A chronological resume helps put your work experience front and center. What do you need to know about the process of writing one?
In general, as long as there’s not a compelling reason for you to use the functional or combination resume, a chronological resume works just fine.
4. Work experience
Even though your work experience is what you want to focus on in a chronological resume, it will still often go at the bottom of the resume. In some chronological resume templates, you may find that the work experience goes above the skills section. Underneath each job, make sure you also indicate the most important things you did and any awards you earned. As a customer service representative, you might write the following as part of your work history:
Ford Customer Service – Dec 2017 to Jan 2020
5. Education
The last section of your resume should be the education section. In this section, you’ll list your college education and any special certifications that you’ve received that are relevant to your career. Avoid listing your high school education unless you have no college education. If you’ve gone through college, potential future employers don’t need to know about your high school credentials.
If you’re interested in seeing what a chronological resume should look like, ResumeHelp offers chronological resume samples that can help you understand what hiring managers are looking for. Check out the professional resume examples at ResumeHelp to see what resumes are currently working in your industry before you write your own.
Most job seekers should be using chronological resumes. This is typically seen as a default format, so if you don’t see a good reason to choose the functional resume format or combination resume format, you’ll want to use the chronological format. Check out our guides on functional and combination resumes to see whether your resume would benefit from using them. If not, just go with the chronological resume.
There are a few important things you’ll likely want to avoid in your resume in today’s job field. Here are a few things not to put in your chronological resume:
No matter what type of resume you have, it’s a good idea to supplement it with a cover letter. In fact, many hiring managers expect you to submit a cover letter, even if it doesn’t say so in the job description.
Writing a cover letter allows you to bring some life to your resume, indicating what you bring to the table in the new job. It also lets you provide more details on specific career highlights than a resume does and explain what interests you about the position. Lastly, a cover letter is the place to ask for the interview. If you can get an interview, you’re much closer to getting the job, and asking for the interview in your cover letter can help you clinch it.
The reason there are multiple different types of resume formats is that different formats will work best for different job seekers. If you feel like the chronological resume format isn’t working well for your needs, feel free to try out different formats with our easy-to-use resume builder.
Remember that your work history section, which may include internships, should be fairly expansive in a chronological resume. If you don’t have a lot of work history, you might want to shift to a different format. A resume builder can be incredibly helpful here because you can simply enter your information and see which format works best for you.
Hard and soft skills both work well in chronological resumes, as both of these types of skills will typically be gained through your professional experience. To create your skill list for your chronological resume, go back through your previous jobs and determine what abilities or knowledge you used most frequently, and what skills you honed as part of those jobs. For example, if you’re planning to apply as a dental assistant, you might note “client communication” as an incredibly important skill from your previous jobs, which makes it a great skill for your resume.
If you’ve looked into how to write a resume, you’ve probably heard of the ATS, or applicant tracking system. Applicant tracking systems are automated systems that go through your resume once you submit it, looking for important keywords that match the skills and experiences of an ideal applicant. If you don’t have those keywords, the ATS will often reject the resume out of hand, never even allowing it to get to a hiring manager.
The chronological resume is the ideal option for an ATS, which has become the standard for many large companies processing resumes. If you’re submitting your resume to an automated site rather than sending it directly to a manager, it’s best to go with a chronological resume if you can, as ATS systems are familiar with the format.
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