What is a Chronological Resume?

A chronological resume also goes by the name “reverse chronological resume” and is known to be the most popular resume format out there. It is widely used by people and is particularly recommended to those with having rich work history. A chronological resume prioritizes and list your entire work experience and achievements from most to least recent. In other words, your current work experience has to come first and the others will follow.

Did you know chronological resume has been quite a favorite among recruiters? Because it highlights your current work experience and the recruiter is most interested in it, so it will only take him seconds to realize what you do.

This article is all about chronological resumes and we will be discussing all aspects of it starting from its structure.

Chronological Resume – Structure

As per the structure is concerned, a chronological resume follows rather a straightforward structure. What should be kept in mind while writing a chronological resume is that your current or most recent experience must be written first. Whether it is professional or educational, the current one will come first every time. Then the second most recent will follow and it will continue like this.

Main sections of a chronological resume:

It should contain your;

• Contact information.
• A professional title and also the objective of a resume.
• Then comes your work experience and achievements.
• The education section should be filled out carefully.
• All your hard and soft skills should be presented nicely.
• An optional section is also included where you can add other details like language, certificates, volunteer experience, or any other related information.

Suppose you are a recent college graduate and wish to build your resume in the chronological format then don’t ever think you can’t write one because you still can. All you have to do is rearrange the order of your resume sections in a way that the education section comes first and then the rest of the details will follow.

Five parts of the Chronological resume

A chronological resume has five parts as we have discussed earlier. Here we thought why not elaborate on these parts for you?

How to reach out to you?

Every resume no matter what format you are following should start with the right information about you. If you want the employer to reach out to you then always provide the right contact details about you. Be sure to include all the ways that can allow an employer to make contact with you.

• Your correct name should be added
• Your recent email address should be added
• Your correct phone number should be added

If you fail to add the right contact information about you then it is highly likely the employer will never contact you.

How to summarize your resume?

This includes a summary of your skills, work history, career highlights, and other details. You can also call this section a resume profile or resume summary. This section is different from a resume objective and you should think of this section as your resume’s “elevator pitch”.

To grab the attention of the employer, you must write a short and simple pitch and make them want to read on. This part should quickly portray why you’re a great fit for your job target.

Adding accomplishments in your work experience

As we have already mentioned earlier your work experience should be listed starting with your most recent job. Beyond that information, what more do you think we can write in this section?

Well, below we have listed down some of the essential parts of your work experience section.

• Add the basic information of the company like name, location, and dates you were employed.
• Details of the job title including other information about a promotion or internal change of jobs.
• Details about your experience there. You can add the kind of work you did there.

Your Qualification

After the work experience section comes to the qualification section where you have to write details of your education including degrees, certifications, continuing education, and training. Never forget to mention your school name, degree name, and passing year (this one is optional).

Remember if your job description requires a degree, license, or certification, and luckily you have one, then this is the part where you have to include it. Similarly, the details of your education should be listed in the most recent order just like your work experience.

For any reason, if you are short on experience and need to fill your page with some useful information then you can always explain your qualifications by including specific courses you took.

What supporting details to add?

Now, this is the last section where you can add all the additional relevant information that somehow doesn’t fit into the above sections. We all know a resume should be about two pages long and if your resume is not meeting that goal then you can always add additional information or supporting details. The main goal is to use your skills or core competencies and highlight them in a way that would make you a great candidate for the job.

You can also add interests and hobbies or any volunteer work you have done.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, a chronological resume allows employers to understand the value of one’s most recent work and relevant work experiences. An employer usually spends a few seconds on each resume and that is why you need to prioritize the most recent information that can help you get seen. So you must understand what a chronological resume is and how to write one.