Spotty employment history, how to deal with it?

I am applying for a position and the applicatiion form states that i have to fill in all work history inc. unemployment . My memory is a little fuzzy about the exact details of the time i had been with a number of companies and the periods of unemployment after i left college . I have been employed in the US with the same company since i emmigrated in 1992 .Will this have a bearing on my chances the fact that i had a spotty employment record for 3 or 4 years (1988 to 1992), proir to leaving .

thanks
mikeyny

I wouldn't think so, unless good long term memory is a requirement for the job

mikeyny said:

i had a spotty employment record for 3 or 4 years (1988 to 1992), proir to leaving .

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Do you mean that you chopped and changed jobs then and/or were unemployed or that you just can't remember what you were doing at the time? Most employers will place more weight on your recent employment record and experience as far as I know.

Yes i chopped and changed jobs and was unemployed for some periods , i do of course remember where i worked but am not sure about the exact time periods or even the chronoglical order of some of it . Remember the old days pre Celtic Tiger getting paid cash and having no choice about the job available and looking for any work that would come up ?

The usual rule of thumb is that you go into detail on last 5 years or the last 3 jobs which ever is the greater (in terms of time); and just high level prior to that.

usual rule is one thing but applying for civil service job is another
Whenever i applied for one they wanted everything and everywhere on the form
Only seen this with state bodies organisations
However I did not kill myself putting everything down
I think i ended up putting contract -misc overa couple of years witha brief description of any pertinent duties and skills
I dont actually think that they even read it