The different types of resumes

When looking into writing your resume you will find that there isn’t such as thing as a general resume, a resume should be a personal item which shows you and your skills, qualifications and achievements off to the best advantage. However, there are many different formats of resume and only you can decide which one is more suitable for your needs.

While the chronological resume is the one which is more widely used than other forms, your particular situation might warrant another type. Once you have decided which resume is the right type for your situation then comes the hard part writing your resume and getting it onto employer’s desks. Here are the five different formats which are used.

The targeted resume

This type of resume is suited for those of a particular industry or a specific career objective, the contents of this type of resume should focus on your skills, qualifications and any experience you have which relates to a particular field or career objective.

The inventory resume

This type of resume is a more general resume in that it doesn’t need to target a specific industry or career objective; it should highlight your achievements, skills and qualifications in a more general way and can be reused by re-printing several copies for distributing to more than one company.

The chronological resume

This is the most frequently used type of resume and should be easy to read and should list your achievements, skills and qualifications in order from most recent to older, it is one which most employers prefer as all the newest information should be at the top of the resume and this is what employers usually look for first. If you are unsure of which format to go with then this resume usually suits most needs.

The functional resume

This type of resume will have your achievements, skills and qualifications listed at the very top of the resume regardless of whether they were in the past or present and are used to highlight your achievements and show what you are capable of; it is one format which isn’t highly regarded by employers.

The combination resume

This type of resume takes the best from all the above listed formats and combines them. You should list your skills, achievements and qualifications in chronological order at the top of the resume and then follow up this information with your employment history and any other statements or information which you think are relevant to the position on offer.