When To Use a Functional Resume?
In our last post, we looked at what a functional resume is. Now we will explore when to use such a format.
Changing up your entire resume format can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider the risk/reward outcomes when doing this and you will see the benefit in a full overhaul of your resume. There is a time and place for everything, and the use of a functional resume abides by this rule. The main reason to use this format is when you lack specific experience. The functional resume allows you to merge all jobs and life experience into your skills section, typically highlighting specific required skills.
Maybe you were a student-athlete in school and were unable to hold a job while at school due to time commitments. You can take the skills you gained and highlight them here. Your headings could be: “Teamwork,” “Time-management” “Strong work ethic” “Leadership” and “Communication”. Now you can expand on each of these skills using examples from athletics, school and/or part-time summer jobs.
Keep in mind, you don’t reference specifics of where or when you demonstrated these skills, just that it happened. Having less traditional jobs such as an athlete, military member, gig worker, or entrepreneur, you have to complete the puzzle for the recruiter and fill in the gaps and objections that they would have about you.
There are of course pros and cons to this format, so let’s look at them now.
The Pros and Cons of a Functional Resume
Pros:
It can help accentuate the positives and point out non-traditional experiences. The functional resume allows you to talk more directly about your qualities and skills in further depth than a traditional resume. In addition, it can help certain candidates get a fair assessment from a hiring manager or recruiter who typically spends less than 10 seconds assessing certain applicants’ fit for a position (See When to use below).
A functional resume can hack Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). The job posting says exactly what the employer is looking for in an applicant. If you take all the keywords and work them into your skills, more often than not, the ATS will approve the resume which passes you through the initial screening process filter.
Screening out candidates at the resume reviewing stage is the easiest way to eliminate candidates. There is no personal connection at this point, the hiring manager feels nothing for you as the candidate. When you do not possess the experience, you make the decision-making process easier for them. The functional resume is a way to bring pause to this selection process and get the hiring manager to, hopefully, give you a chance and bring you in for the interview. What you want to do is highlight how you will bring value to the company.
It also helps you zero in on the job you want. You can examine a bunch of job postings from a variety of sources and find out what commonalities they all share in terms of what they are looking for. You can then customize your resume to hone in on these skills to increase your chances of being hired.
When To Use:
Career switch – Any of us who have changed careers knows what a daunting task this can be. Employers may read your resume and think you are either overqualified, underqualified or not serious about the role and looking for a transitionary job.
A gap in employment – As the functional resume focuses more on your skills than employment history you are highlighting your varied skills including life, educational, volunteer and career experiences more than your progressive career timeline. This can be particularly fitting for candidates who have taken time off to be caregivers, return to school, travel or deal with physical or mental health issues or difficult personal circumstances. More on this later.
Recent grad – You are yet to obtain the work experience required for even an entry-level job but by using other part-time jobs, volunteering and school projects you can better explain your value to the company.
Dissimilar job titles – Some companies like to give their employees different (and at times, flat-out strange) job titles that are not indicative of what your job is. The functional resume blasts through this barrier and gives the employer tangible examples of what you have done.
Also, you might want to use a functional resume if you have held less traditional employment. Saying you drove for Uber may not sound as relevant as the skills you developed there such as customer service, attention to detail, safety, and flexibility that you utilized while on the job, for example.
Ultimately, the functional resume allows you to highlight relevant skills and experience while showcasing how you can add value to the company.
Cons:
Many hiring managers don’t like functional resumes because they can be seen as a sneaky way to hide the truth. The pros and reasons that a candidate might use a functional resume are exactly why employers see this format as a con. This can be a red flag for many recruiters. They know that a functional resume can be a sly tactic by some candidates to hide gaps in employment. either fired or unexpectedly quit.
This knock against functional resumes though is more of a misconception rather than a fact. The functional resume should still include previous places of work and dates, it is just positioned towards the end of the resume and not listed throughout. An argument could be made that the functional resume actually does the opposite of hiding employment gaps as this format actually positions the previous employment and dates closer together than on a standard resume.
What the functional resume does not include, however, is specifically when you developed certain skills. Hiring managers generally like to see career progression on a resume. It shows that the candidate is improving and growing as an employee. Sometimes job titles alone do not tell the full story. In your last job, you might have worn way more hats than the title alone suggests.
Having recent experience in a core competency that the hiring manager is looking for is more valuable than having done this many years ago in a previous role. To that point, you may have many consecutive years of this experience but it is seen as generally outside the scope of your title’s typical role. An example of this may be if you were an administrative assistant in your previous role but were given the responsibility by your boss of being the unofficial human resources manager as well. This was given to you because you had HR experience in a previous job that your manager was aware of. In a functional resume, you would say HR is a skill you possess but under past work experience it may look like you had not worked in HR in 10 years if work experience is listed below:
Administrative Assistant, ABC company 2012-Present
Administrative Assistant, XYZ company 2009-2012
HR Assistant, ACME company, 2007-2009
The hiring manager may look at your resume and assume that you only have 2 years of HR experience while you have 12. In a more standard resume, you could further elaborate on your experience in HR at ABC company.
Using this format also makes it more difficult for recruiters to score against other applicants. Effectively, it forces the recruiter to compare a resume that has no comparables.
Ultimately, the choice of when to use a functional resume is up to you, and whether the hiring manager does or does not like this format is up to them. At the end of the day though, you need to put yourself in a position for success and that means taking a chance on a functional resume, so, try it out!
If you would like feedback on your resume or have specific questions about the functional resume, please do not hesitate to reach out via [email protected].