Your resume should be tailored to the role you’re applying for. No sweat, right? The thing is, creating a customized resume for every job you have your eyes on is no easy task, especially if your work history isn’t an exact match for the position you want. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just list all your skills out without having to worry about making your work experience look cohesive? Like, say, on a functional resume?
Below, we break down everything you need to know about a functional resume: what it is, when to use one, when not to, and, of course, how to write yours in a way that helps the hiring manager see how your unique set of skills matches their needs—and why you’re the ideal person for the job.
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A functional resume, sometimes called a skills-based resume, places the focus on your skills and areas of expertise, rather than on the details of your work history. Instead of simply listing your recent jobs and corresponding duties in reverse chronological order (like you would on a more traditional chronological resume), you’d select only the most relevant responsibilities from each of your past roles and combine them to paint a broader picture of your skill set.
Like any other resume, a functional layout features your name and contact information at the top and lists your technical skills, interests, and education toward the bottom (unless you’re a recent graduate—in that case it may be closer to the top).
The difference is that the body of a functional resume highlights your most important skills—such as “administrative experience” or “customer service”—with three to five bullet points that show how you’ve applied those skills in various roles.
Then your work history would appear as a simple list below your skills section, where you’d only include your job title, the name of your employer, the city where you worked, and your dates of employment. (Check out our example functional resume below to get a sense of how that works.)
Because this layout places the primary focus on your relevant skills, functional resumes allow you to better tailor the content to a specific role you’re hoping to land, without having to worry too much about job titles that don’t sound relevant, gaps in employment, or an eclectic work history.
In a chronological resume, you list your work history in reverse chronological order—from your most recent to oldest experience. This is the most common type of resume and is ideal for professionals with little to no employment gaps and relevant experience related to the job they're currently applying for.
That's exactly what differentiates a reverse chronological resume from a functional resume. While functional resumes focus on skills, reverse chronological resumes highlight employment history and relevant experience—where you worked and what you accomplished there.
A combination resume mixes elements of both functional and reverse chronological resumes. In this format, relevant skills are listed first, followed by employment history in chronological order, from newest to oldest experience. This type of resume is recommended for job seekers with diverse backgrounds and transferable skills relevant to the job opening.
If you have other viable choices, probably not. Recruiters often see functional resumes as a red flag and might assume that the applicant behind the resume is trying to hide something, like a lack of qualifications. So although a skills-based resume might be an effective way to highlight your relevant experience, this resume format greatly decreases your chances of landing an interview.
Recruiters want to learn as much as they possibly can about an applicant from their resume, so they’re going to be looking to find out which companies you’ve worked at, your tenure in each role, and what you’ve achieved in each position. When you bury these details at the bottom of your resume (or exclude them completely), a recruiter is likely to assume that your background must not be a very strong fit.
Recruiters are also notoriously short on time, often reviewing hundreds of resumes a day. They don’t want to be forced to scour your resume for relevant details—your resume should, ideally, be very easy to scan. And because functional resumes aren’t terribly common, a recruiter might have a harder time making sense of an alternative format. (Instead, you might consider using a combination resume.)
Red flags aside, there are times when a functional resume may still be your best option. For instance:
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