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Chapter 5

Get Functional

In This Chapter

➤ How resume writing has adapted to new job trends
➤ When to use a functional resume

➤ What magic is behind a skills-based resume
➤ How to make sore points in your history look healthy

First impressions are crucial and lasting whether you’re introducing yourself to your new
mother-in-law or your boss-to-be. I’ll let you figure out how to win over your mother-in-law,
and I’ll stick to what I know best: helping you make a stunning impression with your
potential employer. In this chapter, you’ll discover how to rope in a new boss with a func-
tional resume, before she reads even one word of the small print.

The Times Are a Changin’

Work trends have changed dramatically in the last 50 years. It used to be that someone got
a job shortly after graduating and kept it for the rest of his life. If things went well, he
might move up the ladder within the company, but he usually felt sentenced to the same
boss for 20 years to life. Loyalty to the company equaled stability, something greatly valued
by employers (and by mothers-in-law too, for that matter). An applicant who had job-
hopped—not to mention changed careers—was considered unstable and therefore a risk for
a would-be employer.