Choosing The Right Resume

Resumes are the personal advertisements of a person where he sells himself (not literally!) to the company. Why do advertisers pay so much attention to their print ads? This is because they want their ad to be attention grabbing among the thousands of other ads. Similarly, a candidate advertises himself through his resume so that employer's attention is easily diverted towards your resume. An effective resume does not have to verbose or flowery, but it can be simple yet serving the purpose tactfully. If you choose the right resume format, it conveys the message to the employer that you are professional in your approach and that you intend to take things professionally. There are different types/formats of resumes; functional, chronological and combination.

Functional Resume:

This type of resume classifies skills by your function, giving an emphasis on abilities. This format is helpful when you have changing jobs and careers and you want to tell your prospective employers about the flexibility of your skills. An employer is interested in knowing what you can offer him and his company. Functional resumes do just that. Job objectives of the particular function are stated above and the rest of it is designed in order of different functions that you have performed in your previous jobs. In this type, you classify the resume according to those functions such as marketing, finance, HR, sales manager etc. The category for which you are applying must be ordered above other functions. This implies to the employer that you know what the company seeks. An ineffective functional resume would be one in which you do not arrange the functions of your previous jobs in synonymous with the job you are applying for.

Chronological Resume:

This is clearly the most effective and most popular resumes formats that job applicants know. In this format job experiences are listed in reverse order; that means most recent job at the first. This is because employer is interested in what skills have you acquired recently and how updated you are. In this type, the year of the most recent job is stated first, followed by the employer's name/company name and then followed by job description of that job. The format of chronology is best suited for applicants who have evolved into their careers and want to convey the career growth to prospective employers. However, if you career has been facing ups and downs, or you have been unemployed for a longer period of time, then chronological resume is not accurate to use. In that case, it is best to use functional resume.

Combination Resume:

As the name suggests, a combination resume is the amalgamation of both functional and chronological resume. At the top, after giving your name and address you ought to objectives as a prospective employee. Then you proceed onto giving the functions that you can perform. This section includes your abilities and tasks. The following paragraph tells the work experience that you attained. This type of resume is best suited for those who do not have much job experience such as starters or fresh graduates.