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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