THE FUNCTIONAL RESUME
Many career coaches recommend something called
a functional resume - especially for those changing careers.
I disagree - here's why.
In a traditional resume, you place most
of the emphasis on your career
chronology. You give your job titles, dates and company names and
then you describe your responsibilities and accomplishments for
each position. You start with the most recent job and work backwards.
Functional
resumes are structured very differently. Instead of placing
emphasis on career chronology, the functional resume stresses
skills and areas of expertise. Instead of listing each position,
then providing a job description and then some accomplishment bullet
points,
a functional resume focuses on skills or areas of expertise (e.g.
software development, administration, marketing etc.).
The career
chronology comes at the end of the resume and is presented as a
simple list of jobs with no details provided.
Here is an example
of a functional
resume.
Here is another functional
resume.
For many years, some career coaches have recommended
the functional resume for career changers who don't have relevant
experience, or for those people who need to hide long gaps in their
employment history. The goal is to draw attention away from these
perceived problems and show the reader that you have the skills
they need. The only problem with this is that it’s nonsense!
Functional resumes don't work. Because every HR Manager and every
recruiter has seen thousands of these things and they know exactly
why the functional structure is being used. Trust me. I used to
be an HR Manager and I've seen hundreds of functional resumes.
I had the exact same reaction every
time that I saw one: 'what is this person trying to hide?'
So instead
of being wowed by the obvious match between you and the open position,
the HR Manager is trying to figure out
what you're covering up. If they’re not too busy, they may
even skim your resume trying to find out what’s wrong with
you (not the desired effect!) but if it’s a busy day, they’ll
just throw your resume on the ‘no’ pile.
There is almost
always a better way than a functional resume structure. And if
there isn’t, it’s because
you really don’t have the experience needed for the job,
in which case you need to go get that experience (perhaps by volunteering
or taking a part-time job) because nothing you do with your resume
will fool people that you have what it takes if you don’t.
(See our article on making
a successful career change for more ideas.)
If
you have a challenging situation and are concerned about presenting
your skills in the best light,
study our resume samples.
Go to the library and review the resume samples in other books.
Consider downloading my course, The
DIY Guide to Writing a Killer Resume or another resume writing
guide.
Above all, be creative. Find
any way to present your skills other than a functional resume.
To get more tips like these, and learn how to completely
transform your resume, sign up for my free
resume writing course. We promise never to send sales spam.
Louise Fletcher is the President of Blue
Sky Resumes, and Managing
Editor and Co-founder of the preeminent careers blog, Career
Hub. She is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and many
of her resumes have been published in the JIST "Expert
Resumes" series. She has contributed to many online publications
including About.com, Monster.com, The Ladders, and Net Temps.
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