Where can I find a complete record/history of my employment?

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Okay this is a different question from the one regarding references but yeah this is relation to the annoying applications regarding every little piece of information type of deal. I can barely remember every single place I've worked at...when...and where...and I dont remember half of the names of my supervisors and I certaintly dont know how I would be able to contact them. Is there a place maybe Human Resources or something where I can find all of this information so I know what stuff to write whenever I write a job application?

Also will they be able to give me a record of my days of absences? My last application required me to know every single day or school and work I've missed in the past two years. How the heck am I supposed to remember the exact amount? I dont keep track of this stuff.

You could contact Human Resources at every job you have ever had and ask for a copy of your employment records, but there is no centralized location where all your work history is stored across employers. The IRS has the information if you earned a paycheck but I have no idea how one goes about getting that.

There is no central repository that would have all of your employment information. You could write it down in a notebook as you work the jobs or remember them.

In any case, companies change hands and managers move on too. Anything over 5 years old is really too stale for a prospective employer to look anyways. Case in point, one of the companies I work for as a paid intern has been split off and sold 3 - 4 times and is not even in the area that I worked anymore. Even is a prospective employer wanted to contact them, they can't.

I've never been able to remember every last thing I've done, or every last day I've missed, which have been many due to health concerns.

Hard economy or not, the kinds of businesses that ask micromanaging questions like that are usually places that are crappy to work at. I learned to avoid them, even when I was in a situation where I was unemployed for two years straight--they just weren't worth my time. Companies that have an application "form" where there's no room to give a freeform answer are also not worth my time. They aren't interested in what you have to say about yourself, except what they can scan into a database and calculate mathematically. You need to have a way to get in touch with a _person_ who will actually _listen_ or _read_ what you have to say about yourself. Companies that treat employees as interchangeable cogs with a set of numerical stats are worthless.

You might not have the luxury of letting it slide, though. Find some way to answer the application outside their normal flow of documents.

Correct. You really shouldn't include anything on a resume that's more than five years old. You can include a line letting them know that further information is available on request, but there is definitely such a thing as TMI. Too many job listings on a resume make it appear that either you job-hop a lot (meaning you're undependable or incompetent), or that you're a lot older than you look, and neither is a plus when it comes to getting hired.

Thanks for the info. My resume was sent to the company by my Medical School but I had no clue until I went in for the interview that I would have to fill in a detailed application detailing my work history. It's irritating cuz I dont have a way to keep track. I just wish that after every job I get fired from or quit from, that the supervisor would give me like a record of the days I worked and who my supervisor was and all of that. Nobody told me that detailed work history was going to be a required nuisance.

My memory is REALLY that bad. I cant even remember the name of the company I got fired from last year (they were and outside company and I cant even remember the abbreviation the company went by).

Another detailed thing I'm required to remember but cant...pay rate! Seriously I would kill for a means of keeping track of every place I have ever worked at and when.

In trying to make a career in law enforcement, I got used to the endless "never too much detail" questions I was asked. I eventually made a computer file with all the info I might ever need to retain.

After the garbage I was put through, I think any employer expecting answers to too many questions can't be worth working for. The supervisors at past jobs....don't remember most of them. Don't try to keep the information current. I just list what I had at the time.

If you worked fairly recently for a place, the HR person could let you know who your supervisor was and maybe give you info on how much time you missed, but most places are not going to have a fit if you tell them you don't recall the name of your supervisor or how to currently contact him/her if they moved on from the company, nor would they be bothered if you don't know exactly when you missed work to illness but made an educated guess at how much total time it was.

Most employment questions, like background investigations, are done more to find cause to not hire you if they so choose. I've seen plenty of sub-standard applicants get hired for jobs while well-qualified people are turned away for the lamest of excuses. No consistency other than they hire who they want and use the background checks as a way to define a plausible reason to not hire someone they don't want.

Prospective employers (non government clearance-required) cannot contact the IRS to find job history. Privacy laws forbid IRS from giving out that info.

I'm quite obsessed with keeping track of things. What might help for future (though is a bit useless now), would be if you had a template letter on your computer that you could send to a company once you leave simply requesting the information you're after. There is no reason for them not to provide it and you could keep it in a folder (or scan it in and keep it on your computer too) so you can look back when you need it? The reply letter would also have the company letter-head on so you'd have the company name and contact details on it too.

Another thing I do is I have a google-calender, so every day I have off sick, I make a note of it on there and a note of why I was off sick (migraine / back / flu / etc.) so that I don't need to rely on them telling me. This came in handy this year as I "ran out" of sick days (due to a severe 3-week chest infection at the beginning of the year - caused because I'd crawled into work on the first day back after new-year and getting to and from work made everything SO much worse) but I was able to go back, query their records and point when I'd been off, etc.

Social Security can give you a print out of all your employers that paid into it. It won't give you the dates of employment though, but you should be able to piece together approx dates once you have the info.

You can fill out a 4506-T form to request copies of your old tax returns and W-2s from the IRS. I don't think it's free, though.