Which résumé format should you use?

There are quite a few options available when choosing a résumé format, the most common being the chronological, functional and combination.

Chronological Résumé

This format presents your employment history in reverse chronological order, with the most recent position first, followed by previous positions.  This format is the most common one utilised and is usually preferred by employers.    

The advantage of this formatting is it enables you to show steady progression in your career.

The disadvantages of this formatting is that it highlights unstable careers, job hopping, employment gaps and over and under qualified candidates.  Hence its popularity with recruiters and employers.

Use this format if you want to:

• Showcase a strong career history
• Demonstrate your progression up the career ladder
• A chronological format is requested by the employer

Avoid this format:

• If you are a chronic job hopper
• You have large glitches or gaps in your work history

Functional Résumé

A functional résumé categorises experience under skill-based sections in order to highlight your relevant skills.

Brief example:

Organisation / Time Management ~ Complimented by clients and management alike for ability to meet the challenges of a busy and complex work environment. ~ Juggled multi-faceted tasks, simultaneously responding to client enquiries, managing an office environment and meeting statutory requirements and deadlines. Customer Relations / Communications ~ Developed outstanding client relationships, through a commitment to client service and ensuring ongoing improvement in service delivery. ~ High level skills in negotiating agreements, resulting in the communication of information relevant to an area in an effective and timely manner. Problem Solving ~ Re-organised inefficient work practices relating to time-sheets and billing. ~ Kept abreast with new and emerging trends to increase efficiencies, along with making decisions that reflected a balance between resource requirements and customer needs.

The advantage of a functional résumé is that all the disadvantages of the chronological résumé are removed.  It disguises unstable careers, job-hopping, employment gaps and over and under qualified candidates.

Hence its unpopularity with recruiters and employers, which is in turn the biggest disadvantage in using this type of formatting.

Use this format if you want to:

• Camouflage unstable, unorthodox, or an interrupted career
• Counter large job gaps and chronic job hopping
• Want to camouflage over-qualified or ‘age’ issues within a résumé

Avoid this format:

• If you don’t want to raise employer’s suspicions that you might be hiding something
• If you have a strong career history, that shows strong progression through the ranks

My recommendation is to only use this format if you are a really chronic job hopper, or you have an unorthodox work history, and you want to disguise this and a combination résumé is not proving to be effective.

Combination Résumé

A combination résumé, as its name suggests, is a combination of the chronological and functional résumé.  Usually the opening page is in the functional format, followed by your chronological work history.

The obvious advantage of this formatting is that it highlights your core skills in the opening page, followed by the chronological work history that agencies, recruitment consultants and HR personnel favour.

When choosing a format, bear in mind that many employer’s (online in particular), specifically request certain information to be necessarily included in a résumé.  This usually requires candidates to submit a chronological work history.  If you fall into the chronic job hopper, or returning to work mum category, then the combination résumé format is the perfect solution for you.

Use this format if you want to:

• Capitalise on the strengths of both the chronological and functional formats
• Focus on your strengths, before providing a chronological format

Avoid this format:

• Nothing really to avoid with this format, unless you have limited experience, which will result in you repeating information.