For every vacant job position, there will always be one candidate who will be the right fit. It can be based on the candidate’s skills, or experiences, or both. And you always take the first step to being the right fit. That means choosing the right type of resume. That’s so you can fully maximize its use and impact to create your image as the best candidate.
A chronological resume is one if not the most commonly used resume format. It starts with your current or most recent experience and goes in reverse chronological order to your first job experience. It’s basically a list of your work history. This resume is best for applicants who have not taken any significant gaps in their careers. Hiring managers mostly prefer this format too. Its key advantage is its presentation of your career growth and years of experience.
If however, a chronological resume isn’t ideal, what to do? Perhaps you took a long break between jobs, or have a more fragmented career history. For that, consider using the functional resume format. This type of resume puts the focus on the specific projects you’ve worked on and your roles within those projects. It is best used to highlight achievements, specific skills, and draw attention away from a less traditional career history. It can also be if you are changing careers or transferring to a new field. Accentuate key skills and accomplishments that would be useful to your next employer when seen out of the specificity of the job or industry you were in.
To fully maximize your resume’s potential, you may opt to combine the two formats. This will highlight your acquired skills and accomplishments and your upward mobility in one impactful resume.
If you are willing to put in more work on your resume, it is definitely worth using a targeted resume approach. This means you create a resume specifically for the company you’re applying for. This is definitely a good thing to try. Even more when you want to stand out in a sea of generic written resumes.
Creative applicants have been using infographics as a resume format to provide relevant and important information. It’s used to show career history and experiences, at the same time, to demonstrate their creativity. While definitely advantageous for their field, it’s also good to note that while certain things may look good to the eye, they may be ignored by search algorithms that sit in the Applicant Tracking Software that most recruiters and in-house hiring managers use.
There is one golden rule when writing your resume: it should articulate as quickly and clearly as possible why you are worth interviewing. That’s it. Make the information that substantiates your suitability as simple and easy for the reader to find. If that’s in bullet point form, a series of GitHub links or a photo-laden portfolio, so be it. If it communicates in seconds, why you’re worthy of an hour of someone’s time then it’s done its job.
Need a guide? Check out what we think makes up a good resume and get that job hunt going! For more of this type of content, visit PivotLane as well!
