What kind of résumé would be best for a person who has a lot of specific skills as well as a consistent work history?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, the best resume format to use as someone who has shown consistent growth within a single career, industry or profession is the Chronological Resume.

This format focuses on presenting your work history, starting with the most recent job you held at the top of the page, then working your way down in a (contrary to what the name suggests) reverse-chronological order.

What Sections Can I Include?

Typically, this resume format can begin with a brief career objective, summary of qualifications or a career profile. Your work history section then follows, and after that you can include an education section, with other optional closing sections including certifications and licenses, publications and awards, additional skills, or anything other relevant sections that will support your reasons for being an appropriate candidate to grant an interview.

Why Is This Effective as a Format

Showing a consistent growth within your industry becomes a key marketing factor when searching for a new job - such career paths indicate an in-depth knowledge and understanding of your industry at all levels, while showing that you are a committed and loyal worker; highly sought after employee characteristics.

What to List Under Each Job

The goal of a resume is to earn you an interview. So, for each job you include on your resume, be sure to first list the job specifics (name of employer, dates of employment, job title), and then expound your job role below using bullet points to highlight:

• overview of the company
• achievements
• key responsibilities and skills

Company overview is important, to help show the scope of your responsibility. For example, if you worked as a salesman on a used car forecourt, you should be sure to include the price range of the cars, the number of cars on the forecourt, and other relevant details. Working on a small used car lot with average car values of less than $1000 and only about 20 cars in total isn't as impressive as working on a large used sports car forecourt with avg. car values of $50,000+. This company overview should be expounded in one bullet point only

Achievements are key; you want to tell the reader not so much what you did but why you were good at it. This means highlighting achievements such as how often you met targets, ways you improved efficiency, etc.

Key responsibilities and skills are a way to show you have experience performing the job being advertised. It's essential you don't just list endless day-to-day responsibilities, and instead focus on listing the more challenging responsibilities and duties that you bore.

My Personal Recommendations

As a certified professional resume writer, I would actually recommend you use a "combination format" for your resume - these begin with a more in-depth career profile at the start, then provide an overview of your key skills before introducing your work history. This helps highlight your specialized knowledge and skills, which is supported by your impressive work history.

Answer 2

chronological order

Answer 3

chronological

Answer 4

hybrid

Answer 5

Combination