The functional resume departs from a chronological resume in that it organizes information by specific accomplishments in various settings: previous jobs, volunteer work, associations, and so forth. This type of resume permits you to stress the substance of your experiences rather than the position titles you have held. You should consider using a functional resume if you have held a series of similar jobs that relied on the same skills or abilities.
The Objective
A functional resume begins with an objective that can be used to focus the contents of the resume.
Specific Accomplishments
Specific accomplishments are listed on this type of resume. Examples of the types of headings used to describe these capabilities might include research, computer skills, teaching, communication, production, management, marketing, or writing. The headings you choose will directly relate to your experience and the tasks that you carried out. Each accomplishment section contains statements related to your experience in that category, regardless of when or where it occurred. Organize the accomplishments and the related tasks you describe in their order of importance as related to the position you seek.
Experience or Employment History
Your actual work experience is condensed and placed after the specific accomplishments section. It simply lists dates of employment, position titles, and employer names.
Education
The education section of a functional resume is identical to that of the chronological resume, but it does not carry the same visual importance because it is placed near the bottom of the page.
References
Because actual reference names are never listed on a resume, a statement of reference availability is optional.
THE TARGETED RESUME
The targeted resume focuses on specific work-related capabilities you can bring to a given position within an organization. It should be sent to an individual within the organization who makes hiring decisions about the position you are seeking.
The Objective
The objective on this type of resume should be targeted to a specific career or position. It should be supported by the capabilities, accomplishments, and achievements documented in the resume.
Capabilities
Capabilities should be statements that illustrate tasks you believe you are capable of based on your accomplishments, achievements, and work history. Each should relate to your targeted career or position. You can stress your qualifications rather than your employment history. This approach may require research to obtain an understanding of the nature of the work involved and the capabilities necessary to carry out that work.
Accomplishments/Achievements
This section relates the various activities you have been involved in to the job market. These experiences may include previous jobs, extracurricular activities at school, internships, and part-time summer work.
Experience
Your work history should be listed in abbreviated form and may include position title, employer name, and employment dates.
Education
Because this type of resume is directed toward a specific job target and an individuals related experience, the education section is not prominently located at the top of the resume as is done on the chronological resume.
DIGITAL RESUMES
Todays employers have to manage an enormous number of resumes. One of the most frequent complaints the writers of this series hear from students is the failure of employers to even acknowledge the receipt of a resume and cover letter. Frequently, the reason for this poor response or nonresponse is the volume of applications received for every job. In an attempt to better manage the considerable labor investment involved in processing large numbers of resumes, many employers are requiring digital submission of resumes. There are two types of digital resumes: those that can be E-mailed or posted to a website, called electronic resumes, and those that can be "read" by a computer, commonly called scannable resumes. Though the format may be a bit different from the traditional "paper" resume, the goal of both types of digital resumes is the same-to get you an interview! These resumes must be designed to be "technologically friendly." What that basically means to you is that they should be free of graphics and fancy formatting.
Electronic Resumes
Sometimes referred to as plain-text resumes, electronic resumes are designed to be E-mailed to an employer or posted to a commercial Internet database such as CareerMosaic.com, Americas Job Bank (www.ajb.dni.us), or Monster.com.
Some technical considerations:
- Electronic resumes must be written in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), which is simply a plain-text format. These characters are universally recognized so that every computer can accurately read and understand them. To create an ASCII file of your current resume, open your document, then save it as a text or ASCII file. This will eliminate all formatting. Edit as needed using your computer s text editor application.
- Use a standard-width typeface. Courier is a good choice because it is the font associated with ASCII in most systems.
- Use a font size of 11 to 14 points. A 12-point font is considered standard.
- " Your margin should be left-justified.
- " Do not exceed sixty-five characters per line because the word-wrap function doesn't operate in ASCII.
- " Do not use boldface, italics, underlining, bullets, or various font sizes. Instead, use asterisks, plus signs, or all capital letters when you want to emphasize something.
- " Avoid graphics and shading.
- " Use as many "keywords" as you possibly can. These are words or phrases usually relating to skills or experience that either are specifically used in the job announcement or are popular buzzwords in the industry.
- " Minimize abbreviations.
- " Your name should be the first line of text.
Conduct a "test run" by E-mailing your resume to yourself and a friend before you send it to the employer. See how it transmits, and make any changes you need to. Continue to test it until it's exactly how you want it to look.
" Unless an employer specifically requests that you send the resume in the form of an attachment, don't. Employers can encounter problems opening a document as an attachment, and there are always viruses to consider.
" Don't forget your cover letter. Send it along with your resume as a single message.
