(Originally posted to TribLocal on 10/06/10)

Job Seekers – there are more insider tips coming your way! Hopefully, you’ve already developed a personalized Summary Statement as we discussed on September 19th. If not, do a quick TribLocal site search for ‘ResuMAYDAY’ to pull up my previous posts. Assuming that your Summary Statement is now sparkly and unique, it’s time to move on to the main body of the document.

Let’s take this time to discuss chronological resumes vs. functional resumes. Ready? NEVER USE A FUNCTIONAL FORMAT. Moving on…Yes? You in the back of the room – you want to know why? Fine. Functional resumes just…don’t work. The person reading a functional resume (an employer or a recruiter) will never read the resume the way the writer wants it to be read. I’ll break it down a bit. A functional resume categorizes a candidate’s skills and accomplishments in its own section. Those skills and accomplishments are separate from the rest of the information; they are not designated to any employer. After than, you have a smaller section that lists the candidate’s employers, by company name, title and dates of employment. Those resume readers (again, employers and recruiters) primarily want to know when and where you last worked, and if you are currently working. That means that the reader is going to skip past the heart and soul of the resume – that long section of your accomplishments – and go right to the employment history. All that work and effort you put into creating your accomplishments section was not time well spent. If the reader actually goes back to that accomplishments section, they really have no idea if these were recent accomplishments  or not. This is a problem! A recruiter will possibly take the time to tell you to rewrite your resume in a chronological format (reverse chronological, for those who are keeping track), but an employer won’t. They’ll simply move on to the candidate who provided a better presentation.

I’m sure I’ll get a bit of push-back, but my heels are dug in to the dirt. I know all the reasons that people give for justifying a functional format: Transitioning to a new industry; short time at a few positions; going back to an industry from the earlier part of your career; major gaps in employment; a diverse career history without a clear path; college students or entry-level candidates with part-time or non-career type positions; older workers wanting to trim their history; a number of similar positions where the responsibilities didn’t change from job to job. Did I cover all of them? If not, leave a comment, but I promise you that I’ll find a chronological answer to your query.

Job seekers actually think that a functional resume will ‘trick’ the employer to ignore any of the above issues, but the opposite actually happens. When a person who reads A LOT of resumes gets a functional format, they immediately wonder what the issue will be, and then they try to find it. Is that really how you want a potential influencer of your career to read your resume? Of course not.

Path of least resistance. Path of least resistance! Don’t make the employer work too hard to hire you. The resume format that you choose has a lot to do with this. I’d love to continue the conversation on this topic, so leave your comments and we’ll chat. If you have an issue that wasn’t addressed and you’ve been told that a functional resume is the way to go, please get in touch. We can do better.