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3. STRATEGIES FOR AN EFFECTIVE JOB SEARCH
  3.10 CREATE AN EFFECTIVE RESUME
   
  RESUME FORMATS—WHICH ONE IS BEST?
   
 
Resume Format
Advantages
Disadvantages
Best Used By
Chronological
  • Widely used format
  • Logical flow, easy to read
  • Showcases growth in skills and responsibility
  • Easy to prepare
  • Emphasizes gaps in employment
  • Not suitable if you have no work history
  • Highlights frequent job changes
  • Emphasizes employment but not skill development
  • Emphasizes lack of related experience and career changes
  • Individuals with steady work record
Functional
  • Emphasizes skills rather than employment
  • Organizes a variety of experience (paid and unpaid work, other activities)
  • Disguises gaps in work record or a series of short-term jobs
  • Viewed with suspicion by employers due to lack of information about specific employers and dates
  • Individuals with no previous employment
  • Individuals with gaps in employment
  • Frequent job changers
  • Individuals who have developed skills from other than documented employment
Combination
  • Highlights most relevant skills and accomplishments
  • De-emphasizes employment history in less relevant jobs
  • Combines skills developed in a variety of jobs or other activities
  • Minimizes drawbacks such as employment gaps and absence of directly related experience
  • Confusing if not well organized
  • De-emphasizes job tasks, responsibilities
  • Requires more effort and creativity to prepare
  • Career changers or those in transition
  • Individuals reentering the job market after some absence
  • Individuals who have grown in skills and responsibility
  • Individuals pursuing the same or similar work as they’ve had in the past
   
 
Target (should
be used in all resumes)
  • Personalized to company/position
  • Shows research
  • More impressive to employer
  • Written specifically to employer’s needs
  • Time-consuming to prepare
  • Confusing if not well organized
  • Should be revised for each employer
  • Everyone – because any of the other formats can be made into a targeted resume
 
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