A resume is a way of knowing and judging a job seeker's abilities, credentials and experiences for the employer. Hence, it is essential to adopt the format that brings forth the qualities of the job seeker in positive light. Many opt for the chronological resume as it is the most common and professional one. However, to make your resume different from that of others, you can adopt either functional or combination resume. But the question remains, which is better functional resume or combination resume? Read further to find the answer.
Combination Resume
Meaning
Combination resume combines the best of chronological resume and functional resume writing formats. Similar to a functional resume, this format states the proficiencies, abilities and achievements of the job seeker, on the top in summarized way. This is a brief description of the candidate's strength and suitability towards the job. Below this section, you have to mention the experiences in the reverse manner, as is the case in chronological resume format.
Suitability
- Suitable for those job seekers who want to lay emphasis on the skills and qualities acquired by them more than their academic and professional credentials.
- Ideal for those candidates boasting a good combination of academic qualifications, job experiences and acquired skills
- This format can be adopted by experienced as well as fresher candidates
Advantages
- Combination resume is best form of presenting the key skills, qualifications and experience of the job seeker prominently
- Below the objective, the strengths and capabilities of the candidate are mentioned in brief. This highlights the key skills and helps to put positive impact on the employer.
- It assists to cover up the lack of experience in the resume of a student by putting forth his strengths and qualifications first.
Drawbacks
- A combination resume does not hide the gaps in your job history or covers up frequent job switching.
- Combination resume style tends to lengthen the resume.
Functional Resume
Meaning
The functional resume is the one where more prominence is given to the job seeker's qualifications, abilities and skills rather than his experience. The job experiences are mentioned in the latter part of the resume, in the form of simple listings instead of detailed explanation of each of the positions.
Suitability
- It is suitable for those job seekers who have an experience in diverse fields and cannot display a flow in their career graph.
- It is preferred by those job seekers with limited work history to present in a resume.
- It is ideal for job seekers who wish to start afresh. For example: housewives wanting to start working again or new graduates joining the corporate world
Advantages
- It helps to hide gaps in job history and de-emphasize career transitions
- It helps to highlight the qualifications of the job seeker more prominently than his experience. For example: a resume of a fresh graduate who has many qualifications but little or no experience.
- It assists in bringing out the skills and abilities acquired from doing certain petty jobs by the job seeker
Drawback
- This resume format is considered the least by job seekers, as the employers do not prefer this style of resume writing.
- Using this format gives an impression that the job seeker wishes to cover up certain deficiencies in his career.
Which is better functional resume or combination resume? To summarize the article, it is suggested that the job seekers prefer a combination resume to functional resume as it presents better chance of gaining an interview call. However, it is advisable that you be the judge and, accordingly, analyze your own career profile and the prospective job's profile and then choose the one most suitable to you.
