A functional resume is a type of resume that highlights experience more than education. It focuses on previous jobs you’ve had and lists experience first in the body text.
The advantages of such a layout are as follows:
- It’s great for those changing careers, as it shows skills that are relevant to your new career.
- It camouflages gaps in employment. If you had a few months between jobs before, it won’t be as apparent in a functional resume.
- If you’re just out of college with little to no experience, a functional resume can highlight your best skills to help you get your foot in the door.
- If you’ve worked in an industry for a long time and used the same skills in many different jobs, the functional resume prevents you from constantly repeating that skill on a resume. Avoiding repetition helps your resume be clear and concise.
In order to construct a functional resume, you have to think of the skills you wish to highlight. For example, if you’ve worked as a secretary in many different jobs, you might consider customer service, organization, communications, and computers to be your best skills. These skills also apply to sales jobs, so you could transition from secretary work to sales by highlighting your experience. Use your skills as section headers, rather than using words like “Experience” and “Education.”
Once you have your skills organized, you’ll want to start with the header. List your name and contact information at the top. Write an objective statement below that, if you wish. Then, list your professional skills. In the example above with the secretary, the skills sections may look as follows:
Customer Service
- Handled calls from clients at XYZ company
- Transferred calls to appropriate officials at XYZ company
- Took accurate messages and returned calls where appropriate at XYZ company and ABC company
Organization
- Scheduled meetings with clients at ABC company
- Kept accurate records of meetings at XYZ company
- Filed all necessary documentation at DEF company
Communications
- Managed all incoming and outgoing client e-mails at DEF company
Wrote and edited press releases, informational articles, and the business newspaper at ABC company
Set up teleconferences with clients at XYZ and DEF
Worked as a telemarketer at 123 company
Computers
- Utilized the Microsoft Office package at University
- Typing speed of 80 words per minute
- Performed internet searches at ABC Company
As you can see, the functional resume groups skills together, even if you’ve done them at multiple companies. Thus, an employer scanning this resume would be able to see the skills the applicant has and the many places she practiced those skills.
If you wish to know what the full functional resume looks like, please see the following document:
