How manually mimic the bullet in the itemize environment?

Question

I have created the following tabularx environment (using the package tabularx, of course) to serve as a specialized bulleted list for a resume.

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{r \p{3in} X r}
    $\bullet$ & This is some experience & & startdate--enddate
\end{tabularx}

I would've preferred to use the Itemize environment, but I could not figure out how to get the multiple columns for the date. While the bullet produced is not bad, it does not match the spacing used in the itemize environment. Is there a way that I can consistently mimic the spacing used by itemize to make my tabularx environment match?

EDIT: As DavideCarlisle mentions in his answer, and I alluded to in my comment, I am using tabularx for the column X that will give me flexible white space. Using the primitive \extracolsep, I can rewrite my example with tabular* in the following way.

\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{r \p{3in} @{\extracolsep{\fill}} r }
    $\bullet$ & This is some experience & startdate--enddate
\end{tabular*}

I mention this to emphasize that my question is really about the placement of the bullet rather than the rest of the table's configuration. I do want to say, however, that I appreciate everyone's more general feedback.

Answer 1

You indicate in comments that you just want stretchy glue before the last column. There is no need to get LaTeX to fake this with an X column. Adding stretch glue between columns is a primitive feature of the underlying \halign primitive and available in teh core latex format using tabular* tabularx is an attempt to copy the syntax of tabular* but modify column widths rather than inter-column space, it is far less efficient that tabular*.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}

\noindent\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\parindent}}r@{\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in}@{\extracolsep{\fill}}r}
    $\bullet$ & This is some experience &  startdate--enddate\\
    $\bullet$ & This is another experience &  startdate--enddate
\end{tabular*}
\begin{itemize}
\item Test text
\item Test text
\end{itemize}
\noindent\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\parindent}}>{$\bullet$\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in}@{\extracolsep{\fill}}r}
    This is some experience &  startdate--enddate\\
    This is another experience &  startdate--enddate
\end{tabular*}

\end{document}

Or more accurately copying the list layout, with an example with 0pt parindent:

\documentclass{article}

\parindent=0pt
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}

\begin{itemize}
\item Test text
\item Test text
\end{itemize}
\noindent\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\labelwidth}\llap{\labelitemi}\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in}@{\extracolsep{\fill}}r}
    This is some experience &  startdate--enddate\\[\itemsep]
    This is another experience &  startdate--enddate
\end{tabular*}

\end{document}

Answer 2

The following example shows two possibilities; in the second one, the bullets are added automatically:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}

\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\parindent}}r@{\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in}@{}X  r}
    $\bullet$ & This is some experience & & startdate--enddate\\
    $\bullet$ & This is another experience & & startdate--enddate
\end{tabularx}
\begin{itemize}
\item Test text
\item Test text
\end{itemize}
\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\parindent}}>{$\bullet$\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in} X r}
    This is some experience & & startdate--enddate\\
    This is another experience & & startdate--enddate
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

As Werner mentions in a comment, by setting \arraystretch conveniently, the separation between rows in tabularx matches the separation between items in the standard itemize environment:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}

{
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.75}
\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\parindent}}r@{\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in}@{}X  r}
    $\bullet$ & This is some experience & & startdate--enddate\\
    $\bullet$ & This is another experience & & startdate--enddate
\end{tabularx}
}
\begin{itemize}
\item Test text
\item Test text
\end{itemize}
{
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.75}
\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{\hspace{\parindent}}>{$\bullet$\hspace{\labelsep}}p{3in} X r}
    This is some experience & & startdate--enddate\\
    This is another experience & & startdate--enddate
\end{tabularx}
}
\end{document}