I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done in your career; the functional resume is a horrible idea.
My brother-in-law was recently laid off from his job, a few months before tying the note I might add, so being the good sister-in-law in HR, I offered to help. Bless his heart, he forwarded me his resume and I all I could do was sigh.
My friend Dawn Hrdlica wrote a post over on Fistful of Talent in January about the death of the Functional Resume.
The Functional Resume, known more affectionately as “the confusing one” and “the manipulator” died today after a long steady decline. The age of Functional Resume was unknown, since he refused to notate any of his works or accomplishments chronologically.
Functional Resume, born by professors and consultants, was a friend to job seekers convinced (by the same professors and consultants) that their experience was too limiting to be forthright. Functional Resume was an outspoken advocate of praying on the naivety of candidates; candidates taught by generations past, that diverse, non-traditional career paths were shameful and that wordsmithing, trickery and deception were better paths into recruiting gatekeepers.
Sadly, Functional Resume drew his last breath with the evolution of work-life balance, dual career paths, the emergence of Merger and acquisitions, and the economic crash of 2008-09. These events lead recruiters to simply not care if a resume showed a less than steady chronological workflow, since it was a sign of the times.
Functional Resume will be buried alongside of facsimile, typewriter, telegraph and dictaphone.
Every time I see one I cringe; even if it’s written well and covers all the bases. I don’t want to guess what skills and/or accomplishment go with what role.
And to anyone that’s telling job seekers to use the Function Resume, stop it.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve always called it a “flunktional” resume. Instead of hiding the perceived weak points in someone’s background, it highlights them. It is a clumsy attempt because this format alone acts as an immediate red flag to the recruiter. There are much better ways to put a good spin on your background.
I have a former co-worker who used a functional resume and all it did was hide all his years of experience instead of highlighting them. I hate functional resumes.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Functional resumes are for losers. Like HR people and recruiters can’t piece together the gap you spent in rehab? Like no one will notice your age? Just put it out there and focus on results, not marketing-speak. I don’t work with candidates who want functional resumes.