Types of Resumes- A Tutorial

Types of Resumes: Video Lesson

            This video lesson, titled “Types of Resumes,” discusses the major types of resumes presented to employers. This video lesson is from our resume-writing training; titled “Mastering Your Resume Made Easy v.1.0”

Types of Resumes: Overview

            In this lesson, we will look at a few common types of resumes. Let us begin with one of the most common types of resumes, which is the professional resume. In this context, when we refer to a professional resume, we are referring to a resume that is designed to get you a job interview. Most people are familiar with this type of resume. It is the one most people have to write at some point in life.

            Another of the most common types of resumes is the academic resume. This type of resume is designed to get you an interview for advanced educational positions. A person might have to put together an academic resume if he or she were applying for a scholarship, research grant, fellowship, graduate program, sabbatical, or even a teaching position. Academic resumes are typically more lengthy and detailed than professional resumes. When assembling an academic resume, it can be very helpful to research examples within your field of study, as the appropriate specifics to include can be quite varied from field to field.

            Another of the most common types of resumes is the creative resume, or nontraditional resume. When we talk about a creative resume, this can be any one of a number of things: A resume which appears online as part of a website, or an online portfolio, or even a video resume. Nontraditional resumes are best used when applying for nontraditional positions—for example, if you are a graphic designer, the quality of your visual work will be one of the first things prospective employers will want to see, so an online portfolio, blog, or website makes good sense. If you are seeking employment in a position that will require a lot of public speaking, a video resume might be a good solution for you. Simply put, creative resumes are best used within the creative fields. For the rest of this course, we will be focusing mainly on professional resumes.

            For whichever of the types of resumes you are writing, you also have to decide whether you are going to present your information in a chronological, functional, or mixed format. This means that, when you write each section of your resume, you can choose to list your experiences from the most recent to those further back in time, or you can list your experiences in terms of their relative importance or functionality. You can also mix the two formats. While there is a lot of debate regarding whether a chronological or functional approach is more effective, the important thing is to maintain a consistent method of listing your experiences throughout the resume, whichever method you choose.

Types of Resumes- A Tutorial: A picture of the training interface from our resume-writing training; titled “Mastering Your Resume Made Easy v.1.0.”