Do you know that the HR representatives stay on each resume less than 30 seconds, so they don’t have time to read your whole CV. For this reason, building a strong CV is obligatory to catch the eye of the HR and push them to read your resume. But before writing your CV, you must be aware of the best resume formats to be able to create your own based on these formats.
Your resume is your mirror that reflects your skills, and your experience. You could focus on a specific part to grab the attention of the HR representatives by applying a specific resume format. To know more about the resume formats and which format is the best for your resume, keep reading this article and you will find an answer for all of your questions, and to be able to create a strong CV.
Table of content
The Three Main Resume Formats
Generally, we found that we have only 3 formats of resume, each format has its own way to show the information and to highlight certain information.
These 3 formats are:
- Chronological or Reverse Chronological Resume.
- Functional or Skills based Resume.
- Combination or Hybrid Resume.
3 Resume Format Examples
Before knowing the difference between the 3 formats of the resume, let’s see a quick example of the different resume format to have a quick look at each format.
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Reverse-Chronological ” Work experience resume ”
The reverse chronological resume or the chronological resume is the resume focusing on showing your work experience. This type of resume is adopted by the majority of job seekers and it’s the most preferable from the side of the HR representatives.
When to use a chronological resume
Chronological resume is used generally when you have a strong experience, as you will show your career path. Also, it’s the best format to apply in case you are looking for a vacancy in the same career.
From the other side, the chronological or the reverse chronological resume is applied by the different candidates, fresh grades, and experience, as it’s the most common type in all over the world.
And here’s the hierarchy of the chronological resume:
- Contact information.
- Summary or your objective.
- Professional experience.
- Education
- Your skills.
- Additional information like charity activities, your hobbies, your talent, your personal skills, etc.…)
Reverse-Chronological Resume Example
Reverse-Chronological Resume: Work Experience
Reverse chronological resume is used to focus on the work experience that you already have. It’s the ideal format to apply if you are looking for a new vacancy in the field and on your career path.
- The right way to write your work experience in the reverse chronological resume is to insert your job experience from the newest experience to previous experience, and show them in a descendant way.
- While writing your work experience, you must write the job title, then the company name, then the start and the end date, and finally your duties and responsibilities.
- Don’t forget to insert bullet points in each job experience to list your duties.
- Choose catchy words.
- Try to resume the whole sentence in short words.
- Avoid duplicating the same role many times.
Work Experience Entry Example
Senior Accountant
Company ABC
2016 – Till now
- Work on maintaining the assets and liabilities of the company stable.
- Revise all the financial transactions in the company.
- Check all the expenses of the company and work to pay them.
- Coordinate with the different departments in order to know all their financial requirements.
- Do the company financial audit to check the financial situation.
Read more: How to Write Work Experience on a Resume
Chronological Resume Format Pros and Cons
On the other hand, each format of resume had some strong points and some weakness points. Let’s start with the Pros and Cons of the chronological resume
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Cons |
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Skills-Based / Functional ” Skills are the most important ”
The second type of the best resume formats is the functional resume or another saying the skills-based resume. Its name reflects the most important information in this type of resume.
In this type of CV, you will find that the job seekers highlight their skills, by mentioning them before the work experiences and the education level.
When to use a functional resume
A Functional Resume is the best resume if you don’t have enough work experience, or you would like to focus on your skills to be able to do a shift in your career.
If you have a gap between your work experience, the functional resume works on hiding this gap by replacing them by the skills that are required in the job vacancy.
Functional Resume is composed of by order:
- Contact information.
- Summary or your objectives.
- Your Skills.
- Additional skills.
- Work Experience.
- Education.
Functional Resume Example
Functional Resume: Resume Objective and Skills Summary
As we mentioned before that this type of resume is based mainly on skills, so you should organize this part as well as you could grab the attention of the recruiters. We will help you to know which type of information, you should insert in this part:
- In the summary, try to explain how you could fit into this position by mentioning your motivation.
- If you work as a freelancer, or you have a portfolio, don’t forget to insert the link of your portfolio to show up your work.
- While listing your skills, try to find the required skills in the job vacancy and insert them to the top of your skills list.
- Use the bullet points to make sure that the recruiters will take a look at all your skills.
- Try to make your skills stronger, by telling a story, a success story, or an example of this skill.
