Resume Styles
How to Write a Resume | Office of Career Services

The style of resume you use depends on your experience, skills, education, and audience, There are three primary resume styles.

Chronological Resume

Recommended for people who have related or transferable work experience to the job they are pursuing and for those who do not have large gaps in employment history.

• List jobs in reverse chronological order and describe the responsibilities and accomplishments of each position.
• Focus on skills developed and relevant experience.
• Dates are clear.
• Most common resume style.
• Emphasize education and work history.

Functional Resume

Recommended for people who are changing career fields, or who have a long work history and have many work-related skills, or have no related work experience, or have been out of work for a long time, or who have many different positions.

• Emphasize skills and accomplishments, not where they came from.
• Headings are skills/accomplishments and are chosen and listed based upon requirements of potential employer and relation to the field of interest.
• Skills/accomplishments may be divided into various categories and are written using action verbs.
• Where the skills were acquired is not as important.
• Work history is not included (we do not typically recommend a purely functional format, but instead a combination).

Combination Resume

Same as above except the work history is included, but it is not emphasized. It is listed at the bottom of the page. Listed by position, organization, date, and location.