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By definition, functional means the act of defining or making definite, distinct, or clear (adapted from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/definition). Hence by leveraging the functional definition itself, functional resume is simply a well defining resume. Yes it is and it is one of my favourite resume formats.

Comparing functional with chronological resume

Functional resume focuses on your skill & expertise in a specific field rather than in chronological resume focuses on when, where or how you gain them. A preferred resume style if you have some level of expertise in a specific field. It is also a recommended resume format if you have instability in your career history since it does not emphasize on the employment duration. It is also a good alternative for those with lack of working experience but have specific knowledge & skill beneficial to an industry.

A point to take note is that functional resume is a risky resume format if you do not have a very specific target job in mind. The focus of your functional resume should emphasize your expertise and skill to fit into that specific job you are applying for. Essentially, a typical functional resume consist of the following (without any sequential order):

• Contact information (mailing address, contact # & e-mail)
• Career objective
• Functional summary/profile (Summary on your expertise and skills for a specific job)
• Accomplishment/skills/professional expertise (List down and describe each main accomplishment for each main skills or expertise)
• Career history (Provide brief employment history, avoid dates if there is an instability in your employment history)
• Education history

I highly recommend this resume format for fresh graduates. If compared to chronological format, majority of the fresh graduates will have such a hard time to provide their employment history in their resume. It is a known fact that fresh graduate is at the disadvantage in terms of their working experience but many do not realize this disadvantage can be compensated by focusing on their experience and accomplishments in the university or college. For example, they can briefly describe about their final year project, internship program, special award or recognition, list of subject taken, social work or leadership activities & etc.

You can download 2 examples of functional resume thru this link. The first sample is for experience employee and the last sample is for fresh graduate.

I hope these samples will give you some idea about functional resume. If you have any further enquiries, please drop your comments at below or e-mail me at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com.

Thanks

Regards

Yusoff