- Many job seekers have been accustomed to titling the first section, "Objective," after contact information at the very top of the resume. However, some people -- employers and applicants -- feel that this section and its contents is a bit contrived. How can you truly know what you wish to do at a company having never worked there? Instead, many people create a section titled, "Summary," in place of the objectives. If you choose to start off with a summary, then it should only reflect the "key words" about your employability, such as "Ten years experience working with spreadsheets" or "Five years experience working in the publishing industry." This summary list reflects to the employer that you understand and can quantify your worth and ability to be able to handle a particular job or work in an industry.
- Other types of resumes list detailed past "working" experience, but the functional format presents a broader picture of your experience. Specifically, you can prioritize the past job positions that mean the most to you. For example, many people list jobs by the start and end date on chronological resumes. However, if you were a Product Manager some years ago, and then held a more recent role that required less responsibility, such as Secretary or Service Agent" you don't have to put the latter jobs first. This method gives you the freedom to arrange your job history in a way that best reflects and emphasizes your strongest past job roles, first. Also, you can make sure that you don't mistakenly leave gaps in employment, simply because you don't want to put a "lesser" job higher up in the experience section.
- The education section on a functional resume is really no different than the list of schooling using other types of resume formats, such as chronological. You simply list every college you attended along with your degree programs, even if your major does not exactly match the job opening. The learning process begins again for some people after acquiring a new job. Having attained a college degree shows the employer that you have the ability to learn new things, to the point of being deemed competent to perform those duties.
- If you choose to start off with a summary section, then you have optimized your functional resume to be chosen by prospecting employers. Many companies scan resume documents from all applicants into a computerized database. Then the manager queries for resumes that have specific keywords and phrases that match what's required to fulfill a job vacancy. Your resume has a better chance of being selected using this summary section in the functional format. However, in the case of the experience section, it is suggested that about 75 percent of hiring managers dislike the functional format because it makes dates of employment harder to decipher, in such a disorganized order -- according to an article penned by career adviser, Karen Burns on the USNews.com website.