The Chronological Resume
The academic education, qualifications and experience appear in inverse chronological order, beginning by the present or last work and later the previous ones, and finishing with the studies:
Disadvantages of this format: it shows the periods of inactivity (months, years) and/or the very frequent changes of work. This often makes the candidate cover these spaces with irrelevant information for the position.
However It does emphasize your progression in work: promotion and increase of responsibilities are reflected, which has the disadvantage of showing if a person, although very effective in his or her work and satisfied with their role, has not ascended or taken more responsibilities.
When to use the chronological resume:
- Only if you have a good professional experience;
- Only if you haven’t had lengthy periods without work;
- If you have not changed jobs frequently;
- When you are looking for work in the same type of sector.
Advantages:
- The format is traditional and accepted by most of the selection departments;
- Easy to read and understand;
- It shows your job stability;
- It reflects your increase of responsibilities and/or promotion;
- It emphasizes the type of position and the companies in which you have worked;
- It describes your roles and achievements.
The Functional resume
The functional resume avoids the disadvantages of the chronological resume type and facilitates the clear demonstration of your abilities and achievements. Dates in your work experience are not continuous, helping to disguise any periods of inactivity or successive similar jobs without promotion. The functional resume type is used when you want to highlight the professional career or enter a totally different activity in which the type of company and or studies is not relevant but the abilities; capacities and type of work are thus demonstrating that you have transferable skills.
You can use the functional resume:
- If you want to emphasize your abilities over the duration of your work experience;
- If you want to return to the job market after a period of inactivity;
- If there are many periods of unemployment between each job;
- If you have changed jobs quite often;
- If you are looking for a job in a completely different sector;
- If you think that your age could be a barrier;
- If you have worked as a freelance, or as self-employed;
- If you have just graduated and therefore without experience.
Advantages:
- It shows your capacities and strengths;
- It allows you to reflect your abilities and knowledge which is more relevant to the position you want to obtain;
- It eliminates the role repetition in similar positions;
- Useful in new technologies, Inteet, telecommunications, media, publicity.
The Combined resume
Combined resume format mixes the previous formats (chronological resume and functional resume). The resume begins with the functional format resume and finishes with the chronological format resume. The combined resume format is more difficult to write and more complex but it has the advantage of emphasising the experience and abilities that the candidates have towards the new position they are applying for, as well as to reflect in a dynamic format their experience and training.
Advantages:
- It shows very clearly that you know what you want to do and that you have the capabilities necessary to carry out the desired job;
- It includes the section which shows you are goal and achievement orientated;
- It allows more flexibility and creativity in reflecting abilities;
- It helps to obtain a particular position, something you can’t achieve by leaving your resume or CV in a database or via career portals.
The Personal Data Resumes
Full name, date of birth, address and telephone (landline and/or mobile) and email if you have are essential information to include. Civil status, children, age, race, religious beliefs. is not essential to be displayed in this form of resume, however you may be asked for such information before the short listing stage.
ID or passport info is not necessary to include, however there are companies whose computerized database requires this information and it’s a good idea to check in advance before sending. Particularly if you are applying for work overseas, in many cases the duration of your passport can be very relevant, and information on whether you are eligible to work in that country for example. If you have no objection certificate and transferable visas for example it is relevant to include this information as is also driving license for the country you are applying to work in.