Choosing Your Resume Format: The Pros and Cons

In today’s competitive job market, one of the career tools to prepare is your resume and cover letter to stand out of the competition and get your foot in the door. An appropriate resume format is what makes a job application aligned to the target job. If you are trying to develop your resume, you have to know the right format to use based on your background and skills that need to be highlighted. As a result, you’d create an ATS-compliant resume amid your lack of experience. That’s how vital resume formats are.

Many factors affect the result of a job application and resume format is at the top of them. If you are an applicant with three to five years of work experience, you might need to take this factor sincerely before writing your resume to avoid losing your chances of getting the job. Above anything else, your format should be based on your career path and work history. . Each of the four resume formats can highlight your strengths and the skills that you can offer with the most important and relevant details coming first while reducing the weight on information that may result in losing your hiring chances.
 
In this blog, we will discuss the four types of resume formats, their difference, and functions, along with the basis on how to properly select the format that would best work for you.
 
Chronological
 
This is the standard resume format. It is also known as old school and conservative by listing one’s work experience in reverse-chronological (from latest to earliest) to highlight career progression over the years. If you are aiming to pursue the same industry and job position, this format will work well for you for it requires a steady career path without any employment gaps or flaws. Moreover, do not include any job description from your work experiences beyond 15 years]. Instead list those under a new section, labeled “Earlier Career”. This is because some information 15 years ago may no longer be relevant today, this format is also good to avoid age discrimination. Listing your education after your experience section is also good in this format type because most job seekers’ degree is related or directly relevant to the job being pursued.
 
Functional
 
If you are having difficulties conveying your employment gaps and/or planning to change your career direction, then this format works well for you. This resume format highlights your transferable skills to play a key role as the major strengths above any other—no matter what job position you’ve held. These transferable skills can be both hard and soft skills, along with accomplishments as your key qualifications that you can offer to your future employers while expressing how these competencies can contribute to the success of the company. In addition to that, you can also use this format if you have diverse backgrounds yet don’t have a clear career path to pursue.
 
Combination
 
From the word itself, this format is a combination of the first two formats that we mentioned: functional and chronological, because it highlights both your work experience and skills to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge of the targeted roles. This resume format is ideal for all job seekers, except those who are yet to acquire job exposure and relevant qualifications. In this format, your skill-set comes first followed by a detailed work history with your key achievements under each job post you’ve held.
 
Targeted
 
With this kind of resume format, you have to properly study your desired job posting first because you have to customize your resume in detail to ensure that it reflects (almost) anything with what the job requires. You have to allocate a “Relevant Experience” section only for the related jobs and place irrelevant ones under a new section, “Other Experience” or “Additional Experience.” Through this format you bring yourself closer to the job, however, you have to ensure the accuracy of your details based on the requirements and qualifications of the said job posting. They must all define you as a person and professional—and not just present yourself in the best way to satisfy the job ad and be the fittest candidate.
 
Since we are now in a technological revolution, hiring managers and recruiters are now using the applicant tracking system (ATS) to streamline their hiring process. Choosing the appropriate resume formats doesn’t only affect the way they view your application but also influences how digital robots screen your profile. Hence, these different formats identify how well your application tool is analyzed within an ATS. Still, confused about which resume format suits you? Don’t worry we have career coaches and resume experts who can help you. Contact us now!

To learn more about resume formats, schedule a call today to speak with one of our career experts. 
 
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