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Choosing a Resume Format

The chronological resume format is the most common and easiest to write. It's also the resume format that many employers and recruiters prefer. But it doesn't fit everyone. For example, if you have held many jobs for short periods, a chronological resume makes it appear that you job hop and aren't very dedicated to your employers. It also won't work well if you:

• Don't have much work experience
• Have large gaps in your job history
• Have a mixed-bag job history, with no apparent common thread
• Gained most of your experience by working for the same company for years
• Are making a career change

In these cases, a functional resume format may be best. It highlights your relevant qualifications, skills, education, experiences and accomplishments, but places little emphasis on job history. For example, if you have large gaps in your job history, list employers but skip the dates of employment. Get to the interview first, then explain the gaps if you're asked.

• Organize your functional resume so that it highlights your relevant assets up front, in order of importance.
• In other words, place your strongest asset immediately below your qualifications summary, followed by those of lesser importance. For example, if experience is your strongest asset, place it first after your qualifications summary.
• If you lack work experience, highlight anything that translates into such, but don't fudge it.

The problem is, employers might be suspicious when candidates submit functional resumes, because the format places little emphasis on job history. Suspicious employers figure that candidates who submit functional resumes are hiding something bad. Don't use the functional resume format if you can avoid it. Instead, consider the combination resume format below.

• Summarize your relevant assets up front, as in a functional resume format.
• If your education is a strong asset, place it next. If not, place it after your work history.
• In reverse order as in a chronological resume format, list the companies for which you've worked and include only the relevant, company-specific duties you performed at each.

Resume Page Rules

If you can effectively fit your resume on one page, that's great. But the "rule" that resumes must fit on one page is a myth, and often impractical in these modern times of job hopping and layoffs. The same goes for the rule that resumes should include one page for every ten years of experience. Although it's less rigid than the one-page rule, ten years of experience can easily spillover to a second page these days. Many resume writing experts believe that you should include all relevant information instead of sweating the page-count rules.

But, do be concise to keep your resume as brief as practical. Provide just enough enticing detail to stir up employer interest and get your foot in the door. Your resume serves only as your calling card. Do the rest during interviews.

If you're well into your career, omit "burger-doodle" and other hodgepodge jobs you did before you started your career. Typically, employers are interested in only your past ten to fifteen years of experience. If you're just starting out in your career, include internships and pre-career jobs to show that you have work experience.

Also consider that recruiters and employers are barraged by resumes. Consequently, they typically scan resumes in under 60 seconds. The idea is to catch their eye quickly, so they'll go on to read your entire resume or at least put it in the "maybe" stack for later reading.

To help keep your resume brief, skip writing I and my over and over again. It's the preferred method anyway. It's also acceptable to include some particulars in your cover letter instead of your resume. Always include a tailored cover letter with your resume whenever possible.

If your resume goes over two pages, evaluate page layout, relevancy and wording. If it goes over three, consider retiring!

Curricula vitae are a somewhat different ballgame. Because CVs are typically more detailed than resumes, you might have to go over two or three pages. (In fact, depending on the target audience, a CV can be up to ten pages or more.) But again, do be concise to keep your CV

Electronic Resumes

Summarizing or profiling skills, experience and education up front is the norm for electronic resumes, as in the previous combination and technical resume examples. It helps you to stand out as recruiters and employers quickly weed through the dozens of electronic resumes they view daily.

While the electronic age has made job searching easier, it's complicated resumes. There are now three versions of the chronological, functional and combination formats.

• Print - The traditional, word-processor formatted, paper resume which still has a use today, especially if nice formatting is important in your work. Mail, fax or hand-carry this one to an interview. You may also attach the file to an email, but don't do so unless the recipient specifically requests it.
   
• ASCII  - Pronounced "as-key" and also called a plain-text or electronic resume, it's a not-so-pretty version you submit on the Internet via job bank resume forms or email. Although this type of electronic resume is not very pretty, it's widely accepted these days. When composing it, stay away from Italics, underscoring, unusual and small fonts, and other fancy and unusual formatting. For one reason, most of your formatting will likely get messed up or disappear when you copy and paste your electronic resume into a job bank resume form, and you'll have to tweak it. That's because most online forms convert it to plain text anyway, so you're wasting your time by adding fancy formatting beforehand. For another and more important reason, you have no guarantee that recipients' email and other applications can correctly display fancy fonts and formatting. (If some of the font examples in this paragraph look strange or no different than the rest of this text, it might be because they're not installed on your computer, just as they might not be on recipients' computers.) Twelve-point Courier, Arial and Times New Roman are among the best fonts for ASCII resumes, because they are installed on most computers. If fancy formatting is important in your work, follow up with your print or Web version.
   
• Scannable - Also called an electronic resume, it falls somewhere between the two above. It's a semi-plain, formatted, print resume that employers scan into computers (usually searchable resume databases) using optical scanners with character-recognition software. Scannable resumes must be relatively simple, to ensure that character-recognition software can accurately convert them into searchable text. Some look no different than ASCII resumes, but you can make your scannable resume just a little fancier.
  
  For example, you can use larger, bold font in your Headings. But, except for that and a few other exceptions, the same goes here about staying away from fancy and unusual formatting. Character-recognition software might not be able to read it correctly. Twelve-point Courier, Arial and Times New Roman are among the best fonts for this, too.

There are some special considerations for submitting your electronic resume. For example, resume experts commonly stress the importance of action words or verbs, but nouns have become equally as important, if not more so. That's because employers scan and then search electronic resumes for keywords, such as

• FrameMaker
• Java
• HTML
• C++
• Microsoft certified
• Manager
• Technical support

Because of the importance of keywords, some refer to electronic resumes as keyword resumes. Regardless, be sure to stuff your electronic resume with relevant keywords, but don't over do it. Once per keyword is sufficient for employers to search. Some candidates include a special keyword section in their electronic resumes to get more "hits." But it looks nicer and less conspicuous to blend in keywords, or at least place the keyword section at the bottom of your resume. You might be tempted to stuff your resume with irrelevant keywords to get more hits, but consider the consequences first.

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