Hi,
There're different ways of looking at this issue of experience. While many would favor the use of experience limited to the last 10 years or so, there're others who would advise to focus on what you can offer in terms of specific skills & experiences and use these to target the position you're after.
In my humble opinion, I'd advocate you switch from the usual Chronological Format to the Functional Format. In that way, you can shift focus to particular skill sets that you have which can value-add the position that you're after. You may be a retail sales manager 20 years ago but if you've acquired a wealth of experiences doing retailing and the new position you're after requires retail management skills, then your experiences 20 years ago can be and must be put to good use.
Of course, there's the other issue about the relevance of the skills and experiences acquired 20 years ago. In today's modern age, everything went digital. We use computers, new technology to manage logistics, manpower etc. So how can your experience 20 years ago fit in?
Well, there're skills and experiences that are timeless and they get better with age.
People Management, Inventory Tracking, Timeliness of Deliveries, Maintaining Teamwork among workforce etc are examples of skills that are typically timeless; and these soft skills often get better with time and age.
In short, do not discard your skills that are more than 10 years old. Instead, sieve out skills selectively for each position you're going after and repackage them into powerful statements that put you in a positive light. Since different positions require different skills, your wealth of experiences acquired over the last few decades can be put to good use; just be selective about which skills and experiences to use in order to fit different job requirements.
Hope my comments are helpful.
Raiden.
http://iwantthedamnjob.com
