Quintessential Careers Press: Surefire Resumes for New Graduates and Other Entry-Level Candidates Chapter 7: Strive for Readability Page 47 The chrono-functional format also can work well for college students because it allows skills attained from experiences other than paid employment to be listed within the skills clusters. For example, one student chose leadership as one of her skills clusters, and she listed the following supporting experiences, none of them paid employment: Leadership Selected as president-elect of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary and vice president of Phi Eta Sigma honorary Acquainted new students with campus as orientation leader Serve as president of residence hall on Residence Hall Council Function as vice president for intellectual development and assistant recruitment chair for social sorority To make your chrono-functional resume as reader-friendly as possible for employers, include as much context as you can within each functional description. That way, the employer has a better idea of which skill aligns with which job. In the above leadership-skills example, for instance, the student tells where she demonstrated each skill, thus making helping the employer connect her skills with the experience that produced those skills. Do realize that even chrono-functional resumes can be risky. Some employers are unaccustomed to any kind of functional format, and they may become confused or even irritated by chrono-functional resumes. Some employers like to know what you did in each job. Recruiters/headhunters particularly disdain functional formats, so this approach should never be used if you are primarily targeting recruiters with your job search. Employers in conservative fields, such as banking, finance, and law are not big fans of functional formats, nor are international employers. Functional formats also are not acceptable on many online job boards. If you're unsure whether a chrono-functional resume is right for you, try it both ways and show the two formats to people in the field you wish to enter. See which one they feel presents your skills more effectively. While the chrono-functional/hybrid/combination resume is more acceptable to employers than the purely functional format, some employers are unaccustomed to functional formats of any kind, finding them confusing or even annoying. Some employers like to know what exactly you did in each job. Recruiters/headhunters particularly disdain functional formats, so this approach should never be used if you are primarily targeting recruiters with your job search. As noted, employers in conservative fields are not big fans of functional formats, nor are international employers. Functional formats, even chrono-functional, also are not acceptable on many online job boards. See a sample of chrono-functional resume. Previous Page Next Page Back to Surefire Resumes for New Graduates and Other Entry-Level Candidates Index Page