Home Add to Favorite Contact Submit  
             29 March, 2024
 

    
Category:  Articles » Business » Resumes Cover Letters

 

Best Resume Format - Chronological or Functional?

Popularity:
         Views: 1928
2008-04-23 05:09:11     
Article by Mike Woods

A resume is basically a summary of your past employment history, achievements, skills, educational attainments and competencies acquired through the years. Your resume is your sales letter to a prospective employer to tell them that you are the best candidate for the role. It is generally made up of one to two pages and often comes in two distinct resume formats: Chronological and Functional. So which one is best suited for you?

To decide which resume format is best for your current requirement, let us briefly discuss the structure and merits of the two.

Chronological Resume Format

Chronological is described as something that is arranged according to the order of time. A chronological resume format, therefore, is where your professional experiences and educational attainment are arranged in the order they were obtained. In a resume, this is usually done by starting out with the latest or most current experience followed by the one before that. This is why, it is also often called as a reverse chronological resume.

Most employers prefer this type of resume format as they can easily assess your qualifications by reviewing your recent and past employment history and educational background. Putting your most recent employment first can help them gauge your suitability to the role. It is a known fact that most employers would prefer someone who had recent experience with a role than someone who had experience with it five years ago.

When using a chronological resume format, you should list your most recently held position followed by two to four other positions arranged in reverse order. Also include the months and years you were employed. You don't necessarily have to provide the exact date. Be sure to be able to explain gaps in your employment if there are any as this will be most noticeable in this type of resume format. You can do this in your cover letter. A chronological resume format works best when you have acquired some professional experience and not fresh out from college.

Functional Resume Format

If you are fresh out of school and have no substantial professional experience to talk of, it is best to use a functional resume format. This type of resume format puts more focus on your qualifications and skills rather than your employment and professional history. So, rather than listing positions held in reverse order you will be listing out key competencies that are required and relevant to the role. An example could be "People Management" or "Customer Relations". Then proceed to enumerate tasks or duties you performed whether at school, part time jobs or at community projects that help to reinforce this skill. A functional resume format is also applicable for career changers as their professional experience might vary considerably from what is being offered. But more often than not, they will have acquired some skills from their previous career that are applicable to the new career path they have chosen.

Choosing which resume format to use is entirely up to you. But it is important to keep these key differences and advantages in mind in deciding which one you are going to choose. In many cases, you might be able to use both types and it is often termed as a combination resume format. If you do opt to combine the strengths of both resume formats, just make sure to limit the length of your resume and stick to information relevant to the role.

Most of the resumes submitted will end up as trash. Don't let that happen to you. Learn effective ways on how to write a resume that gets the job and which resume format attracts employers.

Specialized in: Resume Format - Chronological - Functional
URL: http://learn-how-to-write-a-resume.blogspot.com
Print article      Bookmark this page
Related Articles 
American English Teacher for Japan, Korea, the Middle East, and the Uttermost Parts of the Earth (Popularity: ): While applying for an English teaching position overseas with a company that services Japan, I was asked to write a cover letter / essay stating "WHY I WANT TO LIVE AND WORK IN JAPAN"Here below are a few success secrets when you are asked to write such a letter, followed by the letter itself.1. Express a heartfelt interest - employers want people who are passionate about their work. 2. Communicate a ...
Top 10 Cover Letter Writing Tips (Popularity: ): If you are looking for a new job, you know that writing an effective cover letter for your job application is important but like many people you find it difficult to get the words just right. If you produce a poorly written cover letter you run the very real chance of ruining any prospect your application had of being successful. What you really need is the knowledge of what a ...
Get Help with Cover Letter Samples (Popularity: ): Cover letter samples are often found in the internet websites. Mind you, there are thousands of cover letter samples that will pop out of your computer screens as you type the keyword in the search engines. Generally, these cover letter samples signify your fullest potential of landing into the job that you want. And because the cover letter samples are too plenty, sample seekers like you end up confused as ...
Cover Letter Tips: Sell Yourself Effectively (Popularity: ): Here are some tips to transform a boring old-fashioned cover letter to a fresh sales letter.When you write a cover letter be sure to point out all your skills and experiences, biggest career successes. A cover letter is the best place to show your personality. You know that already. But you have to do it in a way that your skills and experiences match the requirements of the job you ...
A Good Sample Cover Letter (Popularity: ): First things first, remember that a cover letter is similar to a tool marketers use to be able to get customers to buy something. Remember that a lot of customers are not into features but actually only consider to buy because of the benefits. It is important therefore for you to make your customer buy into you.Also, a cover letter is one way for employers to see just how good ...


Related Business 
Aircraft Mechanic Resume (Popularity: ): Aircraft mechanic resume must be drafted considering vital details such as work experience, license, certifications, and associations that need to be highlighted in such resume. Resume is an essential document that one needs to send to apply for any job opening. Candidates with several years of work experience must use chronological resume format.
Free Resume Writing Services (Popularity: ): We are providing a Free Resume Samples and Resume Writing Services with Cover Letters. Our Free Resume Formats service provides Resume in DOC Format for job seekers with a Professional Resume layout, which will work for every professional in major countries like USA, Canada, UK, Australia and UAE. We have the Best Resume writers which provide Professional Resumes, Advanced Resumes and Elementary Resumes.
Resume Format (Popularity: ): Resume format examples and templates.
Enhancing Writing Skills (Popularity: ): Now in the competative world many of the people looking for jobs. So a person has to make himself more marketable. Write a well-written and brief resume. It does not have to be one page or follow a specific resume format. It is a kind of marketing communication. It should be suitable to your situation, what you want it to do.If your resume has many errors then you should not ...
Floyd Nolen Jones (Popularity: ): Original downloadable books, Bible study tapes in MP3 format, and chronological charts that advocate the King James Version.
Professional CV Software (Popularity: ): A professionally managed cv building software provider in UK, offers all types free cv builder, resume format, professional cv format, cv creation, cv in minute, resume tips, curriculum vitea building software, online cv builder, next generation cv and others.
Panacea's Professional Free Online (Popularity: ): Panacea's professional free online, our Free Resume Builder you can create your resume in just few minutes using our step by step guided wizard. You can directly print and download your resume in Microsoft word and Acrobat's PDF format. Our online resume builder offers over 118 well formatted professionally designed resume templates to choose from.
Smart Cover Letters (Popularity: ): Cover Letter resources and tips. This Service offered by our company like:- Cover letters, resume writing, cover letter writing, Resume Template, Help Me Write a Resume, Resume Format, Resume Cover Letter.
Marketing Resumes (Popularity: ): Getting ready for graduate interviews and you are not satisfied with your resume format? You have landed in the right place to build a successful career. Whether this is the right format? Do you have lots of similar questions like this?
Sample Technical Resumes (Popularity: ): Technical resumes have been given on our web site for your reference. These resume samples will aid you to draft your resume for different posts in Technical field in an effective manner. However, you will have to go through the resume samples so you can understand their format.