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How to Write a CV Functional Resume Format: Free Templates and Guide
A functional resume can help you get an interview by focusing on your relevant skills and training. In this article, you’ll learn how to write an effective functional resume step-by-step. Use our free examples and templates to give you a head start, or try our Resume Builder to create a custom professional document in minutes.
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Functional Resume Examples
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Sales-Focused
This sample functional resume from the University of Kentucky puts the focus on the summary of qualifications and relevant skills before listing work history and education. This strategy is effective for people who know the job well enough to understand the kinds of skills employers are looking for, and can afford to focus on that while supplementing their education and work history.
In this example, the job seeker has years of relevant experience both as an entrepreneur and as a coordinator for large companies. The functional format is also the right strategy for anyone with employment history gaps or whose qualifications aren’t derived traditionally. -
Graphic Design
This skill-based resume, created by Ohlone College, focuses on qualifications, accomplishments and experience. Work history is listed plainly so as not to draw attention to a two-year work-history gap, and education is listed last and in a way that will not bring attention to the lack of a bachelor’s degree. This template is for people with more experience and knowledge in a field than a typical entry-level job seeker, but whose work history and education are questionable.In this example, the applicant’s list of qualifications, skills and experience showcase his knowledge with graphic design, while the downplayed presentation of work experience and education neither hide nor call attention to weak areas. This template shows how well functional resumes highlight qualifications without hiding problems. -
Mid-Level Retail
This retail-focused resume from Portland Community College targets the job she’s applying for by listing important, relevant experience she’s had in customer service. By listing experience with merchandising techniques, the job seeker shows that she understands that part of increasing sales means working on a sales floor. This also allows her to show both her familiarity with the business as well as the responsibilities she’s been given in previous positions.This example shows an applicant for a position as a customer service representative who has a limited education, and a work history that includes a relatively large gap. The functional format allows her to highlight strengths and downplay weaknesses. -
New Teacher
This professional resume from Palomar College uses a straightforward format to accomplish the goal of leading a potential employer through the applicant’s most important qualifications. Skills are listed first because in a position such as childcare they’re important, and also because her education and employment history isn’t stellar. The listed relevant experiences are important for a nursery school teacher to have, but again don’t go beyond basic expectations.In this example, the applicant is expecting to earn a bachelor’s degree soon and is looking to advance her career. Without getting bogged down in timeline and work history gaps, this document will help job seekers focus on the positives they can bring to a new employer. -
Career Change
This functional resume template for Adam Patrick Jones highlights the advantage of using a functional format to move from one field to another. By listing personal attributes and skills first, followed by a summary of professional qualifications, the applicant shows the range of his abilities.In this military-to-civilian example, a former office administrator with the U.S. military is attempting the sometimes-tough transition from the military to the private sector. This template can work equally well for anyone hoping to make a career change or for those who have a varied, but valuable, skill set.
Functional Resume Pros and Cons
To understand if a functional resume is the best fit for you, let’s look at this format’s benefits and disadvantages.
Functional Resume Pros
- A functional resume can increase your chances of getting an interview, even if you don’t have the exact work experience required for the position, by pairing your qualifications to the job posting.
- This type of document is perfect for transitioning into a different career track. Relevant skills are highlighted and lack of experience is less noticeable.
- Functional resumes feature job titles and company names, but don’t offer detailed timelines. This hides work gaps for those who have changed jobs frequently or are reentering the workforce.
Functional Resume Cons
- A functional resume can play against you with recruiters who assume you are excluding details of your employment history because there’s something to hide.
- Functional resumes don’t clearly showcase career growth or development in past jobs.
- This format doesn’t work well in traditional fields, like law or finance, or with conventional firms that look for specific information in the resumes they receive.
Functional Resume-Writing Guide
A functional resume will always contain the following components:
- Contact Information
- Summary Statement or Objective Statement
- Summary of Qualifications
- Professional Skills
- Work History
- Education
In this format, place the relevant skills section before work history. This is what differentiates a functional resume format from a chronological format. At the end of the resume, you can add a brief section of extra competencies or projects that, while not completely relevant to the position, may make your resume even stronger. For example, you can include languages, professional affiliations, IT experience (for a non-IT position), etc.
Don’t include hobbies, as it’s outdated and doesn’t boost your professional image. See our advice below for effective writing advice.
Prep your resume materials
Brainstorm the skills and accomplishments you bring to the table. At this stage, it doesn’t matter if some of them aren’t relevant to the job description. Do include educational background, training provided by former employers, technical skills, awards and professional affiliations.
To help you recall these items, ask yourself the following questions:
1.Did I train my subordinates or teammates on new skills?
2.Have I changed a procedure and made it more efficient?
3.Did I help the company save money?
4.Did I receive awards or prizes for my productivity?
5.Have I brought in new clients or projects for my firm?
6.Have I been promoted, or have my responsibilities increased?
7.Did I detect a problem and prevent it from escalating?
