free functional resume template download

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Additional menu

HirePowers.net

Job Search Resources

Functional Resume Templates Free To Download

A functional resume can breathe new life into your professional profile by letting you talk about your skills and accomplishments in a new way.

This page provides functional resume templates and instructions on how to fill out your own resume.

Functional Resume Templates Menu

What is a functional resume, who should use a functional resume, functional format vs. other resume formats, how to make a functional resume, functional resume templates for download, video tutorial: how to make a functional resume, functional resume faq.

A functional resume is a type of resume format that allows you to emphasize your specific job skills by categorizing your work history by the abilities you are best at.

To think of it another way, a functional resume is a different way to organize the content of your resume.

The purpose of the functional resume is to overwhelm the recruiter with positive information in the top half of the resume. That way, by the time they get to any weaker spots, they may have already convinced themselves how great of a fit you are.

It is often said that functional resumes are good for people with large gaps in employment.

The truth is that you will have to disclose your work history at some point and not disclosing that information on your resume makes you look bad. Regardless of the type of resume you use, you should always be listing your employment history with the corresponding dates. Never omit your employment history dates .

What can be helpful regarding a functional resume is leaving your actual dates of employment at the bottom instead of completely omitting them. This provides the employer with the correct information while hopefully enticing them to overcome any objections based on the earlier sections of your resume.

With a functional resume, you’ve turned this potential downside into an upside by showing the number of different skills you have learned and how you’ve used them to show that you are a good fit for the job. Be up-front, but explain the benefits to any potential downsides they bring up.

This is also a good resume for people with stable work history who have worked for the same company for many years but have worked across different departments and responsibility levels. The categorized job duties sections let you go into lots of details about the different roles you’ve held.

A functional resume can also make it easy to group your past experience into skill or ability categories, making it a great fit for people who may be seen as a jack of all trades and have trouble truly describing all that they can do.

As you go through the tutorial below on how to make your own resume understand that the underlying point of a functional resume is to show your strongest skills and abilities first while displaying any shortcomings or less relevant information at the bottom of the resume. For that reason alone, it’s a resume that can be used by just about anyone.

Let’s quickly go over some of the other types of resume formats so that we can make some fair comparisons.

Chronological Resume

A chronological resume is a way of listing your employment information wherein you put your most recent work experience first and your least recent experience last.

A “chronological resume” can also be the general term used for a type of resume that emphasizes your work experience over everything else on the resume. In this way, it could also be called a “standard” or “traditional” resume.

It’s main difference from a functional resume is that it gives more attention to employment history rather than skills and technical areas of expertise. Even so, a functional resume should still be listing work experience in a chronological or reverse-chronological order.

To view resumes that focus on the chronological format, click here .

Combination Resume

A combination resume is a combination of a chronological and functional resume.

All of the “functional” resumes on our site are actually a type of combination or “hybrid” resume that layout skills in a functional style while providing the chronological work history an employer expects to see.

How you combine the two different styles will be up to you, but it will be heavily dependent on your own experience & skills, as well as the job you’re applying for.

The way you combine the two types will largely be a function of what order you put things in on your resume. Though it may be a different order from job to job, your resume should always have the most relevant and important information at the top.

Targeted Resume

A targeted resume is a resume designed for a specific job listing or application.

But here’s the thing: all of your resumes should be targeted!

While it may be helpful to have a general resume that stands as a profile or summary of your work, when you actually go to apply you should be curating your resume based on the requirements of each different job.

Even if you are not changing your resume more than one or two words for each application, customizing your career profile to the employers’ needs is a crucial and often overlooked step in getting hired.

Take an extra few minutes on each application and make every one of your resumes a targeted resume!

Resume Formats

Here’s the bottom line: the only thing that matters when it comes to how you format a resume is how great you can come off to an employer.

The best resume format is the one that will help you to put your best foot forward and describe in detail your top accomplishments as quickly as possible.

Organizing your career information into a different type of resume format can be a great way to shake things up if you’ve been having bad luck with your job search.

As we go through the parts of a functional resume, think about how you are organizing your career information on the page.

Also think about how a hiring manager’s eyes would wander through your resume.

Functional Format

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at a sample functional resume format to see what it looks like:

This particular functional resume has 5 sections: heading, professional summary, skills, job descriptions, work history details, and education.

Your resume may have a different number of sections than this resume because this resume happens to separate the job descriptions from the work details themselves.

What matters more than section numbers is how you organize the information and what you put into each section.

Resume Heading

Nothing changes with the heading on a functional resume. It will still go at the top and include at least four pieces of information: your name, phone number, location, and e-mail address.

