Chronological CV:

This is the format most people are familiar with. It's a progressive account of your career that's easy to write, popular with employers and a good way of showcasing your experience from today, backwards. Advantages of a chronological CV include:

• Emphasises employment continuity.
• Emphasises your career growth.
• Easy to follow and read.
• Extremely common and is therefore typically preferred.

This CV design is ideal for an individual with continual employment with no gaps / irregularities.

Functional CV:

Not as popular with some recruiters as it can suggest to be hiding gaps in employment but is ideal if you are aiming on placing emphasis on your skills/strengths relevant to a specific job / industry. Reasons for using a functional CV include:

• If you are aiming to sell your skills to target specific competencies.
• If you do not have a consistent employment history.
• You are/have recently changed careers.
• You have employment experience but it is not related to the position you are interested in.

Please take time to weigh up the pros and cons of a functional CV - many recruiters prefer chronological CVs purely because they are more common and easy to follow. However, there are certain circumstances when a functional CV is useful (see above).

Related Pages:

• How do you write a CV?
• What makes a good CV?
• Explaining gaps in employment
• What should I leave out of my CV?
• Improve a CV with power verbs
• Why was my CV rejected?
• Common CV writing mistakes
• Writing a personal profile for a CV
• Writing a student / graduate CV

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