Now, list every skill you possess that’s mentioned in the job ad. Delete the elements in your brainstorm list that have nothing to do with the job position. Your relevant aptitude and achievements are what will remain.
Once you’re done, refine this list by incorporating the exact keywords that are in the job description. For example, if you wrote “communication with clients,” but the job ad says “customer service,” use the latter. You don’t know whether your resume is going to be screened by an applicant tracking system (ATS) at first. Using the same keywords that are in the job ad will help prevent your resume from getting rejected at this initial stage.
Contact information
This resume section is simple and straightforward. Just list your complete name, city and state, email and phone number. Use a larger font size and/or different alignment to make your name stand out.
Write “Willing to relocate” if the position is in another city because sometimes a recruiter will discard your resume if they feel you live too far away to commute.
Provide a mobile number for hiring managers to easily contact you. Include a professional email address that includes your first and last names, but no nicknames.
You can include your professional website, online portfolio and LinkedIn profile as well.
When you list your accomplishments in this way, the recruiter can picture you doing the same for their company.
Summary of qualifications
Remember the proficiency and accomplishments you brainstormed before beginning your resume? This is one of the first of two sections where these skills will be front and center.
Start by thinking about the top three skills that directly apply to the open position. Once you have those three skills, you add a short bulleted list under each skill that includes examples of practical applications for each of those skills. You should have at least three to five bullet points underneath each section with the appropriate job responsibilities.
For example, if you’re a sales associate and chose customer service, sales, and cash handling as your three skills, you could write a summary of qualifications that looks like this:
Customer Service
- Successfully greeted customers and developed a friendly rapport with most, developing a loyal customer base of repeat visitors.
- Aided customers in locating specific products within our store’s inventory and, when unavailable, located the product online or at another store and facilitated the purchase.
- Provided styling assistance and advice to customers in the fitting room.
- Assisted customers in identifying the correct sizes and flattering cuts for their body type.
Sales
- Successfully upsold customers to full outfits while running the fitting room
- On slow days, handing flyers and coupons to potential customers and increasing store foot traffic by 42% and sales by 19% within two hours.
Cashier
- Expertly trained in point-of-sales (POS) programs
- Can quickly process sales with an average two-minute transaction time for purchases of 10 items or less, and an average transaction time of three-and-a-half minutes for 20 items or less.
- Successfully upsell the customer loyalty credit card to 1% of customers and am the top-performing register of cards for the last six months.
Professional skills
Your remaining skills fall into one of three categories:
1.
Job-related skills: Mention technical expertise acquired academically or on the job. For example, a digital marketing executive’s experience might include fluency in Google Analytics, knowledge of social media management, and knowledge of best practices for sales funnels.
2.
Transferable skills: These are commonly included for a career transition, and are skills you learned in one field or job that can apply to a different type of job. For example, as a sales manager, you could have learned how to develop standards for conducting hiring interviews.
3.
Adaptive or personal skills: Describe the personality traits you possess that make your work better. These are harder to prove on paper, so back them up with achievements. For example, “Worked with high professional ethics, achieving outstanding results in the annual legal audit.”
This section allows you to feature additional skills that fall outside of the three main skills you feature in your summary of qualifications section. You’ll feature your additional skills in the standard bulleted format you’ll see below.
Unlike the combination or chronological resume, which recommends that you only feature six skills under this section, your functional resume encourages you to feature six to ten skills. We advise that you chose new, unique skills that aren’t repeated in the previous section.
Work history
As we mentioned before, your work history will be concise in a functional resume format. Include a list of company names and job titles in chronological order. Dates for each position are optional.
You can follow this simple format for outlining your job history:
Job Title, Place of Employment
For example, a skilled cashier who’s worked multiple short-term stints during holiday seasons at various stores could list their experience as such:
Cashier and Sales Associate, Target
In a functional resume, the recruiters will want to know more about you by the time they reach this part of the document. Your resume may help you get your foot in the door, but a recruiter will probably ask you more questions about your work experience if you are fortunate enough to receive an interview.
If you have limited work experience, you can add internships, volunteer work and personal projects as well.
Education
Your educational background should also be brief and relevant. Provide the name and location of your university, add your major and the type of degree obtained. You can include your GPA within five years of graduating if it is 3.5 or above.
Mention important seminars, courses or other training if you feel it will boost or validate a skill.
It’s common practice to include the year of graduation, but is not mandatory. Minimize the risks of encountering ageism by omitting the year.
Functional Resume Versus Other Formats
Let’s take a look at the other two resume formats. The resume format most appropriate for you will depend on your professional experience and the requirements of the position you’re seeking. Keep reading to find out how these resume formats differ and which one is best for you.
1. Chronological or reverse-chronological
Chronological resumes
A chronological resume concentrates mainly on your work history and the details of the jobs you’ve had. A functional resume emphasizes your skills and accomplishments. Think about whether your skills or your previous positions strengthen your resume. What will recruiters find most interesting about you? If you’re in any of the following situations, read carefully to decide which of these formats is best for you:
1.
