I’ve been trying to spruce up my resume, and since I do have some gaps in my employment history, most online job sources I’ve checked suggest that a functional resume which deemphasizes such things is the way to go.
Unfortunately, I don’t see how this could possibly work. Certainly every H.R. employee in the world is familiar with functional resumes and why people use them.
Should I submit something like this, I’m afraid that the first questions I’ll be asked will regard employment gaps, therefore completely defeating the purpose of this style of resume.
Since the those gaps are a direct consequence of frequent bouts of severe depression, one could understand why I’d be reticent to explain the true reasons for my stretches of unemployment in a job interview.
Can any wise H.R. Dopers (or experienced and successful job hunters) offer some advice on what to do in a situation such as mine?
The purpose of a resume, from the job-seekers point of view, is to get an interview.
Sometimes a functional resume will do that better than a chronological one. This is true even if you aren’t trying to hide some gaps in your employment history. Once you have been in the workforce awhile, a chronological resume becomes a bit too much anyway.
If you were looking to hire an expert in XYZ, and you got a functional resume that stated 10 years experience in XYZ, would you really care about a gap in their history prior to that?
You will, probably, at some point have to explain those gaps, but you want to have gotten their interest first (i.e, an interview) so you can put the best possible spin on it.
"Frequent bouts of severe depression” is not a phrase I would recommend. Honesty is a good thing, but sometimes you have to restrain yourself unless you want to be unemployed forever. Perhaps, ‘I was sick’ is good enough.
I’ve had a lot of success with a combo resume- where I list my skills up front (and we’re not talking vague platitudes like “hard worker” here, we need numbers and strong examples of how I’m improved companies) and wait until the end to give a short rundown of my work experience.
You will eventually have to admit to the gaps. Sometimes it’s not a big deal. Nobody in CA is shocked if you have gaps in the early 2000’s after the bubble bust. I usually say I was traveling (which I was, though not for the whole gaps). It’s not damning. If you do mention the depression, you’ll want to emphasize that you sought treatment and have found a treatment that works well for you.
Certainly the first question may be about employement gaps. But the entire point of the resume is to get them to ask you questions face-to-face. Better to be talking to them to explain things then have them decide not to call you in because they see the gaps.
It’s also possible that they are more interested in what you can do then they are in your employment history. If you have the right qualifications for the job, the gaps aren’t important.
You should list jobs in addition to the functions, BTW. Two ways to fudge this: give just the years. For instance, I lost a job in January 1981, and didn’t work full-time for nine months So I put the dates for job 1 as 1980-81 and the second 1981-82. Perfectly honest, and the gap doesn’t show. Or you could leave out dates altogether.
Once you get the interview, though, be prepared to answer questions about the gaps. I’d suggest, “I had some serious health problems, but I’m fine now.” It would be illegal for them to ask anything more about the nature of the problem, other than, “Could this affect your job performance now?”
Still, remember the first resume screener. Sometimes, they’ll apply their own rules such as, “All functionial resumes are thrown out. They’ve got something to hide.”
It does suck, but too many of these gatekeepers will use shortcuts to reduce their workload.
Many resume screeners are psychotic and it is a fool’s game to guess what they will do. I always ask HR people why they picked my resume and the answers were unnerving at best. The most common answer was “your name” (my name is Maverick) followed by all kinds of random things. One person told me she had thrown out my resume because I listed an undergraduate degree in psychology/neuroscience and she automatically got rid of all people with psychology degrees. Only after she saw that I had a dual degree did I go back into consideartion. She asked me to change my resume to minimize the psychology part and make it more “science” oriented. BTW, this is after I had 7 years experience in IT and was going for another IT job and it was for a Fortune 1000 company.
A resume should be viewed as a marketing brochure. You don’t want to lie but you do have broad leeway in what you put in and how you present it. You need to make it like an ad campaign.
Imagine an Olympic athlete. Should their resume read as a list of all the races they entered, years, and results or should it start off with their exceptional talent and highlights of their career. What would you rather read in a blurb about them.
That settles it. I’m changing my name to “Max Power.”
Though I still haven’t decided on the format for my resume, you guys have given me some good ideas.
I do have a couple other quick resume-related questions if anyone would care to answer:
When mailing the resume, should I always specificy “H.R. Department” in the mailing address, even when I’m sure the company I’m sending it to is too small to have H.R.?
Also, being more of a technical person than an artsy one, I can’t tell a good resume from a bad one in the aesthetic sense. Would some type of resume software (e.g. Winway Resume Deluxe) be worth the money?
I am an HR person, and I participate on an HR message board. Whenever there is a thread about functional resumes, they get completely trashed. HR people hate them, and in many cases they do go to the bottom of the pile.
I’ll be honest, I was surprised.
I had a functional resume of my own that I thought was well put together and was being used for good reasons (to highlight transferrable skills from other jobs). I was so convinced by the sheer magnitude of hatred for functional resumes that I completely redid my own resume to chronological.
I had always had decent luck getting jobs, but so far I am 2-for-2 with the chronological, FWIW.
You will have to address the gaps in employment. If it’s remotely close to the truth, a good response might be “I was looking for work but unable to find another job that would be a good fit.” Be prepared for a follow up question about why the job you’re interviewing for would be a good fit.
If you were actually hospitalized, you might want to say that. HR folks and managers with any decent training will not want to ask about any health questions in an interview, it just opens the door for them to be accused of discriminating. Nevertheless, you don’t want to give the impression that ongoing health issues will keep you from succeeding in the job. You might want to do a little reading on the ADA and the FMLA to understand your legal rights and employers’ perspectives on those rights.
Good luck.
Note to those upthread who recommend functional resumes: If you are well into your career, a summary statement/ paragraph of your functional skills may well be appropriate. My “research” w/ the HR community does indicate your odds are better if the rest of the resume is chronological, though. And your situation is different from the OP, who seems to be early career.