Professional Summary

Next on your resume will be a professional summary.

The professional summary is a summation of your career profile, while also detailing why you are the best fit for the job.

This summary can be anywhere from one to four sentences. You can decide best how to use the space on your resume, but I find that it’s best to be brief in your opening.

If you’d like more information on professional summaries and templates with a professional summary, click here .

Work History & Job Descriptions For a Functional Resume

With a functional resume, your previous employment will be described under headings of skills and/or job titles.

The key to a great functional resume is coming up with great headings for your past experience. What makes a heading “great” will differ from job to job, but your headings should be customized for each job you are applying to.

This is important because even with jobs that share a job title, like “customer service representative”, their duties and responsibilities could be vastly different.

So take the time to review each and every job listing to gain an understanding of not only the individual skills a company is looking for, but the general ideas and concepts they expect you to understand or quickly learn.

You will also need to go back and review at least the last 7 years of your work history (or however many you have, if you have less) and start to think of the jobs you’ve had and the skills you’ve acquired in terms of their “job titles” or “general skill groupings”.

Even if you can’t quite think of the exact title just yet, start to group your different abilities and skills so that you can begin to describe and write them with a larger purpose in mind. In fact, sometimes you may keep what you’ve written and just change the titles to make a resume more appealing for certain companies.

Under each category title should be a combination of job duties and descriptions of applying your skills . Use the job listing for the job you’re applying for to find out what types of skills the company needs.

Once you know the skill-sets, talk about how you’ve applied those skills and abilities to get tasks done.

Detailing Your Tasks & Job Duties

Tasks and duties you describe should vary in length (daily tasks to monthly or yearly goals) and responsibility (team vs. personal accountability). And ultimately, the skills and abilities you talk about should be in the context of an accomplishment whenever possible.

For example, if you’re working in a call center and hit daily goals of getting to 100 callers a day, then you would talk about your ability to handle customer issues quickly in the context of meeting (or exceeding) company expectations.

You can also use specific job category titles depending on the job you are applying for. For example, in the resume above there is a title for “Web Design”. But if the job you are applying to requests a specific coding language rather than talking about general web design, it may be a good to make a more specific category title such as “Javascript Developer”.

This is the most important section of any functional resume, so it is crucial to explain your strongest points with as much detail as possible so that an employer an see your matching experience alongside what you’ve accomplished.

Functional Resume Templates To Download For Free

3 column skills functional resume template.

Three columns of specific skills lead into your categorized experience.

Make sure to still include all of your employment history at the bottom of the resume.

Click For Download Page

File name:  Functional Skills Resume Template.docx

File size: 7.9 KB

Total downloads: 315

2 Column Functional Resume Template

The left column address your most specific & technical skills.

The right column is a combination of detailed employment experience & talking about how you used your skills.

File name:  functional two columns resume template.docx

File size: 18.2 KB

Total downloads: 239

Years of Experience Functional Resume Template

More resume details coming soon.

File name:  Years-of-Experience-Functional-Resume-Template.docx

File size: 7.2 KB

Total downloads: 92

College Education Functional Resume Template

Show off your skills as well with a dedicated skills section.

File name:  College-Education-Functional-Resume-Template.docx

File size: 7.5 KB

Total downloads: 74

Video Tutorial

The above video is a tutorial on how to build a functional resume for job hoppers, career changers, and students.

A functional resume is a great way to show off your technical knowledge and skills while disguising your past work history (or lack thereof).

Answers for functional resume frequently asked questions:

What is a functional resume example?

An example of a functional resume is a type of resume where you explain why you’re the best fit for a job through your skills and abilities rather than through specific jobs.

For specific examples & templates of what a functional resume looks like, click here .

Who should use a functional resume?

A functional resume can be used by just about anybody!

Having said that, functional resumes are most often used by people who need to group their resume skills and knowledge into multiple categories so that they can fully showcase their strengths.

To learn more about if a functional resume is right for you, click here .

What is the difference between a chronological resume and a functional resume?

A functional resume is a resume where particular skills or job categories are emphasized instead of your specific work history.

A chronological resume is a resume format in which the job listing is emphasized and specifically listed by date, with the most recent first and the least recent last.

Technically, a functional resume should still have your work history listed in a chronological style, even if the overall format of the resume is not chronological.

The distinction between the two is often purely academic, with most resumes being some type of combination between the two.

Are Functional resumes bad?

No particular resume format is bad insomuch as it can be used to help you get a job.

Functional resumes are often critiqued for hiding employment information. But any resume, including functional resumes, should have the dates of your employment.

