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Chronological or Functional?
© 2007
extract from "How To Write a Résumé That Blows Away the
Competition" - available in The Aussie Résumé Writer software
- www.aussieresumes.com/software.htm
by Aussie Résumés
A functional résumé
focuses on your skills. Thus, this
style tends to highlight the strengths you can bring to an employer and
downplays your employment history – facts such as dates and so forth.
We highly recommend that
you do not put together a functional résumé.
Why? Almost all hiring
managers who participated in the Aussie Résumés Employer Survey were vocally
opposed to functional résumés. We
are also in constant contact with HR professionals in a wide variety of
industries which has given us an insight into what they do, or do not want to
see. We're passing on this knowledge
to you! Here are the main reasons
why you shouldn't put together a functional résumé:
1)
This style has long been associated
with those who have been long-term unemployed or have a large number of job
gaps. On sighting a functional résumé,
first opinion is that the applicant has an unstable work history.
If you do have a few job gaps or have been long-term unemployed there are
numerous ways around this and we have covered it within the Employment History
section in "How
To Write a Résumé That Blows Away the Competition" -
www.aussieresumes.com/software.htm
2)
It annoys a hiring manager.
Employment is usually all over the place (i.e. most relevant placed at
the top of the list, even though the applicant may have worked in that position
20 years ago), thus the hiring manager has to spend more time in trying to work out the
applicant's recent experience. Some
applicant's even leave off dates altogether and instead write "2
years", etc; thus, a hiring manager has no idea what real experience an
applicant has. You should never
waste a hiring manager's time – make everything easy for them!
3)
Hiring manager cannot determine the
recent skills of an applicant.
What is a chronological résumé?
Essentially, it lists your employment and education in reverse
chronological order; providing the hiring manager with an immediate picture of
your experience.
True-to-form chronological résumés can be quite boring though, as they
generally give no insight into a person's attributes and skills.
So what's the best way to
format? We recommend a combination
of functional and chronological. This
approach works tremendously as you are providing hiring managers with what they
want to see! That is, a clear
outline of your employment history in reverse chronological order, and a summary
of your skills, attributes and abilities. This
approach is the preferred method by hiring managers as it gives them a full
picture of who you are and what you can bring to their organisation.
Have some questions? Email
now.
Please Note: This article is copyright. Use in an article, on your website, or in any other form
is strictly prohibited without written consent.
Please contact us.

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