Home » Education & Career » Writing Resumes » Selecting the right resume format

Selecting the right resume format

© Annemarie Cross

Before putting pen to paper, a very important factor to consider before you begin developing your resume is which format would be the most favorable for your current professional position and factors surrounding your job search. While many job seekers tend to use the reverse chronological format, this may not suit your unique circumstances, nor be the best option in terms of presentation, so using this approach could jeopardize your current campaign. There are three main resume formats commonly being used:
1. Reverse chronological
2. Functional
3. Combination

REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL

This format presents a historical timeline of your experience in reverse chronological order, beginning with your most recent position first and working backwards. This resume provides the reader with relevant contact details and your employment history, generally followed by other sections including education, professional membership, computer technologies, and community involvement, etc. This format is widely accepted by recruiters and employers and is best suited for job seekers who have a solid career history spanning 5+ years.

Advantages:
- Enables you to portray a steady progression through positions of increasing responsibility;
- Validates your readiness in being able to take the next step up the career ladder;
- Recruiters and employers tend to prefer this format, as it is easily scanned and allows easy detection of employment gaps.

Disadvantages:
- Exposes unemployment or career breaks that you may well not wish to disclose at the initial application stage;
- Reveals situations of position side tracking or demotions, particularly if your most recent role holds less responsibility than the position being applied for;
- Limited in its creativity component in comparison to other resume formats (i.e. combination format).

FUNCTIONAL

This format groups key skills and achievements within separate categories in order to highlight and qualify a job seeker's experience and credentials against a specific position. Following this skills-based approach will allow a candidate to emphasize strengths and achievements while de-emphasizing periods of unemployment, career transitions from one industry or career to another, or limited experience.

Recruiters do not particularly welcome this format, as it tends to raise suspicion that the job seeker is trying to hide something (which is probably correct), so consider carefully before using this format as to whether this is the best option. If it is absolutely crucial to use this format, present the skills-based component (experience/achievements relevant to the position) on page 1, followed by a snapshot of your employment including employer name, dates, positions and an overview of your job scope and how you contributed to the organization's ongoing success through achievements.

The copyright of the article Selecting the right resume format in Writing Resumes is owned by . Permission to republish Selecting the right resume format in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.