Position requirements: If you have the work experience recruiters are looking for, a chronological format can make that clear. However, if you believe you have the required skills, but they were acquired from training or secondary activities rather than job duties and experience, a functional resume is better.
2.
Changing careers: A chronological resume is a better way to display progress in your work responsibilities. If you want a job that will keep you in the same career path, this format is great. Conversely, it’s hard to identify a timeline of professional growth in a functional resume. If you want a position in a different field, a functional resume might be the better choice.
3.
Starting a career: Lack of experience is in plain sight in a chronological layout. If you’re a student or have recently graduated, your skills and accomplishments are probably more appealing than your work history. If that’s the case, a functional resume is a good choice.
4.
Work gaps: Since functional resumes don’t focus on employment dates and positions held, gaps in your work history are less obvious. An experienced recruiter may still notice that extensive work history is missing, so be prepared to address this at your interview.
Combination resumes
The combination format uses information from the functional and chronological resume formats. The following points will further help you determine which of the three resume formats you should choose.
1.
Focal point: A combination resume, just like a chronological layout, shows your job positions and their related duties, and the length of time you held each position. However, it highlights expertise developed in each of those positions. Ask yourself how similar your work history is to the job you want. If your skills are more relevant to the job at hand and you have outstanding achievements, a functional resume can emphasize that.
2.
Repetition: In contrast to a functional layout, the combination format can be repetitive when skills are listed in more than one section. This is not a problem with functional formats because they don’t include a detailed work history, in which skills information would likely be repeated.
3.
Hierarchy of position: Recruiters are usually more rigorous when they search for a senior managerial candidate. In this case, a functional resume could work against you since it’s not as detailed as a combination resume. Weigh the benefits and challenges your personal circumstances present to select the most suitable format.
Functional Resume FAQ
Who should use a functional resume?
This format is not for everyone. You should only use a functional resume if you identify as one of the following job seekers:
1.
Career-changer: Most hiring managers and recruiters look for candidates in similar job tracts who demonstrate previous experience in their field. They might overlook a candidate who is looking to change careers merely because you don’t have formal experience for the job. However, a functional resume can help you contextualize your past experience based on the transferable skills that apply to the needs of an open job and hopefully land you an interview.
2.
Long gaps between jobs: There are so many valid reasons why you have gaps between jobs; a tough job market, returning to school, or stepping away to care for family. These circumstances are easy enough to explain in a cover letter or interview, but they stick out like alarming red flags on a resume without the right context. Since a functional resume doesn’t focus on jobs and dates of employment, it’s easy for you to put your talented best foot forward.
3.
Freelance: A freelancer can have multiple, overlapping projects followed by long periods of quiet. These part-time gigs can be hard to feature on a standard resume, especially if they’re short-term projects rather than year-long commitments. A functional resume lets you showcase the skills and achievements you developed over years of collaborating with multiple brands and teams.
4.
Short-term contractor: Similar to a freelancer, you probably have highly-developed skill sets developed over multiple projects, but the short-term nature of those projects can alarm hiring managers and recruiters without the right context. The functional resume lets you showcase your skills and impress managers enough to earn a job interview, where you can add context to your work timeline.
Do recruiters hate functional resumes?
There's a variety of articles that share one common misconception: Recruiters hate and distrust functional resumes. However, that opinion is normally gathered by surveyors after questioning a small sample of recruiters. The truth is that it’s a matter of opinion — some recruiters might dismiss your functional resumes, others may like it.
But, it is true that functional resumes are less likely to be positively reviewed by recruiters than chronological or functional resumes for the following reasons.
1.
Applicant tracking systems: Also known as ATS, these programs are commonly used by companies to scan and approve resumes with matching qualifications before forwarding the documents to hiring managers. These programs can eliminate as many as half the candidates before the first pass, and look for specific resume sections following specific formats. Since the functional resume has unique sections and layouts, it’s less likely to successfully pass an ATS. We recommend using this resume if you’re applying as a referral candidate, or have a personal connection within the company.
2.
Lack of timelines: Most recruiters do scan resumes for your work history and, more importantly, loyalty to former jobs. Many recruiters prefer candidates with long periods of time at their former jobs, as it indicates loyalty and long-term commitment. Since the functional resume downplays your work history and avoids detailed timelines, this can hurt your chances of leaving a good impression. We advise opening your resume with a summary statement that clarifies your history with short-term employment — it can help contextualize your functional resume.
What’s the difference between functional and chronological resumes?
There is one main difference between a functional resume and a chronological resume: the first showcases your professional skills, the latter your professional work history. Both the functional and chronological resume summarize your technical abilities and break down your experience, qualifications and achievements, but they follow unique formats to do so.
- Functional resume: Uses multiple skills sections to define and elaborate on your soft, hard and technical skills, adding detail to each of your past successes.
- Chronological resume: Uses work history to highlight past jobs, and links skills, responsibilities and professional accomplishments to each of your formal roles.
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