There are several popular resume formats in use today these are; chronological, functional and achievement. Each has it advantages and disadvantages. It is important to use the best for format for your job search.

Chronological Resume: This format is the most popular format in use today. Advantage of this format is that it is well recognized and easy to read. The arrangement of the headings can be rearranged to show your stronger qualifications. For example you can place your education towards the beginning after the objective. This works well for students and young people with impressive educational credentials. On the other hand older workers may want to place experience towards the beginning. The basic headings are;

• Heading
• Objective
• Summary of Qualifications
• Experience
• Education

Note: the summary of qualifications will give the potential employer an overview of your strongest qualifications. Your experience should be in reverse chronological order with your last position first.

Use only when it may aid in achieving your job objective. This is a good format when…

• You’ve worked for a while in your chosen field and want to call attention to a stable work history.
• You want to call attention to consistent upward mobility and promotions.
• You are applying for a job in a very conservative field.
• You think your next employer would be more comfortable with a traditional looking resume.
• You like the look of the straightforward look chronological resume.

If you choose the chronological resume, be sure you don’t load the resume down with boring job duties. Make sure instead that you talk about what you accomplished on each job. Also how your actions benefited your employer. Focus on activities you want to do in your new job. Be prepared to discuss them in an interview.

Functional Resume: This format places the relevant experience towards the top of the resume. This lets potential employers see the qualifications and related experience up front. A disadvantage to this resume is sometimes hard for employers to match your experience with your work history. This format has a separate experience and work history heading. You place your relevant experience and accomplishments under experience and your employers are listed below under the work history section, just the name of firm, position held, position and periods of employment. The function headings would be;

• Heading
• Objective
• Summary of qualifications
• Experience
• Work History
• Education

Again the sections can be rearranged as with the chronological resume. This is a good format when…

• You have little or no paid work experience.
• You are making a significant career change.
• Your most impressive skills or accomplishments came out of volunteer or unpaid work.
• Your job titles don’t do justice to your accomplishments and responsibilities.
• You want to draw attention to your skills that are useful in the future job and play down past job content.
• Your best accomplishments and most impressive work experience are not drawn from your most recent job.
• Your work history is complicated or has long stretches of unsalaried positions.

If you chose a functional format focus on skills that support your new job goal. Try to tell where your accomplishments occurred, so employers will not have to go back and forth between experience and work history to figure it out.

Accomplishment Resume: This format takes advantage of an impressive list of career achievements. These accomplishments should be no more than one to three line bullets. The work history section lists only, job title, company, location and periods of employment. The standard section would be.

• Heading
• Objective
• Summary of Qualification
• Accomplishments
• Work History or (Experience)
• Education

This format is a good choice when…

• You have quit or been laid off from a responsible position.
• You haven’t worked in your field recently.
• You have been out of work longer than a few months.

This format assumes that the basic natures of the positions you’ve held are familiar to most employers so it doesn’t need to be spelled out.

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