Resume - functional vs. chronological?

[ladyclaire]

Hey peeps - quick note

Comments

[yesterdayanew]

i would suggest it! i just graduated college with a degree in education, and all of my experience deals with that (student teaching, substitute teaching, etc). i've applied for jobs outside of education using a functional resume and i've gotten 3 interviews in about 2 months.

[ladyclaire]

That's awesome! Well, then, hopefully this new resume will get me somewhere!

[chordoflife]

Yeah.. Functional is better at showing WHAT YOU DID, which is what matters more. People want to see that you held a job for a certain point of time, of course, but more then anything, they want to know that you have skills and experience that fit their needs. Mine says where I worked, title, dates, and then key accomplishments in bullet points while at that position. People seem to notice it, even if I don't get hired. So far it's gotten me 2 interviews, though no offers yet.

[socktree]

I'd say yes. My grad school career resources person said this is the best way to showcase your talents. I actually have, like, three different resumes for different types of positions

[ladyclaire]

That's great - thanks for your tips. I really like the idea of customizing resumes depending on the job. I am going to try this for sure!

[socktree]

I posted a more detailed example below if you want to get a better look at what I tend to do.

[traversant]

Functional grouping, what does that entail? What's the difference in format?

Example: ( from my own resume)

[socktree]

Program Management/Research
OHSU School of Nursing (2008-2009) Communications Intern
Data management and analysis; web design; work as part of a team to create School of Nursing website using CommonSpot.

YWCA of Clark County (2008), Domestic Violence Prevention Intern
Researching and organizing domestic violence curriculums that are most effective for audience; recruiting and training volunteers to conduct presentations; conducting focus groups with various agencies of young adults and adolescents; acting as a liaison between community resources, agency members and professionals; gathering pre- and post- data for analysis of how program can become better and outcome effectiveness using surveys and facilitator follow-ups.

Goose Hollow Family Shelter (2007), Volunteer Coordinator
Recruiting volunteers; scheduling volunteers throughout the month; organized and entered into a database various statistics about shelter guests; created resource list for shelter guests.

CounselingLifeworksNW (2008-2009), Counseling Intern

Re: Example: ( from my own resume)

[ladyclaire]

Ok, so I have a question regarding how you set this up. You seem to only list a job once on the resume, even though you have multiple subjects. Did your career coach advise you to do this? I'm not sure if I should also only list a position once, or if it had multiple responsibilities that I can list it several times throughout the resume under different subjects. Example: I was the Marketing & Communications intern at an organization, so I was going to put this under Editorial/Design Expertise as well as possibly Facilitation, since I did work in both categories. I think I'm probably thinking too hard about this, but I want to make sure that I don't overkill something/make a mistake that will chuck me to the resume reject bin.

Re: Example: ( from my own resume)

[socktree]

listing the same job more than once on a resume seem pretty redundant.

[john_holton]

I think it's a great idea. I think it's particularly good if you're trying to get work in a field other than your current one, have gaps in your employment history or have done a lot of project, volunteer or temporary work. Just don't be surprised if you get some pushback from headhunters, who prefer the chronological type almost exclusively. I've heard of a type called a hybrid, which is a combination of the two; you might research that type as well.

[ladyclaire]

Hm, a hybrid? Yes, I will have to look into that.

I still plan to include the dates of my employment, so I think I will have a small list at the bottom of the resume. I'm just not going to go into detail what each job specifically entailed. Hopefully, with the functional listings above, they'll get a better idea of what I can do through that.

[settlingbones]

This looks like something I might want to try! My work history has a few gaps here and there (including my current unemployment gap growing ever larger by the day!), so I'm hoping I can use this even though my experience isn't quite the same. I'm hoping I can use this format with retail/food & beverage/office groupings that I can customize based on which type of position I'm applying for!

Thank you!

[ladyclaire]

Glad I could be of some help! I hope you can make it work - I've gotten some positive feedback on mine!