The functional resumes on our site include all of the necessary information and we encourage you to include it.

The object of a functional resume is not to withhold information. It’s to explain your experience in a different, and hopefully more favorable light.

What is a functional resume?

A functional resume is a resume format that emphasizes specific skill and ability categories rather than employment experience.

Learn more by clicking here .

What are functional job skills?

Functional job skills is just a different way of talking about how you would describe your skills & abilities through the categories on a functional resume.

Since a functional resume generally does not include job descriptions, your “functional job skills” can be anything from a short phrase that quickly communicates your competency to multiple sentences that describe your skills in terms of your achievements.

It may or may not make sense to include a dedicated skills section on a functional resume, so think about what is right for you and the jobs you’re applying to. But if you do, the skills you list should be short phrases of 2-3 words at most and should be focused on specific tools, processes, or certifications.

To learn more about adding skills to your resume and for skills based resume templates, click here .

What type of resume do employers prefer?

Employers prefer that a candidate communicate why they are the best fit as quickly and clearly as possible.

Therefore, there is generally not a specific type of resume format that an employer would prefer.

How to Write a Functional Resume [4 Free Templates Included]

Struggling with your resume because you just graduated from university and don’t have much work experience?

Or maybe you’re switching careers, and aren’t sure how to make your past position relevant for the new field?

Whichever the case, the solution is pretty simple:

Use a functional resume format!

• What’s a Functional Resume?

When to Use a Functional Resume?

How to write a functional resume.

• What Are Some Other Resume Formats (and When To Use Them)

What is a Functional Resume?

A functional resume, also known as the skill-based resume, is a resume format that focuses on your professional skill test as opposed to work experience.

If you were to create a traditional resume, you’d list out your work experience in reverse chronological order as follows:

Whereas, in the case of a functional resume , you list out each of your skills, and then back them up by highlighting how you’ve practically applied them in the past:

It’s better to use a functional resume in the following situations:

• You’re a recent graduate with no work experience. As the functional resume focuses on skills rather than experience, it can be very helpful to students.
• You’re switching careers . If you have some work experience, but the said experience isn’t relevant for the position you’re applying for, you can use a functional resume to highlight how your skills make you the right candidate.
• You have a long history of unemployment (or gaps between jobs). Since the functional resume format focuses on skills, you can use it to downplay your work experience gaps.

That being said, in around 90% of cases, we don’t recommend using a functional resume .

While it does have its perks (e.g. standing out as a recent graduate), it also comes with significant downsides.

First off, it’s nowhere near as popular as the traditional resume format, and in certain parts of the world, recruiters might not even know that the functional format is a thing.

In addition, some recruiters might find the lack of work experience in a resume suspicious because it can hint the candidate isn’t being truthful (e.g. red flags, being fired from previous employment, etc.).

These 2 disadvantages combined make a compelling case against the functional resume format.

So, if you do decide to create a functional resume, weigh the pros and cons and proceed at your own risk!

Want to also learn how to create a traditional resume ? Check out our guide!

First things first - pick a compelling resume template to get started. We recommend using our Functional Resume template:

Then, create the following sections on your resume:

• Contact Information
• Resume Summary
• Skill Summary

If you have additional space once you’re finished with these sections, you can fill it up with some optional sections (which we’ll explain a bit down the line).

Now, let’s walk you through each of these sections and explain how to do them right:

#1. Contact Information

While it might sound elementary, there’s a ton of tid-bits you need to know about getting the contact information section right.

Here’s what you need to include in the contact information section:

• First and last name
• Current job title
• Email address
• Phone number
• City and country you’re based in

Optionally, you can also include links to relevant social media profiles. For example:

• If you’re a writer, you can link your portfolio page or website.
• If you’re a developer, you can link your GitHub profile.
• If you’re a marketer, you can link your Instagram or Twitter page.
• Your LinkedIn profile link (if it’s up-to-date).

#2. Resume Summary

The next section on your functional resume is the “resume summary.”

This section goes right under your contact information, and looks something like this:

In a nutshell, a resume summary is a 2-4 sentence recap of your biggest professional achievements and career highlights.

The goal of this section is to show the recruiter (in one glance) that you’re qualified for the position you’re applying for.

Here’s what a well-written resume summary would look like:

• Professional executive assistant with experience in supporting high-level CEOs and other executives for over 5 years. Experienced in customer support, data entry, and scheduling meetings. Skilled in time management, MS Office, and Adobe Photoshop.

#3. Skill Summary

This one’s going to be the bulk of your functional resume.

