All too often, job seekers will notice a job that they’re fully qualified to do, but their resumes may not reflect this. There could be gaps in employment, job titles that don’t match well with a different job description or lack of experience as a recent graduate. Using a functional resume, instead of a chronological resume, can be a useful way to get past the artificial intelligence resume barriers and into a busy hiring manager’s inbox.

What Is A Functional Resume?

The traditional resume starts from your current (relevant) job to your first job, breaking down job titles, time of employment and job descriptions. In chronological order, this allows a hiring manager to see how you may have moved up the ladder to where you are now. The problem with this resume is there may be stagnant moments or jobs that have nothing to do with what the employer is looking for. This is when a functional resume comes into play, especially if you’re pursuing a career change. You have the chance to be your own publicist.

A functional resume immediately highlights your areas of strength that match the job you’re looking for. With a traditional resume, for example, “web coding” or “app building” may be buried within a list of other duties for a “Digital Assistant.” But with a functional resume, this tech knowledge is the bigger deal to mention versus the job title and how long you’ve worked in that position. A functional resume may also level the playing field between you and a more seasoned professional. For example, a job applicant who knows how to build an entire website after one year of employment may have the same knowledge as a second job applicant who mastered coding after a month-long online course.

How Do You Write A Functional Resume?

After the block of text that includes your contact information (name, email address, mailing address, phone number), begin a functional resume with a summary of professional (or volunteer) experience, relevant skills and career goals. Try to include keywords from the job description, but do so in a way that doesn’t sound like keyword stuffing (randomly adding words or phrases that don’t make sense grammatically or flow well). You can also try to explain your experience under categories with a few bullets to highlight what you’ve done in this specific field.

Example Of A Category/Bullet List

Political News Editor

  • Fluent in Associated Press Style
  • Completed comparison-proof reading of 10 manuscripts about the last five presidential elections
  • Fact-checked “Frequently Asked Questions” about becoming an Election Judge
  • Reviewed and published breaking news articles onto a content management system

In a functional resume, even with gaps in employment, still list any other professional experience and education after the skill highlights.

Downsides Of A Functional Resume

Creating a new resume for each job can be painfully time-consuming, especially knowing that it may take a while to hear back: only 4% hear back within 24 hours, 37% hear back within one week and 44% hear back within two weeks. That still leaves more than 50% of job applicants who don’t hear anything at all or get the copy-and-paste “thank you for applying” letter. Creating this type of resume for each job can quickly grow old versus the traditional resume where the dates, times and experience don’t change. (The cover letter can be an alternate way to bring attention to certain parts of the resume.)

Another reason functional resumes aren’t always the best option is for employers who skip seeing resume variations altogether. These hiring managers and employers will ask for a LinkedIn profile or require job seekers to manually enter each job, each date, each title and job descriptions, essentially creating the employer’s version of a resume. If the hiring manager wants the latter, then the only way to include this functional resume is as an attachment with the cover letter. Chances are that the hiring manager will still end up looking at their resume version over yours, and this can also feel like a waste of time.

Traditional Resume Versus Functional Resume

If this is a job you really want and you’re fairly certain that a traditional resume wouldn’t even make you hire yourself, go with the functional resume. This way, you can at least say you’re confident that you presented all of your talents in the best way possible. Even the most qualified applicant may not always get the job. While it may sound counterproductive to do so while on your job search, take a break between looking for the next job. Unemployment depression is often linked to constant rejection. The more you apply to jobs en masse, the more you may experience this continuous feeling of being shunned. That’s one of the hardest lessons to accept while job seeking. Not harping on this too long will help you move on to the next job description, trying your luck again.