Gardening season has arrived in Bozeman. As seedlings sit patiently in cardboard crates anticipating the magical day when Bozemanites can finally plant them in freshly-turned dirt (semi-confident that no major snow storm will shrivel them to nothing), I think of resume writing.

In the last few articles, we have nurtured our own “resume-seedlings” and the day has arrived to begin putting the collected work history, skills sets, and powerful selling statements together into one garden — your core resume. Your core resume is the foundation for all your future customized, application-specific resumes (aka the “targeted resume”).

Like each backyard garden, you must determine what to plant in the sun (achievements and powerful selling statements) and what to plant in the shade (bounding from one career to the next). Placement of information varies from person to person, but also from one job application to the next.

While no one-size-fits-all resume exists, there are common resume formats that are proven to work. We will review the different formats and the pros and cons of each. Remember, exceptions exist for every rule of thumb, recommendation, and guide. Let these suggestions give you inspiration, then use your best judgment.

Common Resume Formats

Reverse Chronological
The most common resume format, reverse chronological resumes list work and education beginning with the most recent and working backward. Every employer, job title, dates of employment, responsibilities and accomplishments are detailed. This format supports the addition of special sections like volunteer work and professional memberships.

Pros
• Simple, easy to follow format is popular with
hiring managers
• Great for demonstrating continual advancement of career trajectory, or
more plainly, shows that you can move up the ladder and assume greater responsibility
• Nice fit for careers that encourage career advancement such as management, sales, banking, and marketing
• Easy to emphasize steady employment if you want to brag about loyalty and commitment
• Good for highlighting impressive job titles or respected companies

Cons
• Draws attention to periods of unemployment and job-hopping
• On the opposite end, it could suggest you are incapable of increased responsibility if you held only one position for long periods
• May subject you to age discrimination (when you list work experience going back 30 years or the opposite, you have only two years of employment)
• Not great for career-changers when previous job titles are extremely different than new career path

Functional
Functional resumes are used to highlight abilities and decrease focus on employers, job titles, and length of employment. It attempts to demonstrate what you can do for the potential employer while bypassing the narration of employment history. Instead of listing previous positions with related responsibilities and accomplishments, a functional resume jumps straight to experiences and accomplishments, leaving out the information about the employer and job title.

Create a functional resume by listing areas of expertise, skills, or competencies (ex: Management, Project Planning, Sales, Cost Cutting) and note accomplishments under each. Pure functional resumes ignore all chronological formatting though contemporary functional resumes include a brief listing of employment dates, employers, and job titles, usually near the end of the resume along with professional training and education.

Pros
• Highlights exactly what you want the potential employer to know and nothing else
• Great for clearly showing a potential employer that you have the exact skills and experiences they are looking for allowing them to better visualize how you might benefit their company
• Successfully incorporates relevant, non-job experiences, such as unpaid internships and volunteer work, while minimizing work history that does not sync with your goals
• Good for career-changers, grads, seasonal employees, contract workers, or people with varied or unstable work history

Cons
• Less popular with hiring managers accompanied by a general consensus that functional resumes leave them feeling like you are hiding scarce experience, employment instability, or other red flags
• The process of hiring and training is expensive so employers want to know employees will stay a while; functional resumes often leave questions about the job seeker’s long-term career intentions making hiring managers hesitate
• It is very difficult to determine which skills and accomplishments were developed in which jobs; hiring managers rarely like to guess about these things
• Not great for professionals on a career track, managers, or those looking for executive-level positions

Hybrid
Reverse chronological + functional = hybrid, taking the best of each. The combination allows you to showcase specific strengths, abilities, and impressive contributions separate from work experience thereby drawing greater attention to your accomplishments than a purely reverse chronological format. Work experience is listed separately including dates, employers, and job titles plus additional highlights of responsibilities, giving you a second place to brag about your value as an employee.

A hybrid resume includes headings such as “Summary of Qualifications,” “Competencies,” “Professional Experience and Accomplishments,” “Education,” “Professional Training” or other relevant headings.

Pros
• Increasingly popular among hiring managers
• Uses the best features of the reverse chronological and functional resumes
• Great for a variety of job seekers, from grads and career-changers to VPs and ladder-climbers

Cons
• An unskilled resume writer may make the mistake of creating a resume that is too long and overwhelming; if that happens, you may never get called for an interview
• Risk of being repetitive instead of competitive
• Not great for job seekers applying to very conservative employers who prefer traditional reverse chronological formats

Industry-Specific and Skilled Trade Resumes
Some industries and skilled trades require unique formatting for resumes. For example, pilot resumes must list a variety of flying hours and licenses, in addition to training, education, and work experience. Any industry or skilled trade that is heavy in certifications, licenses, trade skills, or training requires industry-specific formatting.

Pros
• Following industry resume writing criteria will result in more interviews than straying from standard protocol; this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make your resume stand out, just remember to include all industry requirements

Cons
• Industry-specific and skilled trade resumes will not transfer to an unrelated position, you must rewrite your resume if looking to swap roles (but you already tweak your resume for each position you apply for anyway — right!?)

Hyper-Creative Resume
All resumes are creative, but hyper-creative resumes should come with a warning. They are not for every job application. Hyper-creative resumes should be used for positions that require a high-level of creativity thereby requiring you to demonstrate that creativity in your resume. Hyper-creative resumes are for artists, graphic designers, video game developers, motivational speakers, and other less traditional careers. Format and style vary widely, limited only by the imagination, and often include a portfolio. Use with extreme caution! You want to get a hiring manager’s attention, but in a positive way. Not in the “hey, look at this ridiculous resume I received” way. Warnings aside, if you research the company, the position, and the hiring manager and determine that the best way to get noticed is to add some flair, go for it. Just be sure you know your audience.

Pros
• Best way to demonstrate creative abilities short of demonstrating

Cons
• Conventional job seekers are sometimes tempted to try them out, resulting in only negative attention

Resume formats are constantly evolving as job seekers attempt to find a competitive edge by expanding the communicating power of resumes. Choosing the right format for your situation — be it reverse chronological, functional, hybrid, industry-specific/skilled trade, hyper-creative, or some mix — will help you land an interview.

Having reviewed the common resume formats, one should stand out as the best fit for you. Next month, we will look at common resume sections and how to plant them into your core resume. In the meantime, I’m off to water the garden.

From her barn in Bozeman, Liz Williams helps job seekers land interviews with professionally-written resumes. Learn more at writerla.com and follow Liz on Facebook at facebook.com/writerla to get more tips on resume writing.