In a skill summary section, you mention the top 3 skills required for the position you’re applying for and then provide information on how you’ve gained the said skills right under them.

Let’s say, for example, you’re a recent graduate applying for a role in marketing. Here’s what your skill summary could look like:

Copywriting

• Wrote over 20+ well-researched papers for my university.
• Worked at the university news media as a journalist, interviewing interesting university alumni and publishing their stories on the website.
• Created and published high-quality tech articles on my personal blog (www.exampleblog.com).
• Participated in a university project for a real-life company (Company X), where we had to come up with ideas for expanding to a new market.
• With the help of my team, came up with 5 ideas, out of which 3 were actually implemented by the company.
• Came up with 100+ topic ideas for content on my personal blog, some of which got over 50 shares when published.

Project Management

• Acted as a team leader for most of my university projects, ensuring that they were completed on time, and that every group member contributed.
• Was part of the Startup Weekend organizational committee. Helped source speakers, organize the event, find sponsors, and overall ensured that the event went smoothly.

#4. Education

The next section on your functional resume is Education , and this one’s actually pretty straightforward.

Here, list out the following information:

• Name of the degree (e.g. B.A. in Computer Science)
• Name of the university and dates attended (e.g. Boston State University, 2012 - 2016)

Optionally, you can also include the following as part of your education section :

• GPA. If you had an impressive GPA in your university (3.5 - 4.0), you can list it in your resume. Most companies, however, don’t really care about your grades all that much .
• Honors. E.g. Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, etc.
• Academic Achievements. Your thesis, interesting or noteworthy research papers you’ve written, etc.
• Courses Attended. If you’ve taken some very impressive classes (and they’re related to the role you’re applying for), you can mention them in your education section.

#5. Optional Sections

Still have some space left on your resume? Here are some other sections you can include:

• Projects - In our opinion, this one’s the most underrated resume section. Here, you can include any kind of personal or university project you’ve worked on. E.g. blog you’ve started, a piece of software you coded, etc.
• Extracurricular Activities - If you’re a recent graduate, you can include a section about the extracurricular activities you’ve participated in during university.
• Languages - Knowing an extra language or two can always come in handy. When filling these out, though, make sure to include your level of understanding (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Fluent, or Native).
• Work History - Yep, you CAN include work history on your functional resume. If you decide to do this, though, your resume will be a combination resume and NOT the functional one.

Other Resume Formats

There are 2 other resume formats in addition to the Functional one:

• Reverse-Chronological Resume Format
• Combination Resume Format

Here’s what they’re about:

#1. Reverse-Chronological Resume Format

This one’s the most common resume format out there and it’s what most people have in mind when they refer to a “resume.”

This resume format simply lists out work experiences in reverse-chronological order and backs them up with other essential resume sections (skills, education, etc.).

Unless you have specific reasons to use either of the other resume formats (combination or functional), we recommend you stick with this one.

#2. Combination Resume Format

The combination resume is almost the same thing as a functional resume, with a small twist.

In addition to the skill summary section on the resume, you also add a work history section (which helps even out the downsides that come with a functional resume).

Usually, the combination resume is used by senior professionals with a decade’s worth of work experience.

4 Free Functional Resume Templates & Examples

Want to get started with your functional resume?

All you have to do is pick one of our free templates and you’re good to go!

#1. Functional Resume Template

Our functional resume template adds a dash of style to the traditional black-and-white resume.

Use this template to present your skills and talents in the best way possible!

#2. Combination Resume Template

This combination template allows you to showcase your skills without having to cut down on work experience.

#3. College Resume Template

Our College resume template is perfect for recent university graduates, allowing you to emphasize your skill-set over your work experiences.

#4. Professional Resume Template

Looking for something a bit more professional? This resume template is a prime favorite for job-seekers who are serious about their careers.

Key Takeaways

And that just about sums up everything you need to know about functional resumes!

Now, let’s do a small recap of everything we’ve learned so far:

• A functional resume format is a type of resume that focuses more on skills rather than work experiences.
• You can use a functional resume if you’re a recent graduate with little work experience or if you’re switching careers.
• To create a compelling functional resume, you want to get your skill summary section just right.
• Functional resumes, however, are not that common in most parts of the world, so we recommend sticking to a conventional resume format to most job-seekers, instead.

Discover More Resume Templates

• One Page Resume Templates
• 2 Page Resume Templates
• Google Docs Resume Templates
• Word Resume Templates
• Chronological Resume Templates
• Creative Resume Templates
• Minimalistic Resume Templates
• High School Resume Templates

To provide a safer experience, the best content and great communication, we use cookies. Learn how we use them for non-authenticated users.