How to create a functional resume

From the author of the upcoming book "Think Like an Interviewer: Your Job Hunting Guide to Success" comes this article on how to create a functional resume. Perfect for students, career-switchers, and those with little or no experience.

Instructions

1. **What is a functional resume?**

   Before you learn how to write it, let me first tell you what it is. A functional resume concentrates mostly on your skills and abilities. Why? Because it's designed for those who don't have lots of work experience in that job or field!

   In other words, it's designed to show an employer all the various things you're capable of doing. Things that will impress an employer enough to land you an interview! So what if you don't have practical experience, or it's limited? What's important is that you bring lots of important and needed skills to the table. This is the philosophy behind the functional resume.

   So it's an excellent choice for:

   a) Students with little or no work experience at all or in their major
   b) Non-students with little or no work experience
   c) People who are switching careers and lack experience in the new one
   d) Those of you who have been out of the workforce for some time and are now re-entering it. For instance, a stay-at-home mom who wants to return to work now that the kids are older

2. **Main sections**

   To accomplish it's mission of emphasizing your capabilities, a functional resume is divided into various sections. Here are the most common sections found on it, and in the order you'll normally see them:

   a) Contact info
   b) Objective
   c) Skills
   d) Education
   e) Work experience

3. 

   **Your contact information**

   The very first thing an employer needs to know is who this resume belongs to. So you should begin your resume with your:

   a) Name--big and bold!
   b) Address
   c) Phone--home, voicemail, and/or cell
   d) E-mail

   Which phone number(s)to include is up to you. For example, some people only put their cell phones, while others list their home and cells.

   Whether or not to include an e-mail address is also a personal choice. Some people don't list one at all, while others do. If you don't have an e-mail address or prefer not to use your personal one, then you could always create another one just for job-hunting. For example, you could create a free e-mail account through:

   a) Google Mail
   b) Yahoo Mail
   c) Hotmail

   TIP: Do not use your work e-mail!

   The reason why I say this is because you may not want your current employer to know you're looking for work. And you don't want prospective employers to feel you're using company time to job hunt, when it really should be done on your own time.

4. 

   **Objective**

   This section is where you'd put what kind of work you're seeking. For instance, if you're looking for part-time, you can say that. If you're looking for customer service, then that can be your objective.

   But this section is strictly optional! Whether you decide to have an objective on your resume is completely up to you.

   TIP: If you decide to put an objective on there, make it more narrow and specific

   An objective that's too broad is essentially a waste of valuable resume space. That's because it'll tell an employer "nothing" or merely state the obvious.

   For instance, "Looking for a challenging position that uses my skills." We all would like a job like this! So it's a "given."

   But an objective like "Looking for a management trainee position" tells an employer that you're not interested in a support position. Instead, you want a supervisory and managerial one. So this is a useful and helpful objective to an employer because it helps them to know what you want and what you don't.

   But my professional suggestion is to leave it off. When you're job hunting, your goal is to get as many employers to notice and contact you. So I say it's best to leave all options open. If you're offered something you're not interested in, simply turn it down.

5. 

   **Skills**

   This is the main and biggest section on a functional resume and will fill most of your resume's space.

   You'll list all the different skills and abilities you have. I suggest you bullet things to make them easier to see and standout more. Word each of them in a way that is "powerful" and impressive! Remember, this section will fill the bulk of your resume and must impress an employer so you'll be called for an interview.

   I've seen many applicants make the mistake of writing paragraphs. Employers are busy and gets tons of resumes today. So you should use a quick sentence or two at to the most. And the bullet in front of it will make it stand out.

   For example:

   * Am a very creative and reliable person
   * Wrote a 5 page research paper and got an A on it
   * Made the Dean's List
   * Was a member of several project teams in class
   * Am a good communicator
   * Ability to work well under pressure
   * Able to handle problems
   * Provided quality customer service on a regular basis
   * Used MS Excel to create spreadsheets and charts
   * Knowledge of MS Word, Excel, E-Mail, and Internet
   * Extremely motivated
   * Learned about basic medical terminology and procedures

   In other words, you focus on those "business" skills and abilities you feel you posess and summarize them in a quick bulleted statement. And if you have some experience, then you can state that too! I gave you samples of both so you can get a sense of what goes into this section.

   TIP: Anything you say here may be an interview question

   Many employers will question you about these during interviews. For instance, I may ask for you to give me an example to demonstrate a skill or ability you mention. Or inquire further as to how detailed your training or expertise is. I've even known some employers who actually test you!

6. 

   **Education**

   Here is where you'd put any formal schooling or on-the-job training you've had that's relevant to what you're going for. And you have to decide what you feel is relevant.

   But whatever you decide, here's the information that you'd list:

   a) Training dates
   b) Where you received your training--school or company name
   c) Degree / diploma / certificate--Whatever they call your official completion document. For example, when you graduate from college you can get a B.A., a B.S., a Certificate, an A.S., an A.A.S., etc.

   Now some people choose to also mention any on-the-job training in the skill section underneath the job where you got it. That's perfectly fine and all right to dupe here. Others only put it in one section or the other. Which way to go is a personal choice!

   For instance, if you are going into the travel business and went to school for it, you may want to mention your travel stuff separate from your non-travel. This can help draw more attention to your travel training.

   Whether or not you want to do this is your call. In other words, there's no right or wrong. It's simply a judgment call on your part.

   Now if you're a student or career-switcher, then you can list some of the classes or subjects you've learned about or will learn during the course of your training.

   For instance, if you're studying accounting, you could list:

   * Financial and Managerial Accounting
   * Taxes
   * Quickbooks
   * Basic bookkeeping

   This helps an employer know what kinds of things you've learned about or will learn. Remember, not every employer knows about all the various schools. So proving a listing of some classes or subject areas can help clarify and draw attention to your specific training.

   With medical records training, you could indicate some areas covered in your program. Things like: creating patient files, insurance coding, billing, front office management, and basic medical terminology.

7. 

   **Work experience**

   On a functional resume, this section is located at the very bottom of your resume and takes up very little space! Why? Because you don't have much experience at all or in that job or field. So keeping it small and out of the way helps to de-emphasize your lacking experience.

   If you have some work experience, then all you'd put is:

   a) Company name
   b) Job title or area
   c) Dates of employment

   Notice how I didn't say to put anything about what you did on the job! That's because you'll mention those up in your skills section. All you tell me here is where you worked, when, and your title. That's it!

   And if you have no experience at all, then you leave this section off entirely!

Tips & Warnings

• Check your spelling and grammar to make sure there are no mistakes

• Be consistent in your heading formatting

• Mold your information for the kind of work and/or industry

• It should really be no more than 1 page. More than this means you're more experienced. And that would be a chronological not a functional resume!

• Use font sizes that are easy to read

• Some employers may ask you for a chronological resume

• So you may also want to read my article on how to create a chronological resume.

• This way, you're fully-prepared!