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Chronological Resumes
Most resumes use the chronological format. It is a simple format in which the most recent experience is listed first, followed by each previous job. This arrangement works fine for someone with work experience in several similar jobs, but not as well for those with limited experience or for career changers.
Look at the two resumes for Judith Jones that follow. Both use the chronological approach, but the second one includes some improvements over the first. The improved resume is clearly better, but either would be acceptable to most employers.
See Judith Jones's simple chronological resume.
See Judith Jones's improved chronological resume.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Chronological Resume

This resume format has both advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages: One big advantage is that this is the simplest and quickest resume style to write. Many employers want to know details about where you have worked in the past, including dates employed. This is a good resume style to use if you have a good work history in jobs similar to those you want now.

Disadvantages: A chronological resume may display your weaknesses. It will quickly show an employer things like gaps in employment, frequent job changes, lack of work experience related to your job objective, recent graduation, and other potential problems. If you have one or more of these situations, a traditional chronological resume may not be best for you.

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For individual use only. Pages are excerpts from The Very Quick Job Search, Third Edition, ISBN: 1-59357-007-4. For permissions requests, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at www.copyright.com or (978) 750-8400.

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