LEO: Literacy Education Online Functional Resumes

When designing your resume, you'll want to spend some time deciding on the format which presents your background most favorably. Functional resumes visually emphasize the positions you've held. These resumes arrange work experience, and sometimes campus or community activities, in descending order of importance based on your professional objective.

In general, functional resumes organize work experience according to position titles or functions (i.e.systems analyst, special events coordinator, probation officer). Each function is then described using action statements detailing responsibilities held, duties performed, and results achieved.

If you're thinking about using a functional resume, consider the following:

• A functional resume is appropriate if . . .
  • you're interested in emphasizing positions and accomplishments rather than job time spans, skills, and employers.

  • your background fits one of the following three categories.
    1. You've had impressive job titles and duties.

    2. You can't list work experience in chronological order without gaps.

    3. You've held a variety of jobs or assignments not directly related to your intended career but have performed functions directly related to your career objective.

• A functional resume is inappropriate if . . .
  • you've had little paid or volunteer experience since this approach depends on actual job titles for its effectiveness.

Sample Functional Resumes

• management information systems position sought; recent college graduate

• position in mass communications sought; no objective, which is appropriate for this discipline

• entry-level position in production supervision sought; unusually good work experience and lots of honors

• position in finance department in industry sought; showing multiple schools for education with lots of unrelated but good experience

• position in building construction and contracting sought; showing projects completed and relevant work experience

• academic position sought; resume includes publications, presentations, and a category listing significant academic projects

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