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Resume Formats

Our resume formats broadly fit into three categories: the functional resume, the chronological resume and the combination resume.

The functional resume emphasizes your skills section, whereas the chronological, also known as a traditional resume, place your work history first. The combination resume format includes elements of both the functional and chronological resumes without placing prominence on either.

The resume format you choose will depend on your strengths as a candidate. For example, a functional resume is excellent for entry-level candidates who don't have much relevant experience to draw upon. They should instead focus on transferable skills.

Whichever resume format you choose, you’ll need the following resume sections:

• Header

  A good, clean resume will include your contact information in the header. This header will contain your full name, email address, location, phone number and job networking profile links like your LinkedIn profile. This makes it easy for the recruiter to find your information and contact you.

• Resume summary or objective

  In this section, you will place either a resume summary or objective. A resume summary is a brief overview of your career history and work experience thus far, whereas a resume objective is for less experienced workers as it stresses your ambitions and career goals. Both should be brief and feature only two or three sentences that give a snapshot view of your background or ambitions to the recruiter.

• Skills

  Your skills section should include a mix of hard and soft skills relevant to the role you’re applying for. Soft skills are personal attributes like compassion and organization, while hard skills are learned through education or on the job training like analytical or copywriting skills. List your skills in bullet points to make them easy to read and to save space.

• Education

  Lst all of your college or other training in your education section. This could be any certifications received that will help you establish credibility with the recruiter. Mention anything academic that evidences your expertise.

• Work experience

  List your previous relevant experience in reverse chronological order. It’s essential to draw a line between your previous work experiences and the advertised role. You can include a few bulleted lines under each role detailing your responsibilities.

  These are the basic elements of a professional resume. At ResumeNerd, we have plenty of free templates that incorporate these elements. There are also resume examples and resume samples with extra resume writing tips. These tools can help you create a resume using a unique resume template. Combine all these tools in our resume builder.