Friday, February 11, 2011

Go [Reverse] Chronological

Laurie Ruettimann of Cynical Girl wrote a blog post about the best resume format type: chronological. Kill the functional. Her argument is that Applicant Tracking Systems don't love the functional resume anyway, so your resume will be overlooked in the database (another commenter pointed out that an ATS can parse the dates from a functional resume--if you bothered to add any). I think the post answers a common question and many of the comments fill in additional information as to why a [reverse] chronological resume is the better choice--even if you don't have much relevant professional experience.

And really, you don't have to cry about the loss of functional resumes: they are usually crappy and infomercial in tone. If I want to read good writing, I'll pick up a good book. I just need the facts.

Thursday, February 10, 2011