Three common formats and how to choose one that works for you!

As a Talent Acquisition professional, and previous resume writer/career coach, I’m always stunned at how overwhelmed people can get when they have to write, or even update their resume. The reality is that anyone can write a good resume, and you DON’T need to get overwhelmed by the process.

To start your resume, you have to have a good resume format. This is probably the step I’ve noticed that paralyzes people the most. Format IS important, but it’s also not a deal breaker. The most common formats we see with resumes these days are functional or chronological, but I am also seeing a rise of “creative/infographic” resumes becoming more popular as well. So how do you know which one to choose to get you started?

Chronological:

You’re probably most familiar with the traditional Chronological format. Essentially, this is a document that lists your job history in order (usually from most recent to oldest), and outlines each job title, company, date of employment, followed by some bullets of your accomplishments or responsibilities. You likely have your name and contact information at the top, and maybe some kind of objective or education/skills listed as well. This is really simple and clean format, and great for someone who has changed jobs with different industries over time. If you have a mixed background of different types of jobs over the years (i.e. not in the same field of work), I recommend this format.

Functional:

A functional resume is resume that summarizes your general knowledge, skills and abilities in a particular field or industry or “function”. This is an ideal format for someone who has been in an industry or field for many years and may have had different jobs, but the jobs were all in a very similar niche. Therefore, the broader skills and accomplishments you have can be highlighted or summarized in a separate section vs. adding in repetitive bullets over and over under each job. This is an ideal format if your career has been spent in software development, IT, finance, marketing, HR, R&D, Engineering, etc. The general idea is that even though your jobs and levels may have changed, the function was similar – and therefore the accomplishments don’t need to be repeated job after job. It’s a simple way to cover a lot of specialty experience and value that you bring to the table, yet keep your resume concise.

Creative/Infographic:

15 years ago, it was a risky (yet exciting) move to put a picture, or even color on your resume! As a recruiter, I used to think it was so cool to see a resume with a little flare on it, BUT, I also knew that depending on my hiring manager, it may be a risky move. It wasn’t long ago that resumes were still heavily judged on the slightest errors let alone adding any kind of flare, or pictures. That might land you in the “unprofessional” bucket. Fast forward through a recession, Covid and the progression of DEI, remote work and super charged job market, and I can confirm that a lot of these things are really overlooked now, and in fact – encouraged! Anything that makes you stand out in today’s tough market is generally not a bad thing. So does that mean we all should move towards a CREATIVE resume? Not quite….

Creative resumes are those that display visual/graphic design. There may be a lot of color, the format may be blocked into sections – utilizing a full page or section of the page (i.e. not using traditional margins). There also could be graphic representation (pie charts, line graphs and other info graphics) to show your accomplishments vs. a written narrative. I generally recommend these for creative fields like marketing, graphic design, social networking, etc. because it’s a good way to showcase an example of your work. There are limitations with this format, and it’s primarily the amount of content you can visually incorporate into the space. You can only add so many graphs and pictures into a page or two and if you’re a seasoned professional – you might not be able to really provide the extent of your accomplishments in that way. The other HUGE drawback to these resumes is that almost ALL resume submissions are electronic now through “applicant tracking systems”. These systems use resume parsing technology to take the information from your resume and parse it out into individual fields on an electronic application. The more complex your text format is, the harder it is for these systems to process that information. Therefore, you might end up spending a lot of time manually inputting your information into online applications. I’ll share more in another post on why these ATS systems are designed this way, (believe it or not – it’s NOT to punish the job seeker)!

The bottom line is that there are multiple templates that you can use to start your resume. My best advice is that if you’re unsure – start with a simple chronological format. The most important part of any resume is the content – not your format, so don’t stress about if you’re using the RIGHT format. It’s generally a matter of personal preference, but these three formats can work better for some rather than others.

If you are really stumped, the good news is that there are great resources available to help you! Technology has come a long way and now you can build out a resume online in minutes. Sites like My Perfect Resume – Homepage* (This is an affiliate link), allow you to choose your resume design and build out your resume quick and easy.

Choose your resume design now and use the premier resume builder at MyPerfectResume.com!

Don’t forget that your content is what really matters when you want to write a great resume. Subscribe and stay tuned for updates on resume content, ATS tips and more!

*This article contains affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and purchase.

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