How2Day: Resume Styles for Changing Careers

If you're considering a new career path, think carefully about how you want to format your resume. B2M Productions/Polka Dot/Getty Images
If you're changing careers, putting together an effective resume can be a challenge. No one correct resume style or format exists; rather, the best way to set up your resume depends entirely on your experience and how you want to present yourself as a potential employee. After you choose a resume style, you can adjust and customize it to your advantage.

With this style, your resume will focus more on your skills than on your employment history. The functional resume is often the best choice for those who are changing careers, because it prominently features a skill summary and a list of skills and accomplishments, rather than companies and job titles. If you choose this format, you must still include a short section at the end that lists your current and past jobs, without dates and in order of relevance, as employers may become suspicious if you avoid the topic completely. Be specific when describing your skills, and be sure each one you list can be supported with proof from a prior job, degree or training included in your resume.

This resume style combines elements of functional and chronological resumes. As with the functional resume, the focus is on your skills and accomplishments. However, your "Work Experience" section on a combination resume should be more developed, with more details provided about your job positions and your responsibilities, as well as the dates worked. This style is ideal if you have at some point held a job in a field similar to the one for which you are now applying.

This style of resume is less common, but it can be successful. As with the functional resume, this format focuses on your skills and accomplishments; however, an analytical resume follows a chronological order that lists your skills as they developed. Each skill you list should be supported with a degree, certificate or prior job. This resume has no "Education" or "Experience" section, because that information is fragmented and can be found throughout the resume.

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