TIPS & MYTHS
SUMMARY: When people call me and say that they’ve sent out lots of résumés and gotten no response whatever, the usual reason is that they’re using a “functional résumé.” “Functional résumés” never worked for anyone. (Unless the hiring person was exceptionally foolish.) Normally, employers drop these résumés straight into the trash.
The idea of the functional résumé looks like it started out long ago as the half-assed theory of some “creative” résumé writer who didn’t know even the basics of their job—a very common motive for that kind of “creativity.” It got into print (this myth goes back to at least the 1970s), and has been picked up and repeated by résumé “experts” ever since, as they copy and re-hash what others have already written. That’s all there is to it.
Don’t take my word for it:
Try doing a Web search for the following phrase: functional resumes don’t work. Also, try recruiters hate functional resumes—or, if you think that’s a biased query, try recruiters like functional resumes. You’ll see many discussions of that topic, and if you read the comment threads you find, you’ll see many comments from HR people to the effect that functional résumés get thrown immediately in the trash. In more recent threads, you’ll learn that ATS systems are apt to reject them too.