Functional Resume Format
A functional resume illustrates work experiences and abilities by skills areas in order to highlight strengths rather than specific positions or dates of employment.
Use a functional resume when:
- Your work record does not justify a chronological resume
- Much of your work has been volunteer, free-lance, consulting, or temporary
- You have a variety of different, relatively disconnected work experiences
- Your career growth has been stagnant or you've had an extended absence from the workplace
- You are in the process of a career change
- You need to emphasize skills not used in recent work experience
Do not use a functional resume when:
- You can demonstrate career growth
- Listing specific employers is important, as in highly traditional fields
- Recent employers are highly prestigious
Content in a functional resume:
- Contact Information: Name, address, phone, email
- Career Objective: Must be clear and concise, or use a Functional Summary to summarize experience and skills in a few sentences
- Functional Headings:
- Four or five separate paragraphs
- List in order of importance relative to objective
- Stress your most significant abilities, skills, and accomplishments
- Use past-tense, action-oriented verbs
- Employment History:
- Brief synopsis of actual work experiences including employers, titles, and dates
- If no or spotty work experience, leave this section out, but be ready to discuss it in the interview
- Education:
- If date of last attendance is three years or less, move this section to after the Contact Information
- If more than three years, or unrelated field, include education after work experience
- Indicate degree received, date, institution
- Grade point average can be included if it is above a 3.0
- References: Use Chronological Resume format guidelines