The Types of Resumes: Finding the Right Form for Your Experience

The Chronological Resume

The chronological resume is the most common, most traditional type of resume. In fact, there’s a good chance that it’s exactly what comes to mind when you think of a resume. A chronological resume lays out a simple overview of your work history in reverse chronological order. It’s a very simple format that makes it easy for hiring managers to understand the breadth of your experience and your fit for a particular role.

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To create a chronological resume, include your name and contact information at the top. If you prefer, below this, you can also include a section that highlights your accomplishments and key experiences or summarizes what you’re currently looking for in your career.

Next, you’ll create the most significant part of your resume—the chronological part. Starting with your current or most recent position, create a list of the jobs you have held in your career. Beneath the heading of each job title, provide a bulleted summary of your responsibilities and accomplishments while you held that particular position. As you’re creating these notes, consider the position you’re applying for and the key qualities highlighted by the hiring manager within their job description. Tailor each version of your resume to speak to these needs and you will greatly increase your chances of securing an interview.

When to Use a Chronological Resume

In truth, there’s hardly a bad time to use a chronological resume. Because they are so widely used, a chronological resume is likely what a hiring manager will be expecting. Given this prominence, it’s likely you should only decide against using one if you’re making a career change, have large gaps in your employment history, or have very recently—or frequently—made a job change. If any of these applies to you, you might find that a functional or combination resume is a better fit.

The Functional Resume

The key to the functional resume is in its name: It’s all about calling attention to your ability to function in the job to which you’re applying.

Functional resumes shine a spotlight on your particular skills and areas of expertise. To build a successful resume, consider the most important areas of skills and experience required by the job you’re applying for. Sort them into high-priority categories, like leadership, education, or technology. Beneath each of these themed headings, include bulleted lists of information that summarize examples of how you’ve displayed these skills to this point in your career. Try to use as many concrete examples of relevant projects or situations as you can, and back these up with any relevant statistics you have available.

When to Use a Functional Resume

Though they are less common than their chronological counterparts, functional resumes still have their particular use cases. For example, if you are applying for a job in a new career path and are trying to translate your skills to this new context, a functional resume can help you more easily state your case. Functional resumes are also a good choice if you are trying to take emphasis away from any gaps in your work history.

The Combination Resume

A combination resume brings the most important features of both chronological and functional resumes together in one place. The first section of a chronological resume will follow a similar format to a functional resume, including an overview of the various applicable skills you will bring to the job that’s under consideration. Below this, you can make room for a chronological resume’s elements—a list that covers your full employment history.

When to Use a Combination Resume

A combination resume presents a good compromise for anyone considering using a functional resume. By first placing additional emphasis on the skills you have that are relevant for the position, a hiring manager might be more willing to overlook any gaps or shortcomings in your experience.

Combination resumes are also an excellent option for those applicants who are still just starting out in their careers. If you’re trying to get one of your first jobs, it can seem like a daunting task to fill up an entire page with your work history. Choosing a combination resume eases that burden by giving you space to focus on why you’re right for the job—even if you don’t have a ton of varying experiences to write down.

The Right Resume Takes the Right Support

Crafting the perfect resume can seem a tall order. It’s one of those sometimes-tedious tasks that many find it hard to look forward to—but it’s also one of those tasks that we all have to tackle at one point or another.

Make things a little easier on yourself by finding the right support for your job search. Explore a variety of resume templates that take all of the work out of formatting and can provide you with useful direction on how best to convey your own unique experience. Find tips to write the perfect cover letter and complement the information you include within your resume. And before you send your application materials in, be sure to get help catching all of your typos and grammar mistakes from the Microsoft Editor digital writing assistant.