The Functional Resume
The most common resume format is a chronological resume where employment experience is listed in reverse chronological order. It is the most common for a reason—it’s easy to follow and employers easily connect to the format.
There are times when a strict chronological resume is not the best option and instead, a functional resume becomes a better fit.
What is a functional resume?
A functional resume is skill-based. Work history is still listed but is secondary to the skills that you’re highlighting. There are times when a functional resume will allow you to expand on key skills required for the jobs you’re applying to.
When a functional resume might be best
Whenever you’re creating your resume, you should think carefully about the best format to showcase your skills. A functional resume could be a good options if:
You’re changing careers. A functional resume can be written to focus on the transferable skills that will help you succeed in your new chosen career.
You have a break in your work history. Whatever the reason, when you return to the workforce, it feels like your time away creates a big hole in your resume. A functional resume’s focus on skills could downplay your break from the workforce.
Your jobs experience is inconsistent or your experience comes from more than just paid employment, such as volunteer work and education. If you’ve had a lot of different jobs and they don’t seem to connect, a functional resume might be for you. By focusing on the skills, you help the employer connect the dots between paid employment and volunteer work.
How to get started
Review the job listing(s) carefully and determine what key skills they are looking for. These skills could cover specific technical skills or more general transferable skills. Make a list of those skills and then look at your experience and accomplishments. Put each in a category based on the skills the employers are seeking.
The layout
Your resume will still start with a summary, highlighting the value you deliver to the company.
Then you will go into the skills section. This can be titled “Key Skills” “Skills and Accomplishments” or some variation. Choose three skills as your subheadings and include specific examples of the work you have completed, and accomplishments and value delivered, under each of those subheadings.
Within the “Relevant Experience” section, outline your work history. In most cases, each job should be a single line with job title, company, city and state, and start/stop dates. In some cases, you might include a bullet point or two under each job listing to give more context to the role. But the point is, in a functional resume, the bulk of your skills and accomplishments will be organized in your skills section, not the employment section.
If you gained skills and experience through volunteer work or community service, include that experience too.
Connect to the Cover Letter
Your cover letter should closely align with the key skills you highlighted on your resume. In fact, one of the best advantages to a functional resume is how clear your strengths are outlined for the cover letter, interviews and more.
Uploading your resume into an online application
Remember that most employers require the use of ATS software to review and scan resumes. The problem with Functional resumes is that ATS doesn’t know how to categorize that experience. Be sure to review the fields after uploaded and make sure that all of your experience and skills are accounted for within the online system. This will take a few extra minutes but is worth the time.
Your online profile
Don’t miss the opportunity to optimize your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn requires your experience in chronological order, however, the summary gives you 2,000 characters—that’s a lot of room to draw attention to key skills.
