You’ve just spotted the job of your dreams. You have all the right qualifications and experience, but it was five years ago, since when you been doing something completely unrelated. Or, you know you’ve got all the right skills but you just haven’t got practical experience in that particular area. Or, you’ve had lots of apparently unrelated jobs and your CV reads like a telephone directory. How on earth do you manage to convey to an employer that you’ve got what they need? Sounds familiar? Writing a conventional reverse chronological CV will only emphasise these problems. What you need is a Functional CV.
A Functional CV focuses on skills rather than a standard career history. This approach puts the emphasis on what you can do rather than where or when you’ve worked. Imagine you’re writing a CV for an account management job in the pharmaceutical industry. You have account management experience, but it was five years ago and in the telecomms sector, and you have pharmaceutical experience, but it was three years ago and not as an account manager.
Begin by identifying what your target job requires. You might make a list including: proven account management experience; good people skills; strong communication skills; pharmaceutical industry experience. Next, review your experience and list evidence against each criteria. You will now have the basis for a ‘Skills Summary’.
Under ‘proven account management experience’ you might write: “Eight years account management experience dealing with major corporates, with personal responsibility for managing portfolios of up to ten key accounts (sales value £25m pa)”.
In relation to ‘good people skills’ you might write: “Ten years experience in dealing with customers in business-to-business and consumer sales environments; five years sales management experience, directing and motivating teams of up to twelve field sales executives; broad ranging experience in working within diverse teams”.
Strong communication skills might include: “Practical experience in liaising with customers, colleagues and suppliers both face-to-face and by telephone; well-developed report writing skills, including preparing and producing weekly / quarterly sales reports; fluent business French”.
Your pharmaceutical industry experience might be summarised as: “Two years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, providing administrative support to marketing teams; familiar with a range of pharmaceutical industry players including Zeneca and Glaxo-Wellcome”.
Once you have focused the reader’s attention on your relevant skills and experience, you can then summarise your work history. If you’ve had several different kinds of jobs, grouping them together with a sub heading on the left and the dates on the right hand side of the page works well. If you’ve had a lot of the same types of jobs each over relatively short periods, try to condense them – for instance if you’ve had six temp jobs in eight months, make one heading and summarise your main areas of work beneath.
Don’t try to include everything in your CV. Be honest but be selective. Account for gaps in work history eg travel or taking time off to look after children. Remember, your CV is really only designed as a factual summary of information. Use a covering letter to explain why you are targeting the job - particularly if it represents a change of career direction - and highlighting your relevant skills and experience in a bit more detail.
Tom Hackforth
Principal Consultant
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