Chronological Resume

The Most Common Resume Format

This is the most well known resume format. It is preferred by many employers, recruiters and is the only format available on many internet job boards.

There are even some human resources persons, including recruiters, or "head hunters" as they are more commonly known, who will not accept anything but a chronological format. If you do not use this format for them, you will NOT get an interview, much less a job.

The popular name of this format is actually a tad misleading. Properly written, the employment history is actually sequenced in reverse chronological format.

Another factor that contributes to the popularity of this format is that it is the easiest format to prepare. The sequencing step in your preparation is done strictly by dates, whether you are listing employment history, education or any other sections you choose to add. They are all structured by reverse seqiential order.

Features Of A Chronological Resume

A chronological design formats your data so that it showcases a steady, progressive work history that shows increasing responsibilities. If your current career

• began at the entry level position
• you have consistently gained promotions
• increased your responsibilities within your career field
• has been with well known companies,

It emphasizes progress in your job, longevity and steady growth on your career path.

The way this resume format is prepared, emphasis is placed on job titles and employer names. If your career path has been along traditional lines, and with well known, prestigious, industry leading firms, this format will feature those strengths.

The way this format is written,

• job duties
• knowledge bases
• skills
• responsibilities and
• accomplishments

If your experience is with a few major companies, with your promotions and job growth taking place as you move from one company to another, then everything would be listed by company name.

If your experience is progressive within a few companies, you would list the company, and cluster the data under a sub-title featuring the job titles.

With this format, the details are built around the company names and job titles, where with a functional resume, you would cluster the data around job functions you may choose to use.

There are two other pages to help you decide whether this format would be beneficial for you:

• When to USE a Chronological Resume

• When to AVOID a Chronological Resume