Dear Sam: I have attached my resume and hope you can explain why I am struggling to secure an interview. I originally had a chronological resume, but a career counselor at my college advised me to try formatting it in a functional way. I wasn’t getting very much traction presenting the early roles I have held in order, so she thought perhaps presenting the information based on skill areas might be more appealing. I would like to hear your thoughts! – Mary

Dear Mary: Yes, that is often the knee-jerk reaction — when a chronological resume isn’t effective, it must mean it has to be organized functionally. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case, and your functional resume is severely hindering your chances of employers understanding what experience makes you unique. Employers typically dislike the functional approach because it does not allow them to see exactly where are you performed each function and one. The reason a candidate would use a functional resume is to highlight related versus recent experience. Given you are just graduating from college and only really have recent experience, the functional approach would not serve you well.

Organized in its current format, your resume opens with a skills summary highlighting your soft skills and only briefly touching on the fact that you have “years of customer service and volunteer work.” The resume flows into your education section — fine as a recent graduate — and follows with professional experience divided by functional area. The problem with this section — and the entire resume — is that it is all focused on the soft skills you possess. While these can play a supportive role, rarely can we hang our candidacy “hat” on the fact that we possess strong interpersonal, communication, planning and organizational skills. Unfortunately, these are claims too many candidates make, which means, true or not, that they do little to differentiate our candidacy.

Your resume continues with certifications and training and then your employment history. This is another big problem with your resume and the functional format. Here you have presented six jobs. This, especially when crammed into a tiny space on your resume, shows far too much movement. Presenting months and years highlights brief stints, employment gaps and quick hops. The whole reason the functional resume was invented was to minimize these potential negatives, but as you can see, if the reader gets to this section of your resume, it is seen plain as day.

I urge you to explore the experience-based and unique value you offer a potential employer through a reverse-chronological resume. This is the only format that will allow you to showcase your blend of academic and experiential qualifications. Feel free to review samples on my website for inspiration. I wish you the most success.

Samantha Nolan is an Advanced Personal Branding Strategist and Career Expert, founder and CEO of Nolan Branding. Do you have a resume, career, or job search question for Dear Sam? Reach Samantha at [email protected]. For information on Nolan Branding’s services, visit www.nolanbranding.com or call 888-9-MY-BRAND or 614-570-3442.