By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, speaks about functional resumes.
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Hi, this is Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. And welcome to No BS Job Search Advice Radio. For thousands of years, men and women have gathered outside of Hudson’s small village around the fire.
And they’ve asked themselves the question, functional or chronological resumes? Which one should I use? Well, today, I want to put mankind’s misery to rest and once and for all answer this question, whether it should be a functional resume or a chronological. And joking aside, I hope you enjoyed today’s show. And if you do, give it five stars on iTunes or Stitcher or TuneIn, whichever site you happen to use for your podcast downloads.
It helps other people discover the show and it helps with rankings. And by the way, why don’t you also come over to JobSearchCoachingHQ.com and join. It has great information that’s going to help you with your job search.
So, with that, let’s get rolling. Let’s talk about functional resumes. I am not a fan of functional resumes.
Did I mention I’m not a fan of functional resumes? Here’s the problem with functional resumes. They suggest that you’re hiding something. They’re suggesting that the relevant experience that’s causing you to apply for this role is old.
They’re suggesting that you’re hiding large gaps in your resume or in your employment history. And thus, even if you have the relevant experience, I’m not going to call you. At best, I’m going to send an email to you that says, please send me a chronological resume.
Why is that? Because time is precious and you are obviously trying to hide something. You are obviously trying to hide gaps so that the information was old. Why else would you send a functional resume? Because you did this work last week? Of course not.
But the fact remains, people use functional resumes regardless. You know, the only time a functional resume makes sense is if you are changing careers and you’re leading off with training that you have that’s relevant to your new role. Then I can see functional resumes working.
But beyond that, all you’re doing is obscuring certain information that we need to know anyway. And if you think employers are any different, by the way, you’re kidding yourself. They aren’t.
If anything, they won’t even stop and ask. They’re just going to hit the delete key. You know, I can’t tell you . . . well, let me tell you.
I’ve been involved in the CFO search recently. And I get lots of functional resumes for this search. I respond back to those that vaguely demonstrate relevant experience, the semi-chronological resume.
Every single time, the experience has been years old and irrelevant to my client because what you’ve been doing most recently is most pertinent to what matters to them. And if you’ve been away from the CFO function for a number of years because you’ve been running a business and now it’s going out and now you have to go back to a CFO role, you know, they’re not going to bring you on board. So, I’ll just simply say, ditch the functional resume.
You’re not kidding anyone. All that you’re doing is wasting your time and other people’s times. And, you know, just don’t bother.
So that’s today’s show. I hope you found that helpful. And if you did, again, please give the show five stars in iTunes or Stitcher.
It helps other people discover the show. It helps with rankings.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS job search coaching and career advice globally because he makes job search
and succeeding in your career easier.
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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
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He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes over 13+ years.
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