How to Select The Right Resume Format

The resume format you choose depends largely on your background and experiences.

Your resume is a marketing tool designed to convey your most impressive skills and achievements. Because the resume needs to highlight what you do best, you must design your resume around your work history, skills and the requirements of the job for which you're applying. You may need to create several copies of your resume; one for each type of job for which you apply.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Chronological Resumes
• Functional Resumes
• Combined Resumes
• Targeted Resumes

1. All resumes need a clean design that makes it easy for the reader to quickly spot relevant information. Avoid lengthy sentences or paragraphs, use simple fonts and bullet points and make good use of the white space on the page.

2. The chronological resume is the traditional format. The format is simply a history of your work experience in reverse chronological order. You list your most recent job first and work backward. Many recruiters like this style because they can easily see your work history and determine whether you have gaps in your history. The chronological format is also favored in conservative professional fields such as law and business. You may choose the chronological resume if you have a steady work history and if you're sticking to the same field in your job search.

3. If you've been out of work for awhile, if you have limited work experience or if you're transitioning to a new career, the functional resume format may be your best choice. Functional resumes emphasize skills. Instead of leading with a chronological listing of your jobs, you lead the resume with a listing of your skills. Group your most impressive skills into categories such as "Leadership," "Technology" or "Research," and then you describe how you used those skills in your past jobs. Be advised though that many recruiters and employers don't like this format because they know that many people use it to cover up gaps in work history.

4. Combination resumes take the best of functional resumes and the chronological format and put them together. This is good if you're wary of the reputation that functional resumes have with many recruiters. You lead with your best accomplishments and skills if you're transitioning to a new field or if you've been out of the workforce for awhile, but you still display your work history with dates and lengths of service.

References

• Be Well Partners; Choosing the Best Resume Format For You; Stephanie Legatos