.

Without naming names, here’s an excerpt from a former favorite client’s profile that shows how his early years created the formative corporate personal contributes he ported to his current nonprofit career, all the more important because he speaks to high-net-worth corporate individuals to encourage them to donate large sums so he needs to demonstrate his early skill set coming to the fore in his current role:

Prior Business Experience

Corp W, Corp X, Corp Y, Corp Z

1980 – 2000 · 20 yrs

I was fortunate to hold several senior corporate positions, refining my business acumen before entering the nonprofit sector. This allowed me to see the successful business donor’s point of view, increasing my fundraising effectiveness.

At Corp W I learned sound people skills, management principles, consultative sales, and relationship building at the C-level. I led a 250-person team, which increased revenue by double digits in two years and was first in employee satisfaction. I honed my business development abilities as the Executive for Sports by negotiating online and showcase opportunities with the well-known clients. While working at Corp W, I completed my undergraduate degree.

In 1997, I was recruited to Corp X as VP of Business Development, where I closed a large distribution deal with {well-known client}. A historic agreement at the time, it was our most cost-effective acquisition channel, resulting in more than 1M new accounts. I’m proud to have directly affected the company’s success and empowered clients to take control of their financial lives.

I helped found Corp Y in 1999, a startup online property management tool for small landlords with my experience. As VP of Business Development, I helped secure an investment from {client} and {client}. I also developed marketing strategies, personnel practices and influenced product development, teaching me to be nimble and aggressive in building a business.

In 2000, I joined Corp Z, a provider of online resources for small businesses, as VP Business Development with a 10-person team of ad sales directors supporting premium {big-name} partner relationships. In less than a year, we achieved incremental advertising sales of $4M.

These experiences provided me a rich set of skills enabling me to follow my passions and successfully connect philanthropists with investment opportunities to change the world.