What is a Functional Resume?
A functional resume is a style of resume that lists your skills and achievements under headings at the top of the resume, instead of under your work history. The work history section is simply a listing of job titles, employers and dates of employment. While many employers prefer chronological style resumes, a functional resume will draw attention to the skills that are most important for the job which you are applying.
A functional resume may work best if you:
- Are making a career change.
- Do not have a lot of work experience
- Are returning to the workforce after a long absence
- Have many breaks in employment
- Recent graduate
Sections on a Functional Resume
Job Title
- At the top of your resume state the title of the position you are applying to.
Profile or Summary
- Use the Profile/Summary section to list your skills, experience and education that are most relevant to the job.
Relevant Skills and Experience
- Check job postings to determine which skills are the most important for the position.
- Use these skills as headings and list your related accomplishments under each heading.
- For each heading, list 2 to 5 related accomplishments, taken from your employment, volunteering, education or personal experience.
- Use verbs when describing your accomplishments.
- Include the previous employers name when describing an achievement so that it is easier for employers to see where it occurred.
Work History
- List your work experience, starting from your most recent job.
- Include the job title, company, city and dates of employment
- Also include any related unpaid work by mentioning “Volunteer” in brackets, for example, Office Assistant (Volunteer)
Education
- List any relevant education and training programs you have taken.
- Include the school or employer where you received the training and the year.