Originally Posted by JohnBurke

Making such a list should be a priority. You should be maintaining a list of employers, with contact information, phones, emails, faxes, addresses, supervisor names, dates of employment, wages, etc. Your file should include duties, the nature of full time or part time or seasonal, and record the reason for your separation, and any changes in the employment such as promotions. Any, or all of those things may be asked by former employers. You should cover all periods so there are no gaps, to include unemployment, extended vacations, etc. With a computer, this is a simple word file, but should be kept as a lifetime record. You'll be doing job applications for a long time to come. Even if you think you've reached the big brass legacy ring, furloughs and other events occur which mean you may be filling out applications far into the future. Keep a simple word document and keep it updated.

The same is true of your education history, residence history, etc. Some employers may only want five years, or seven, or ten, but others may want longer.

Today, if you need to reconstruct your life and didn't bother to keep track of where you've been, that's all available online, sometimes for a little price; you can look up your address or employment history, etc; it's all there. It's also kept in IRS records; your tax returns should have employment data in your W-2's or 1099's, etc. School information from the schools themselves.

Some employment may even require contact information for someone who can verify your employment at places that may have gone out of business, such as a co-worker who knew you at that time, depending on the depth of the information that an employer might seek.