Functional versus Chronological Resume

Resume Formats

From the perspective of someone reviewing thousands of resumes and working with a wide variety of human resource professionals and hiring managers…I have a strong opinion on resume formats.

There are basically two formats for a resume:  Functional and Chronological

Functional Format

The “functional format” allows you to showcase your skills and experience, but doesn’t say when or where you used or developed these skills and experiences.

If you have a background that includes technical skills, financial responsibility and management and you use the functional format, how can the reviewer tell when you last managed a team, designed a building of had P&L responsibility?

While some skills last forever, others get rusty or are dated.  If the last time you worked on a computer was when Windows was released as an add-on to MS-DOS, a functional format will definitely cover that up for you.  But how efficient are you with Windows 8?

Originally the functional format was used only when the job seeker was trying to hide something and that stigma is still out there.  Upon being presented with a functional resume, the majority of my clients will immediately ask me, “What is this person hiding?”

Over time the functional format has become more popular as a way to transition from one type of job or discipline into another.  Thus, allowing for you to clearly outline what you can do, what you know and how it specifically applies to the job you are trying to get.  It’s great for highlighting your transferrable skills; however, in the last ten years I’ve only personally known one candidate get a job offer with a functional resume.

Your resume is a marketing tool.  You want it to get the attention of the hiring manager or the person reviewing the resumes in human resources and convince them, they want to meet you. The last thing you need is someone wondering what is being hidden.

Chronological Resume

Depending on the job for which you are applying, you can always reorganize your chronological resume to a certain extent.  For example, if you have ten bullet points under your most recent job and the one you are applying for requires you to do something that you have as bullet point number ten, you should pull that up to one of the top 3 – 4 bullet points.  Align your resume with the requirements for the job you are pursuing.

Most people will skim your resume.  They want to see something that clicks and makes them immediately say “here is someone who has what we want/need.”  If they don’t see this immediately, they may never get to the bottom of the bulleted list.  I always say somewhere there is a resume that the 14th bullet point under the fourth job down is “discovered the cure for cancer” but no one ever read that far down on a resume so we’ll never know for sure. :-)