What are the different resume formats?

A resume is typically a professional document that tosses light upon one's personal and professional details. Viably, a resume encourages an individual to apply for a job post. Further, a resume contains your work experience, personal information, educational information, achievements, and so on.

In short, your resume is your self-introduction for interview.

Best resume formats will assist you in creating an excellent first impression when you apply for a job. Let us talk about various formats of resume in detail.

The accompanying details are common to each resume type

1.      Personal Particulars

2.      Academic qualifications

3.      Education details

4.      Experience section: Functional or chronological

5.      Additional information that may incorporate languages known and things worth mentioning

6.      References

Essential Parts Of A Resume

Ø  Contact information: This must incorporate one's name, address, telephone number, and so forth.

Ø  Objective(optional): The target of an applicant should be comparable to the job being applied for.

Ø  Education section: This area evokes one's educational qualifications and details. As a rule, we should confine these details to the essential and significant qualifications.

Ø  Experience area: Candidates with work experience can utilize this section furthering their potential benefits. For the most part, the experience is listed in the reverse chronological order.

Ø  Skills: This area represents the different skills, knowledge, and strengths that the candidate has, making him able for the job.

Ø  Projects: To call attention to the work done in the field of work, a competitor can utilize the projects segment.

Ø  Activities: This area advances the candidate's enrollment in organizations.

Ø  Honours: Lastly, the honors section can be utilized to feature the candidate's achievements, awards, and scholarships.

Ø  Resume Headlines: This part describes your competitive features. Resume headlines for fresher’s must be attractive to attract the recruiters.

Formats of Resume

1.      Chronological Resume Format – Most preferred resume

2.      Functional Resume Format – Resume for the employees with multiple numbers of skills

3.      Combination Resume Format – Resume for the employees with long employment history and work experience.

Let's discuss these Resume Formats in Detail.

1.   Chronological Resume

In a chronological resume format, you list your jobs chronologically in the experience section. This implies you start with your most recent or current work experience, and then work backward.

Because you work backward, this resume format is also named as "reverse chronological."

The two benefits of a chronological resume are listed below:

1.      It lets the interviewer easily see how you have progressed in your professional career

2.      It puts your current work experience at the top, where it'll be seen first

Who Should Use It

This type of resume is ideal for an individual with no major gaps between previous jobs. The applicant has consistent progression throughout the career and comes with a long record of skills and accomplishments in the industry you're applying to.

2. Functional Resume

The functional resume is mainly designed to focus on your ideal and relevant skills instead of your work experience.

A functional resume contains expanded accomplishments and skills sections instead of work experience. It may also include resume objective or resume summary sections.

Who Should Use It

A functional resume format will likely best for you if you're:

1.      Switching industries

2.      New to the workforce

3.      If you have any gap in your work history

3.   Combination Resume

A combination resume is the blend of the most useful elements of both chronological and functional resume formats.

It mainly focuses on your skills, as a functional resume does, but it also provides space for you to detail your work history, just in chronological order correctly.

Only as the other resume types, a combination resume format also contains:

·         A section about your educational background

·         Your contact/personal details

·         A proper resume introduction

Who Should Use It

A combination resume is a better choice as compared with other types of resume formats if you have any of the following skills to showcase:

·         Technical skills that you've developed over the long, specialized career

·         Transferable skills, with complete details of your work history

4.   Targeted Resume

A targeted resume is one that is custom-fitted to each organization you apply to.

To write a compelling one, read the job posting thoroughly. It will contain job duties, skills, and prerequisites, which you can use as keywords on your resume, if possible.

Composing a targeted resume takes a longer time since you have to research each organization and write your resume to meet each job description requirement.

Who Should Use It

Since it's substantially more prone to get callbacks, you should try to write targeted resumes. This is particularly evident when the job coordinates your skills and experience.

5.   Infographic Resume

In contrast to a standard resume, an infographic resume includes graphics and other visual components to introduce your professional details.

Who Should Use It

In case you're a desiring graphic designer, you can utilize an infographic resume since you can discuss your design skills and show them simultaneously.

However, be cautious:

Around 75% of organizations use, or simply plan to use, Applicant Tracking System- resume reading software. ATS scans your resume and chooses if it contains enough resume keywords to make it worth showing a recruiter.

Numerous graphic components utilized on this sort of resume are unreadable to an ATS. Possibly use an infographic resume in case you're going after a graphic design job position, or you're sure the organization doesn't use an ATS. Else, a plain-content resume works fine.

6.   Non-traditional Resume

There are many types of resumes that come under the category of non-traditional resumes.

We've already discussed infographic resumes, but there are many other types too. Most are modern takes on the traditional resume, including:

·         Online portfolios

·         video resumes

·         personal websites.

All of these use the latest technology to exhibit your work experience and skills.

Who Should Use It

You can use this non-traditional resume if you're applying for a job post that requires the same skills used in making your resume. For example, a video resume can help you sow your video editing skills.

But because resume-reading software, ATS is still confined in what it can read and understand, you should try to use a traditional resume as your leading application document.

If your job demands something extra, then, you can attach another type of resume for the hiring manager to check out. By doing this can give you the edge over another equally qualified applicants who submit only a simple resume.

Conclusion

So, now you are aware of the different resume types. It's an excellent opportunity to build your own. Your resume can decide whether you will describe yourself in front of the hiring manager or not. So, write the best to secure you job.

Good luck with your job hunt!