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Functional CV

Functional or skills based CVs, group your skills and achievements under specific headings or categories. In general terms it describes you in terms of your core competencies or key skills. This removes the need for an unbroken and constantly improving employment record.

These CVs divert the emphasis from career history to functional abilities. A small section can be included to indicate your career, however, this type of CV should not need this information. Core competencies might include; people management, profit and loss responsibility, customer service, software or hardware skills and so on.Competency based interviews are becoming increasingly common.

The major advantage of this approach, is that the style enables you to roll experience gained in several jobs into a single job function heading (e.g. sales experience, management, training etc). This CV style is particularly useful if you have gaps in your career or have had many jobs.

You can also give emphasis to your key abilities, in terms that the employer will understand or be drawn to. You can use direct references to the actual job specification used in the advertisement. This highlights skills and achievements and clearly indicates your potential value, by showing how your past performance is likely to be of future value in key functional areas, that provide an obvious match to the requirements of the job.

The major disadvantage of this approach is that this style of CV may not be well liked by some organisations, because it looks so different from the conventional chronological CV. If the company is very traditional, then it may be worth avoiding potentially antagonising them with this new and therefore possibly (to them) risky format.

Also the finished product can sometimes appear lightweight and it may be confusing to the employer, particularly if they are keen to track your employment history. Experienced recruiters may be suspicious that gaps in your employment are being concealed, or that your actual on the job experience is rather limited.