If you are a job seeker, don’t make a mistake offering hiring managers a free resume. There are four formats usually used to present your credentials. They are:
Chronological Resume,
Functional Resume,
Combination Resume and
Targeted Resume.
The best format doesn’t exist, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Your choice should depend on the circumstances of your search. Regardless of the chosen resume format, your goal is the same: to win a job interview. To effectively manage your job seeking, review the following rationale for using each of the four formats and tips on how to build them.
Chronological Resume
This type of resume is preferred by the most recruiters, hiring managers and human-resources professionals because it's easy to see what jobs you have held and when you have worked at them including the types of companies you've worked for, and dates of employment.
A chronological resume starts by listing your work history, with the most recent position listed first. Your jobs are listed in reverse chronological order with your current or most recent job, first.
Actually its name is wrong as this type of resume presents work experience in reverse-chronological order, so that your current or most recent employer is listed first.
You can start with an introduction headed as a Profile, Summary, Career Summary or Summary of Qualifications. This section briefly summarizes your key strengths and contributions. It is better to limit introduction to two-four sentences.
The second part is used for discussing your work experience. Then you should list the name of your employers, including their location, and your dates of employment. Begin with the name of your current or most recent employer. If possible provide a short description of the company's business, including, its annual revenues. Then give your job title and a brief summary of your responsibilities, including the total number of people you oversee, the total who report directly to you and the size of your budget.
The next section usually contains the most important information: your accomplishments, listed by each position you held.
Mention these successes, if they have any importance for the type of position you're seeking. It is worthwhile to begin each statement with a past-tense verb preceded by a bullet. Quantify your achievements so readers will understand their scope. It is also very important to discuss anything new or different you did. But the wordiness is not wanted here. The less you say, the greater the impact of what you do say.
The other advantage of the chronological approach is that at once recruiter or hiring manager sees your progressive growth when you've held increasingly responsible positions. This type of resume is especially effective if your most recent position is related to the type of job you seek. But if you have held a string of unrelated positions a chronological resume will be less successful.
In such cases it is recommended to use a functional resume format to present your credentials.
| 
