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Resume Writing

Writing your resume will be one of the first important steps in your job search.  A resume is a brief, easy to read summary of your skills and experience.  Your resume should be honest, positive, and most of all, concise.   Remember, on the first review an employer only spends about thirty or forty seconds reviewing your resume. The purpose of the resume is not to get you the job, but to get you the interview.

Three Resume Formats

• Chronological Resume - the most commonly used style of resume.  It presents information about your work experience in reverse chronological order. Your most recent educational and work experiences are listed first, working down to the least recent experiences.  This is a good format for you if your training and experience relate to your career objective.

• Functional/Skills Resume - This style of resume gives emphasis to the skills you have acquired rather than when and where you have worked.   You do not describe each work experience in a functional resume as you would in a chronological resume.  You should select skill headings (i.e. leadership, research, computer skills) based on the skills you have which you feel are most desirable to an employer.  This is a good format if your training and experience does not match your current job objective.

• Combinaton Resume - The combination resume takes the best aspects of both the chronological and functional/skills resume formats and combines them.   This type of resume usually begins with a skills summary and then a description of work experiences in reverse chronological order.  This is a good format if you would like to highlight your skills as well as describe your work experience so that an employer has an understanding of your duties and responsibilities.

Which resume format is right for you?

The chronological resume works well for most job seekers, but particularly well for those with established work histories, new graduates with some work experience, and individuals whose work history is directly related to the job they seek.   It is also the most conservative format, and as a result, works well for candidates applying to conservative organizations (i.e., banking, CPA firms, etc).  The functional format works well for those who have varied work backgrounds or little direct experience for the type of job they seek.  The combination resume works well for any candidate.

Components of a Resume

This page was last updated on 09/20/04.