Having a blind moment; it is "10 years' experience...." on a CV, isn't it?

[Nighbynight]

"5 years' Rational Rose" in the summary doesn't look right, somehow.

crrect english v important for this job, so I dont want to submit without any necessary apostrophes as I normally would.

[PixelHerder]

Not sure what you mean by the actual sentence, is it "5 years' experience at Rational Rose"?

[Nighbynight]

yes it is, but it is in a bullet point summary, so shortened a bit.

I dont want a 15 line summary, and every line including the words "experience in"

[Nighbynight]

sorry, its still not terribly clear.

I have shortened "X years' experience in Y"
t "X years' Y" in my bullet point list.

But the apostrophe now looks wrong.

Should it be with or without?

[PixelHerder]

I'd be tempted to format it more like this:

Rational Rose - 5 years

xxxxx - 3 years

(partly because I'm not sure about the apostrophe thing (!), and you're right, it does look odd as '5 years' Rational Rose' or '5 years Rational Rose)

[PixelHerder]

oops missed off last apostrophe in sentence

btw I think '10 years' experience' is correct re the apostrophe.

[Nighbynight]

Mm, not sure. I dont like dashes as well as bullets, they are just too abrupt.

I am now trying "5 years, Rational Rose"

[Nighbynight]

OK, I now have a mixture:
? 10 years? professional experience in the fast-moving field of mobile telecommunications
? 1 year as a Software Architect for mobile phones, advising on requirements and performance
? Satellite navigation and A-GPS
? UMTS RRC & MAC overview including HSDPA
? GSM-UMTS InterRAT handover
? 1 year, recent C# and .NET programming
? 5 years, C/C++ development on UNIX / Windows / VxWorks
? 2 years, UML / Rational Rose

[Nighbynight]

thank you fr your cmments, PixelHerder.
I am now looking at it in a new light, thinking of moving it around again.

[PixelHerder]

You're welcome

I think your last list looks okay, except possibly that these three points look a bit lost, can you qualify them in some way?

? Satellite navigation and A-GPS
? UMTS RRC & MAC overview including HSDPA
? GSM-UMTS InterRAT handover

Gotta dash now, DD screaming to go to the park!

[AllFallDown]

Ah, the whole years/years' issue is a minefield. I was taught to use the apostrophe, since it means "of" in this case. But I have seen convincing arguments that since the experience does not belong to the years, the possessive apostrophe is incorrect.

The Times style guide is silent on the subject. As is Partridge's Usage and Abusage. The Guardian's style guide, however, says that the apostrophe is, in this instance, correct.