Read more: Resume tips to Land Your Dream Job
Example of a Resume Objective + Skills Summary
Results-driven, graduate in Journalism and Social Communication seeking to leverage two years of internship and freelancing PR experience with ABC Company. Experienced in producing engaging online content (see my portfolio here) and press releases for tech start-ups and local IT companies. Non-profit blogger at (Website link) Interested in new digital PR solutions including the automatization of customer relations via AI-based email campaigns and chatbots.
Skills Summary
RESEARCH
Able to work with many kinds of clients in a wide variety of fields. Excellent at researching clients’ brands, industries, and markets very quickly and efficiently.
WRITING
Skilled at writing all types of Public Relations texts: press releases, blog posts, bulletins, emailing campaigns (outreach emails, sales emails, engagement emails). Able to produce up to 1,500 words of great, unique content on a daily basis.
SOCIAL MEDIA RELATIONS
Proficient at managing social media relations across all major social media platforms:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+.
Pros and Cons of a Functional Resume Format
For sure, the functional resume isn’t the best for a big number of job seekers, so we will list to you all the pros and cons of the skills-based resume format to be able to choose the ideal format for you.
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Hybrid / Combination ” The mixed resume “
The last type of the resume format is the combination or the hybrid. In this format, you will do the mix between the 2 previous formats chronological and skills-based resume.
Combination resume is the way to show some data to highlight your work experience and on the other hand mention some skills that will give you the privilege to take a higher position in your career path.
When to use a combination resume
Using a combination resume is generally, when you are seeking for a job opportunity in your same career path, but in a higher position. For example, If you would like to work as a financial manager, but you haven’t worked as a manager before. At the same time, you have the leadership skills as you lead a team before. So doing the mixture between your knowledge and skills with the work experience to be able to gain a new position in your career path.
Hybrid format includes these sections in the same order:
- Contact Information.
- Skills.
- Additional Skills.
- Work Experience.
- Education.
While writing your hybrid resume take care of:
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- Use Bullets points.
- Try to list all the skills relevant to your job experience by mentioning some examples in each skill.
- Focus on your achievements and accomplishments.
Read more: How to make your resume stand out
Hybrid / Combination Resume Example
Example of a Skills Summary for a Hybrid Resume
Programming and App Development
- Developed and built 20+ mobile apps and 30+ websites providing exceptional user experience.
- Named BCD M&E’s “Top Programmer of The Year” for three consecutive years 2009-2011.
- 15+ years of experience in C#, C++, Java, and Objective-C.
- C Certified Professional Programmer (2006), Objective-C Certified Professional Programmer (2009).
Leadership
- 8+ years of experience in team management (teams of 10-50 colleagues) and project coordination.
- Designed and implemented a new IT management model with Apple’s New York Branch, increasing quarterly productivity by
- 33% and boosting employee satisfaction by 22%.
- Trained and mentored 50+ junior developers to help them prepare for certification exams (88% success rate).
Business Management
- Coordinated 20+ projects with budgets over $200,000.
- Optimized procurement processes to reduce BCD M&E’s annual costs by 27%.
- Successfully cooperated with sales and marketing teams on new business strategies which helped increase Apple New York’s sales volume by 23%.
Pros and Cons of a Combination Resume Format
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the combination resume to be able to choose if you want to adopt it or not.
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How to Pick the Best Resume Format for You
After knowing the 3 best resume formats, here comes the time to choose, which format will be the best to highlight your competences, to reach out HR Representatives easily to finally gain a new work position.
Chronological vs Functional vs Combination Resume
let’s do a quick comparison between these 3 types of resumes
- Chronological resume: Focus on your work experience which will be mentioned on the top of your CV. The Skills part comes in the second part of your resume.
The strength of the chronological resume is the most common worldwide, also readable by the ATS easily. Weakness of this type is not eligible for all the job seekers. - Functional resume: Focus on your skills which are mentioned on the top of your CV. The work experience part comes on the second part of your resume.
The strength of the skills-based resume is focus on skills which will hide the gaps in your work experience which will be a weakness on some points as the recruiters translate this type as a way to hide a weakness on your resume. Also, It’s not readable by the ATS which is a weakness point. - Combination: Mix between skills and work experience. The skills come on the top then the work experience.
