Select only those facts from your total experience that relate to the job you are aiming for. Omit irrelevant items-if you have held many jobs, you may waste valuable space by including information that does not serve your purpose. Furthermore, you will probably include descriptions of work that are far below your present level of ability.
For example, a technician might arrange the functional resume according to the projects worked on, presenting each project in problem-and-solution form. A copywriter might base a functional resume on the different kinds of copy written, or on the different media or products for which copy was written. Organize your experience into a presentation of key qualifications for the job you want. Work with two lists; one relating to the functions of the job you seek, the other being your job-history worksheet. Beside each job description or accomplishment on the worksheet, write the corresponding function of your job goal.
Start by writing the title of the job you want on a separate piece of paper. List the key functions of the job in the left-hand margin, leaving plenty of space between them. If you have been comprehensive in your personal-inventory research, an employer will know that you understand what the job involves as he reads the captions. Immediately, he can determine whether or not you are qualified for the specific opening he has. You will begin to discover that many functions of your future job were performed in various forms throughout your working experience. For example, you may have kept records on one job, or checked general entries on another, or worked as an assistant in the accounting department on a third. Experience in record-keeping can be very useful in accounting. In a functional resume, this "hidden" accounting experience comes to light, and shows up more clearly than it would in a different form of resume.
On the other hand, you may be just out of school, with your experience limited to part-time or summer work. A functional resume may make you, a young trainee seeking a beginning job, appear as if you regard yourself a $25,000-a-year executive. If you have little experience in the field you seek, a letter of application compressing your qualifications into one or two paragraphs might be more effective. Stretched out in a functional resume, the small amount of experience may appear trivial and sporadic. Personality, willingness to learn and evidence of potential ability are often more successfully projected in a good letter of application for a trainee position.
Though writing a functional resume is not difficult, some men and women face certain problems with it. In giving themselves ample credit for their real capabilities, they often overreach themselves as re gards salaries and job titles. Some are hesitant about making the connection between their self-appraisal and what is possible in the employment market. Bearing these small difficulties in mind, they can be readUy overcome when using the functional resume.
Thus, your stint as regional convention manager for a national organization would not, in the functional resume, be buried under some routine heading such as "community activities." You can review and relate what you actually did in your volunteer role, from site surveys to bargaining, to staffing, to housing, to publicizing-bright down to your final report. Depending on the job you are aiming at, you can play up the most relevant functions.
For a department store, where women take charge of the fashion shows, you would emphasize your success in bringing disparate and sometimes temperamental groups together on schedule. Or if you proposed and undertook several seminars for a university, you would want to point up the financial success of what you did.
You might consider withholding any information that it would be better to discuss in person-your weak points, for example, or your past salaries (unless applicable in the circumstances), the names of persons you don't want bothered as references at this stage of your job hunt, or work you wouldn't want to do again, such as operating a switchboard or using certain mechanical skills. You can, if the story is true, tell about the time you saved your company some money, or developed a way to use time that otherwise would be wasted; but don't tell exactly how you did these things. You want your prospective employer to call you in for the full story.
To some, the functional resume is basic and most useful. As its name indicates, the functional resume is built around the functions of the job you are seeking. In preparing this type of resume, you have to concentrate on the kind of job you want and the kinds you have held.
You can begin by dividing and subdividing your experience in several sections. In each section you present what you have done in a particular field. If you are writing a resume for an advertising manager, for example, you can divide your experience as follows: (a) in copy writing, describe the kinds of copy you wrote and the particular products or media for which you wrote; (b) in administration, describe its scope, and whether your experience as administrator was gained in the advertising department of some company or for some advertising agency; (c) in art, indicate the type of art work you have done, and whether you worked under supervision or independently; (d) in sales promotion, specify who employed you in that capacity.
Occupational Inventory for a Functional Resume
NAME AND ADDRESS
Start by writing your name and address at one margin of the sheet and your telephone number at the other. Leave one blank line between your name and address, allowing your name to stand out. You may type this right at the margin or you may indent somewhat.
OCCUPATIONAL OBJECTIVES
This should be a clearly worded statement of the field in which you want to work. It is most important that you express yourself exactly here; you might find yourself in a position which, although it fits your qualifications, does not satisfy your ability completely or points you in the wrong direction. This statement should also tell the reader that you are not looking for just anything that might come along, so as to prevent your being offered just anything. Your overall objective may be stated generally, but the specific points in which you are interested must be stated precisely.
SUMMARY BY FUNCTIONS
If you are a technician, or an executive or a professional, and you are offering your services as a specialized employee, then the functional resume can serve your purpose. Describe the major facets of your experience and background, such as:
(a) Administration and management. Indicate the kind of administration and management you were engaged in, and, using your background, state what you would like to do in the future.
(b) Routine duties you performed. What were these routine duties?
(c) Technical accomplishments. Give a functional description of any innovations you introduced or discoveries you made within your profession, and how such innovations and discoveries benefited your employers and in creased your own knowledge and skill.
(d) Supervision and management. Describe the kind of equipment or personnel that was under your supervision and relate this description to any particular products developed. In this section, you attach your background in the company or companies for whom you worked.
Also, indicate how successful you were in the performance of your administration or management of a department, division or branch, and whether the production or other work done was under your supervision.
(e) Major fields of specialization preferred, Specify the major fields in which you worked in the past. This will be related to the names of past employers, and will also denote which aspect of the work that you performed in the past you most enjoyed or preferred.
EXPERIENCE RECORD (OR HIGHLIGHTS)
Give the names and addresses of companies for which you worked, in reverse chronological order-that is, the most recent job first.
EDUCATION
Detailed information about your education is useful and important. Begin with your most advanced degree. If you have a master's, name the type of degree, school, its address, the year, your major subject and any pertinent facts connected with your attaining the degree, especially the titles and publication dates of your theses or dissertations, if any.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Information about memberships in professional societies, including college fraternities, should be presented here. State any special function, duty, title, or administrative post you may hold (or have held), and whether you are an active, honorary, professional or nonprofessional member.
OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES
This should include the names of all political, social, church, civic and community organizations in which you have participated actively. This information also tells the employment or personnel manager something about you in addition to your work history.
PERSONAL DATA
This is the same entry that is generally placed near the beginning of the resume, but which we recommend you place here. Date of birth (optional) Marital status Health Date of last physical examination Height Weight Willing to relocate? Will travel?
SALARY
Specify your salary range. On a separate piece of paper, list your salary history to submit on request.
REFERENCES
Submit on request. Collect letters of recommendation from past employers to have available when requested. Make duplicates so that you will not have to part with the originals.
