Résumé Writing for EFL Learners/Reading activity: Knowing how to tailor your résumé to your employer needs

Assignment

Knowing how to tailor your résumé to your employer’s needs

We have studied the key attributes of résumés in general. Other equally important attributes are:

• APPEARANCE: Your resume should be well-organized with consistent headings, fonts, bullets, and style. Never overcrowd the resume. Leave some "white space" so that important points can stand out; and try to make your margins between .75” and 1” on all sides. For print resumes, use subdued color paper, such as white, ivory, beige, light gray.

• AVOIDANCE OF TYPOS/MISSPELLINGS. Take the time to carefully write, rewrite, and edit your resume. Be sure to meticulously proofread your resume for misspellings and typos. You wouldn’t want your résumé to get thrown in the trash can, would you?

One of the first decisions job-seekers must make when preparing their résumés is how to organize the résumé's content. Résumés are usually organized using the following formats:

• Chronological (actually reverse chronological, listing all your experience from most to least recent).
• Functional, which lists experience in skills clusters.
• A combination or hybrid of those two types, also known as a chrono-functional format.

Chronological Résumés

The traditional format for résumés is the chronological résumé. This type of résumé is organized by your employment history in reverse chronological order, with job titles/names of employers/locations of employers/dates of employment/ accomplishments, working backwards 10-15 years. A standard chronological résumé may be your best choice if most/all of your experience has been in one field, you have no large employment gaps, and you plan to stay in that same field. The chronological résumé is preferred by the widest variety of employers, as well as by recruiters and many of the Internet job boards. Recruiters and hiring managers tend to like this résumé format because it's easy to read and clearly demonstrates your job history and career advancement/growth. This format is also recommended for all conservative career fields (such as accounting, banking, law, etc.) and international job-seeking.

Functional Résumé

The résumé format preferred by job-seekers with a limited job history, a not so good job history, or a job history in a different career field, is the functional resume. Job-seekers who take a functional approach organize their résumés by skills and functions clusters. In a purely functional résumé, company names, employment dates, and position titles are intentionally omitted. The functional résumé can work for homemakers returning to the workforce, for example, or for new graduates entering the job market.

This résumé format is the least common and least preferred by employers -- and most Internet job boards do not accept this résumé format.

Combination Résumés (Chrono-Functional)

Because the purely functional format has been much criticized in recent years, some job-seekers have learned to structure their résumés in a mostly functional format but to also include a work history in reverse chronological order, creating what is known as a chrono-functional, hybrid, or combination format.

The work-history section need include only job title, name and location of employer, and dates of employment. You don't need to list what you did in each job because that information already is listed in your functional sections. The chrono-functional/hybrid/combination résumé highlights outstanding skills and achievements that might otherwise be buried within the job-history section while simultaneously presenting, yet deemphasizing, the chronology of jobs. The focus is on clusters of transferable skills and the experiences that are most relevant to the position for which you are applying. If you are open to more than one type of job, you can reconfigure the functional skills clusters to emphasize the skills most relevant to the particular job you seek.

Chrono-functional/hybrid/combination résumés suit a variety of job-seeker needs, such as a diverse job history that doesn't add up to a well-defined career path and situations where the job-seeker has work experience that is related but not an exact link to desired position. Job-seekers who have large employment gaps or many short employment jobs prefer this format because it downplays employment history. This type of résumé also works well for older workers, career changers, and job-seekers with academic deficiencies or limited experience.

Online Résumés

With the advent of the Internet and existing employment data banks such as Linkedin,the search for employment has become more electronic, Some employers accept résumés electronically, either out of practicality or preference. This has changed much about the way résumés are written, read, and processed. Some career experts are pointing out that today a paper-based resume is an exception rather than the rule.

For inspiration on creating your own electronic résumé, watch the Animated Résumé video created by Vee Motingoa, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.