The main thing a prospective employer wants to know is what you can do for him. And the only way he can do that is to see what you have already done before, and how you have done it.
There are two broad resume formats that are used to organize information in a resume – the Chronological format, and the Functional Format.
The Chronological Resume:
- Lists down your work history in reverse chronological order – the latest job first. It contains details like the company name, dates, your role and your work details.
- Suitable for candidates who have worked in the same industry for a long time, and have had a steady career, with constant growth.
- The most popular resume type, and is the one prefered by recruiters.
- Easy to read and understand, and one can get all the information at a glance.
Sample format of details on a Chronological resume.
Company ABC (March 2008 to present)
Role: Software Analyst
Work Details:
1)
2)
3)
Company XYZ (Sept 2005 to Feb 2008)
Role: Software Engineer
Work Details:
1)
2)
The Functional Resume:
- Highlights skills and experience, without emphasising dates. Skills are grouped by type or function. But it is essential to list a chronological work history at the end (Just company names and dates) so that the employer has the opportunity to check out your claims.
- Suitable for candidates who:
- are looking for a career change
- have changed jobs frequently
- have worked in multiple industries
- have gaps in their career.
- have gained their most important skills in non-traditional workplaces, like voluntary work, part-time jobs, and student activities
- It highlights the skills you want the employer to notice, and eliminates details that are not relevant to the job opportunity.
- Is not a very popular resume type, and frequently throws up red flags, since many people use it to hide unsavoury pasts. So functional resumes should be used with caution.
A candidate who has experience in software development and management, but is now applying for a job as a Technical Trainer could avoid listing out all his work details, his roles and responsibilities since they are not relevant to the job. However, he needs to tell the recruiter what he knows, and how much he knows. So he could organize his information using the following functions:
* Software Development
* Management Experience
* Consulting Experience
* Training Experience
A person who has worked at various offices and institutions as a secretary and an office assistant, will need to put down a long list of companies, with similar or overlapping responsibilities within each company. Instead of that, he can go in for a Functional resume and use the following function groups:
* Customer Service
* Management
* Supervisory Activities
* Administrative Support
Someone who has made huge jumps from Finance to Networking to Software and is now applying for a Senior Management job could express his skills as follows:
* Computer-Related Abilities
* Finance-Related Abilities
* Management and Supervisory Abilities
* Additional Professional Abilities
Some people also find a Mixed Resume or Hybrid Resume useful – where the first section highlights the skills and experience, and the second section gives the chronological work history, which is shorter than it would have been in a regular chronological resume. This resume gives you the opportunity to highlight your skills, as well as prove that you have a solid career behind you.
In fact, many resumes, while being basically chronological resumes, do list out the basic skiills and experience in short, in a "Overview of Skills" or "Summary" section in the beginning. This approach can be very effective.
As always, if you are not sure what will work best for you, it will pay to consult a good resume writer.
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