The Functional Resume is like a Mysterious Date

The next three blog posts are a series about different resume styles and their pros and cons. The different resume styles that I will discuss include the following: functional, chronological, and hybrid. To wet your whistle, the functional resume is like going on a date with a mysterious individual, the chronological resume is like going on a date with an old friend, and the hybrid resume is like going on a date with The One! Today, I will begin with the functional.

I made the analogy that the functional resume is like going on a mysterious date because it is intriguing and tempting (and may even look scintillating) but leaves room for significant questions. The functional resume highlights your skills, knowledge, and accomplishments and how they relate to the job for which you are applying. When an employer first sees a functional resume, however, they are often suspicious that the candidate is trying to hide something as typically dates are left off this resume style. On the contrary, the most positive aspect of employing a functional resume in your job search is that you are able to create a key word rich document; a key word rich resume is often times your ticket to the next step: The interview.

If you have a sporadic work history, have worked in a variety of industries, are a new graduate (high school or university), or are over qualified for the position, you may want to employ a functional resume in your job search. Thus, minimizing the fact that work experience, consistency, or progression may be lacking. Therefore, you can leave the explanations and elaborations for the second date…I mean, interview.

A great example of a functional resume can be found in this link: http://bit.ly/oTadzy

Happy job shopping!

This post was written by Neely Hazell, a career development practitioner and the face behind http://youniquelyyou.blogspot.com.