These are basically variations on the reverse chronological and skills based themes. They have been created by borrowing elements from one approach and integrating them into the other. If you like taking risks and want to try something a little different, then consider the following formats:
1. The Targeted Reverse Chronological Format
This format is ideal for the person who has work experience relevant to their career objective, but whose most recent experience is not within their targeted field. By creating targeted experience headings, this approach will enable you to emphasize your most relevant experience and avoid an unfavorable chronology.
Consider the resume of Ray Copper. Ray is in his junior year of college and is interested in obtaining an internship with an accounting firm. His most recent experience with New York University's Office of Career Services is not as relevant to his career objective as some of his prior work experience. To avoid leading off his resume with the NYU position, Ray creates the heading ''Business Experience," which enables him to list his most relevant employment first. The less relevant NYU job is then placed in the section "Additional Work Experience" which appears later in the resume. The major drawback of this approach is that the employer has to wait until the latter part of the resume to find out what you're currently doing.
2. The Reverse Chronological Format with a Skills Based Twist
This approach is especially effective if you want to stay within the safe confines of the reverse chronological format, but also want to highlight certain abilities. To do this, simply insert skills based sidebars or subheadings into each job description. This will clue the employer in on what you believe to be your most marketable strengths.
Bruce Rit opted to use this approach because he wanted prospective employers to focus on both his skills and his solid employment history. Bruce was in the process of completing a double Master's degree in the fields of social work and nonprofit management. He was seeking a managerial position at a nonprofit organization that would enable him to use his strongest abilities: marketing, public relations, fund raising, program development, and counseling.
Bruce begins his resume with a summary statement to give the reader an overall sense of his background and capabilities. For each of his three most relevant positions, Bruce sorts his accomplishments and responsibilities into the five aforementioned categories. Fortunately, all of this experience fits very neatly into these categories. Otherwise, Bruce would have had two choices: omit the experience, or create a new category.
After thoroughly describing his most relevant experience, Bruce briefly mentions his other work experience to show the reader that he's not a one dimensional candidate. Lastly, Bruce prioritizes the subheadings within each job according to their degree of marketability. Naturally, the order could be easily changed if he were to apply for positions with different requirements.
3. Skills Based Format with Employer Headings
A third alternative resume format option is to use the skills based approach, but to indicate the name of the employer next to each accomplishment. This technique should make life a bit easier for the reader since they will no longer have to guess about what happened where. However, by adding employer headings you will be left with less space on the page, and thus may be forced to do some creative editing.
The resume of Clancy Ruiz points out the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Clancy's goal is to use his writing/editing and administrative skills within a community based organization. The skills based format was appropriate for Clancy since his skills are rather impressive, whereas a historical review of his work experience would probably leave the employer dazed and confused. Adding the employer headings to each accomplishment helps to contextualize Clancy's experience for the reader. All the added information also has the negative side effect of cluttering the resume, forcing Clancy to use small print and a layout that maximizes the use of space.
