Chronological or Skills Based Resume - not sure which to use?

How do you know which resume to use? Chronological or Skills Based. And what do you do when you don't know which it best?

In general government jobs, and more conservative institutions such as banks, lawyers offices etc will probably prefer the chronological resume. Again, in general, most other jobs will accept the skills based resume.

If you are writing a skills based resume, it's easy to know what to put. Analyze what skill groupings, and what exact skills that you have will be most useful in the job for which you are applying, and write them into your resume. (More on writing a skills based resume can be found in other posts)

A chronological is a bit trickier to deal with, especially since your last job may not have been the one that highlights the skills you need for this job.

So it can be a good idea to use a combination chronological resume.

This means that instead of putting your most recent job first, you may choose to write a heading of "Relevant Employment" and list the jobs you have had, with dates etc as usual, that gave you skills and are relevant to this job for which you are now applying.

Then after that section you will have another one entitled "Other Employment" and here you will list, also in chronological order, the other jobs you have had that you did not include in "Relevant Employment."

The other trick here is, after each job title, company name and dates, put a one liner that basically covers your job duties. Then put your bulleted list of skills and accomplishments for that job immediately underneath.

A formal chronological resume will have all your job titles, companies and dates listed in reverse chronological order (ie beginning the with most recent and working back to the oldest), with, under each, just a list of job duties.

However, this is not to your advantage, since it does't display your skills.

So if you are writing a chronological resume, consider this adaptation as it gives you more chance to sell yourself, while staying within the basic chronological format.

If you would like one on one help to write your resume, I offer individual coaching, in person, or by phone.

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Resume Presentation

You can learn all you want about the best way to write content for your resume, but if it is not presented well, you may still not be on the interview list.

Paper: forget all the pretty pastels, shun any fancy or brightly coloured paper. A simple white or off white is best. If you want to go upmarket, try linen textured paper. It looks just like "regular" paper, but it has a lovely soft feel to it.

But, really, just regular 20lb copy paper is fine.

Make sure it is clean, uncrumpled and unsmudged.

Do not staple your resume. Busy employers often want to make a copy of incoming resumes, and a staple then becomes a nuisance as it has to be removed before automatic feed copying.

Do not fold your resume. Buy 9"x12" brown envelopes (very cheap in the dollar store)and use these for resumes and cover letters.

Use only one, or at the most two, fonts for the resume. You may use one for heading and another for the body. Or you can just use the same font, bolding, enlarging, or perhaps capitilization for the headings.

Your name should be the largest item on the page. Headings should all be the same size, and all body text should be the same size.

Only use italics or capitals for headings. They are more difficult to read than regular text, so should be used sparingly.

Leave lots of white space. An over crowded sheet of paper is not enticing to read. Give the employer the basic information of your skills and experience. If s/he wants to know more, s/he can invite you to an interview and ask you in person!

Remember that employers are people too, and when faced with a mountain of resumes in application for one job, they are not going to wade through anything that appears ill prepared or distasteful.

Make your resume and paper representation of yourself: professional, efficient and easy to deal with!

Need more help writing your resume?

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