Career Tools: Resume: The Three Main Resume Types

A flashy resume is likely to get you noticed, but on the whole it is a risky proposition. What you want to be handing out is a logical and presentable illustration of yourself. You also want it to be packed with information because an empty resume means an unread resume. So how exactly should you go about presenting all this information? Read the following brief descriptions, think about yourself, and choose the one that works best for you.

1. The Chronological Resume

The chronological resume is the Coke Classic of resumes. It's the one you.re probably most familiar with and it's the most commonly used. After a simple objective statement, this resume gives a candidate's chronological job history. Each time period or company listed includes some highlighted achievements. This resume works well for job seekers who want to demonstrate progress in a single profession and haven't had many employment gaps. But this isn't always the best format for a college senior since it puts a premium on job experience, not on job skills.

2. The Functional Resume

A bit more unconventional, the functional resume places an emphasis on a candidate's abilities instead of her work history. After the objective statement, this resume gives a list of skills an employer in a particular industry is looking for, followed by a brief example of the candidate's qualifications. Then, near the bottom, it lists a brief employment history. Again, because of the special emphasis on skills, the functional resume of someone seeking a graphic arts design job will look considerably different from that of an investment banker. If you are someone who didn't have a lot of career-building internships in college this may be the best resume for you, since you can more easily cite some of your classroom work.

3. The Chrono-Functional Resume

The choice of upwardly mobile, do-everything types, the chrono-functional seeks to take the best of both worlds by combining the strengths of chronological resumes and functional ones. After the objective statement, it lists a few of the key skills a candidate has acquired along the road followed by an in-depth employment history similar to what can be found in the chronological resume. Students who.ve spent their summers working in internships and have joined career-oriented extra-curricular activities might want to try out this resume style.

**Be careful; including skills and a long employment history can make the resume longer than one page. And employers aren't happy with long resumes.