Functional Resume Format

Functional Resume Format
Editor's Note
The functional resume format focuses on your skills set, as opposed to your career progression. The typical functional resume will discuss your qualifications and your work history under separate headings. The qualifications section will go in detail about your skills set, but need not reference where you acquired those skills. The emphasis is on what you can do. Within the qualifications section, you can have subheadings each targeted at a specific skill that you have. For instance, if you are applying for a position as a proprietary trader, you can have two headings, one for technical analysis and one for fundamental analysis. Typically, under the qualifications section, you will have the work experience section. In this section, you can list your career progression, but don’t need to specify what you did for each job. You only need to list your previous employers. As you can see, a functional resume format is totally different from a reverse chronological resume format in how it presents a person’s qualifications. The reverse chronological resume format is the “default” format that most people use. Normally, people who choose the functional resume format do so for a reason. You then have to ask yourself why the reverse chronological resume format isn’t right for you. One of the most common reasons why people choose this format is because they have a gap in their work history. They choose the functional resume format to draw attention away from this gap. Another reason is that they want to change career and, hence, want to focus on their transferable skills. Whatever your reason might be to stray away from the chronological resume format, make sure that you structure your functional resume in a way that makes sense, as opposed to hinting that there is something wrong that you want to hide. The functional resume format can be very powerful, but at the same time it is harder to grasp. Following are some examples of resumes using the functional resume format: Functional Resume Format 1 Functional Resume Format 2 Functional Resume Format 3

Editor's Note

The functional resume format focuses on your skills set, as opposed to your career progression. The typical functional resume will discuss your qualifications and your work history under separate headings.

The qualifications section will go in detail about your skills set, but need not reference where you acquired those skills. The emphasis is on what you can do. Within the qualifications section, you can have subheadings each targeted at a specific skill that you have. For instance, if you are applying for a position as a proprietary trader, you can have two headings, one for technical analysis and one for fundamental analysis.

Typically, under the qualifications section, you will have the work experience section. In this section, you can list your career progression, but don’t need to specify what you did for each job. You only need to list your previous employers.

As you can see, a functional resume format is totally different from a reverse chronological resume format in how it presents a person’s qualifications. The reverse chronological resume format is the “default” format that most people use. Normally, people who choose the functional resume format do so for a reason. You then have to ask yourself why the reverse chronological resume format isn’t right for you. One of the most common reasons why people choose this format is because they have a gap in their work history. They choose the functional resume format to draw attention away from this gap. Another reason is that they want to change career and, hence, want to focus on their transferable skills.

Whatever your reason might be to stray away from the chronological resume format, make sure that you structure your functional resume in a way that makes sense, as opposed to hinting that there is something wrong that you want to hide. The functional resume format can be very powerful, but at the same time it is harder to grasp.

Following are some examples of resumes using the functional resume format: