A functional resume helps candidates highlight specific accomplishments and skills applicable to a job opportunity upfront. However, if you ask HR professionals, most are likely to show a preference for the chronological resume.
Functional resumes may hide details, such as dates of employment, and makes revealing gaps between employments more difficult to see. Most hiring companies want to know such details on candidates and that is a major reason why the chronological format is preferred. So, given this, you may ask, “Why would one use a functional resume format?”
Functional resumes are favorable for a candidate in certain situations. It can have a greater effect for candidates, including:
1. Recent graduates who have limited work experience.
As a recent graduate, you may have studied and earn a degree related to a particular field, but so have many other graduates. How do you make your resume distinctive from all the others to impress employers? The functional resume allows you to focus on specific accomplishments and skills obtained and used from school activities and projects. In this instance, an employer may be more impressed with your resume. The employer is able to see what you were involved in and how you used certain skills to accomplish tasks. Trying to show this through a chronological resume would have much less impact.
2. Career changers who are trying to highlight transferable skills.
As a career changer, you may have years of experience in a particular field. However, your experience will not matter unless you can show how the acquired skills are transferable to this new field you seek to enter. For instance, as a retail manager, you may have dealt with issues including hiring, training and other internal and external relations issues. These are transferable skills that may be used in another field, but may not jump off the pages of a “traditional” resume. A functional resume can help highlight these skills you have to offer upfront, compared to using a chronological resume that takes more time for an employer to interpret.
3. Stay-at-home parents or those to have gone off to pursue additional education, and are reentering the workforce.
Candidates reentering the workforce after taking several years off can lead employers to bring to question what types of applicable skills you have that can work for today’s market. In a chronological resume, you focus on your most recent relevant job and go back in time. If an employer is to see that your last relevant job was over 5 years ago, that may not be the best way to capture their attention and make a positive impression. A functional resume lets you highlight your skills upfront and demonstrate how you may apply those skills for the job. This format makes a positive impression and addresses common employer concerns about applicable skills from candidates reentering the workforce. The chronological resume cannot do this as easily, and may result in the employer dismissing it.
If you find yourself in any of the situations above, consider using a functional resume to achieve greater impact. Employers will be more understanding to candidates using a functional resume for the particular situations listed.
Outside of the situations above, using a functional resume can lead an employer to believe you are trying to hide something. An alternative solution is to do a combination of the two formats. The combination resume format highlights functions and skills upfront and lists the employment history next.
In today’s competitive market, you need to capture employers’ attention immediately. A chronological resume may not be able to help you do it.
By: Don Goodman
Don Goodman President of About Jobs is a nationally recognized Resume Writer and Career Expert, featured on 3 of the Top 5 career portals, and quoted hundreds of times in print, TV and radio. A graduate of the Wharton School of Business and Stanford University's Executive Program, Don has helped thousands of people secure their next job and can be reached at 800-909-0109 or dgoodman@GotTheJob.com
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