The top strength is to show your relevant skills that fit with the job vacancy to be able to gain a new opportunity in a higher position. The weakness appears on the difficulty to be read by the ATS. Also, this type is exclusive for a small category of job seekers.
Make Sure Your Resume Format Beats the ATS Resume Test
About 70% of resumes pass through an ATS “Applicant Tracking System” before being reached by the HR representatives. So, you should create a resume readable by the ATS to be able to pass it and reach out to the human resources.
But how to pass the ATS?
Let’s know the answer now together
How to Pass the ATS Scan:
- Make sure to mention your Contact information on the top of your resume.
- Choose clear titles, no need to do creative titles, as it will not be read.
- Don’t be sure graphics and resume templates are complicated.
- Have a copy of your resume in PDF and Word Document, and provide the format needed by each company.
- Avoid any spelling error.
- Organize your resume well to be scanned easily.
Read more: How to write Resume for Undergraduates
How to format a resume
In addition to the 3 best resume formats, you have to format your resume or another saying organizes the appearance of your CV well. There’re many rules, you should stick to them in order to deliver a well-organized CV. Between those rules:
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Apply appropriate margins.
Margins make your resume appear more organized and well-prepared. But you should put into consideration some requirements while creating your margins.
Set a 1-inch margin, if you have a short resume. You could go through 0.75 inches, if you have a medium resume length. The maximum margin should be 0.5 not less.
Also, don’t forget to make all your text left align. Only the contact information could be in the center of the page.
Select a professional, readable font.
Fonts are so important while creating your resume. There’re many fonts that are non-professional. You should choose a clear font, to let ATS read it.
In the fonts list, you will find serif and sans serif fonts, avoid serif fonts, from the other side, we do recommend us sans serif fonts.
Here’re a list of the most common professional fonts to be used in your resume:
- Calibri
- Constantia
- Avenir
- Corbel
- Cambria
- Franklin Gothic
- Georgia
- Garamond
- Gill Sans
- Helvetica
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Make your font size 10 to 12 points.
Font size should be between 10 to 12 inches. If you have a short resume, you could use a 12 inches font size. In parallel, if you have a long resume, the font size 10 inches will be the best.
If your resume is too long, don’t reduce the font size more than 10 inches, in order to make your resume readable. But try to reduce words and choose catchy words instead of the long sentences.
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Feature section headers
The headers and the contact information should be highlighted to grab the attention of the HR representatives. So, try to make them bold and underline the section titles only.
Also, you could increase the font size between 12 to 14 inches.
Use bullet points where appropriate.
One of the most important points that you should take care while creating your resume is the bullet points. As, it’s helped the reader to find out the information, highlight your skills and your duties.
But avoid making one or two bullet points only in one section. The bullet point should be 3 or more.
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Ask for feedback.
Last step, ask your friends, or professional colleagues to listen to their feedback, if they see spelling errors or grammar errors to fix them.
Listen carefully to their comments in order to create a strong resume.
FAQ for best Resume Formats
After listing the 3 best resume formats, and how to make a professional resume, we still have some frequently asked questions that we should provide you answers for.
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Does a resume format matter?
Yes, resume format matters for sure, each format is specialized for each case. If you have a lot of work experience, achievements, and so on, the chronological resume will be the best.
On the other hand, if you have gaps in your work experience or you would like to do a shift career, the functional resume should be your choice.
Finally, if you want to gain a new opportunity in your same career path but in a higher position, the combination resume will be your ideal format.
- What are the best formats for a resume?
The best format for a resume is the chronological or the reverse-chronological resume, as it’s the most common worldwide. The most known by the HR representatives. And, readable by the ATS scan.
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Why isn’t there a universal format for resumes?
Because each person has their own experience and skills, you couldn’t set a fixed format for all over the world.
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What is the best resume format for someone who is a fresher?
The best resume format for a fresher is the chronological resume, as it will be read by the ATS. Also, you could mention your previous workshop, training and internship.
- What is the proper resume format when applying for internships?
The proper resume format for an internship is functional as you will highlight your skills. On the other hand, if you are seeking for an internship which means that you don’t have work experience.
Now it’s your turn!
There are 3 best resume formats, each one is the best for some job seekers. Each case has its own experience, knowledge and skills, that have a vision in focusing on some information neither other information. So, it’s your turn now to choose the suitable resume format and share your experience with us in our comments
