Functional Resume: Examples, Templates & Complete Guide [2024]

For job seekers that want to highlight their skills over work experience, using a functional resume format provides an excellent opportunity to showcase achievements, rather than relying solely on a chronological work history.

This skills-based resume format allows you to emphasize the competencies that make you the ideal candidate, making your qualifications immediately clear to prospective employers.

Looking to create a functional resume? Try Teal's AI Resume Builder with flexible resume design.

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What is a functional resume?

A functional resume is a skills-based resume format that showcases your abilities and achievements rather than focusing on work history.

Unlike other resume formats, functional resumes group your experience by skills and competencies, making them particularly effective for career changers, job seekers with employment gaps, or professionals with non-traditional career paths.

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What does a functional resume highlight?

A functional resume highlights your most valuable skills and achievements rather than job titles or employment dates. It emphasizes core competencies, measurable results, and transferable abilities that directly match the role you're pursuing. 

By organizing your experience into skill categories, this format showcases your expertise and potential value to employers—making your qualifications immediately clear, regardless of when or where you developed these skills.

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When to use a functional resume

Since a functional resume is a skills-based format, you should consider using a functional resume when:

1. You have gaps in your employment history
2. You're making a career change with limited relevant experience
3. You want to emphasize specific skills over work history
4. You're a recent graduate entering the workforce
5. You're returning to work after an extended break or employment gap

A functional resume highlights your valuable skills and capabilities, making your potential value to employers clear regardless of your work timeline.

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Functional resume format

A functional resume follows a distinct structure that prioritizes skills over work experience. Here's the correct order of sections:

1. Contact Information (name, phone, email, location, LinkedIn)
2. Professional Summary (focused on relevant skills and achievements)
3. Skills Categories (with detailed achievement bullets)
4. Work History (brief list of previous positions)
5. Education and Certifications
6. Optional Sections (volunteer work, relevant projects)

Each section should emphasize your capabilities and achievements rather than chronological work experience. The skills categories section is the heart of your functional resume, where you'll showcase your most relevant abilities with specific examples of success

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How to write a functional resume

1. Include your contact information

You want prospective employers to contact you, so you're going to need to give them those details as clearly as possible.

Your resume contact information should include:

• Full Name
• Phone Number
• Location
• Professional email address
• LinkedIn profile URL 
• Portfolio or personal website URL (if applicable)
• Your target title

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2. Add a professional summary

Write a strong professional summary that emphasizes your core skills and major achievements. Unlike traditional resumes, a functional resume summary should focus on your relevant capabilities and expertise rather than where you gained the experience. This is your chance to immediately show employers how your skills align with their needs.

Pro Tip: If you want to save time writing your professional summary, try Teal’s AI Resume Summary Generator to write tailored, position-specific summaries in seconds.

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3. Group your skills 

In a functional resume, your skills section is the main focus. Start by carefully reviewing the job description to identify the most important skills needed for the job. Choose 3-4 skill categories that directly align with these key requirements. Under each skill category, add 3-4 powerful achievement bullet points  that demonstrate how you've successfully used these abilities.

Functional resume skills example:

If one of the core skills in the job description is "Growth Ops", here's an example for what the skill category and bullet points could look like:

Growth Ops
- Orchestrated a growth ops strategy, successfully improving SEO workflow efficiency by 25%
- Led a team in implementing growth op practices, increasing web traffic by 35%
- Redesigned growth op workflows, improving content production and publishing by 20% 

‍Pro-tip: Easily identify the key skills for the role with Teal's AI Resume Builder, it pulls the top skills as keywords from any job description, so you know which ones matter most.

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4. Add your work history

 For a functional resume, keep your work history section brief since you've already highlighted your achievements in the skills section. You only need to include these basic details for each job:

• Job title and company name
• Location (city, state)
• Employment dates (month/year)

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5. Include relevant education

In a functional resume, your education section should be concise and focused on credentials that support your target role. Include these basic details for your education:

• Degree and major (or anticipated graduation date)
• University name and location
• Relevant coursework or academic achievements (if they align with the job description)

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6. Add optional sections

While your skills section is the core of your functional resume, choosing to add additional resume sections can strengthen your application. Consider including these optional sections when they are relevant to the job description and support your skills.

• Certifications and professional development
• Volunteer experience that relate to the relevant skills
• Projects or research
• Industry awards or recognition

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Functional resume examples

Looking for functional resume examples? Below, we've curated real-world resume samples across different industries to show you how to create an effective skills-based resume.

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Functional resume example #1

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Functional resume example #2

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Functional resume sample #3

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Skills based resume example #4

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Functional resume template

Use this functional resume template as a starting point to showcase your skills and achievements effectively. This skills-based resume template follows a simple format that helps highlight your capabilities, making it particularly effective for career changers, recent graduates, or those with employment gaps.

[Full Name] 
[Phone Number] | [Professional Email] | [City, State] 
[LinkedIn URL] | [Portfolio URL (if applicable)]

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY 
[Write 3-4 sentences highlighting your most relevant skills and achievements. Focus on capabilities that directly match the job requirements.]

CORE SKILLS & ACHIEVEMENTS
[Skill Category 1]
Achievement with metrics
Achievement with metrics
Achievement with metrics

[Skill Category 2]
Achievement with metrics
Achievement with metrics
Achievement with metrics

[Skill Category 3]
Achievement with metrics
Achievement with metrics
Achievement with metrics

WORK HISTORY 
[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [City, State]
[Month/Year - Month/Year]

[Job Title] | [Company Name] | [City, State] 
[Month/Year - Month/Year]

EDUCATION 
[Degree] in [Major] | [University Name] | [City, State] 
[Graduation Year or Expected Graduation Date]

CERTIFICATIONS (Optional) 
[Certification Name] | [Issuing Organization] | [Year]

Pro-Tip: Save time trying to write a skills-based resume and explore Teal's collection of functional resume templates to help you get started!

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Create a functional resume with Teal

For job seekers that wants to highlight their skills over their experience, using a functional resume format is the best option to catch the attention of hiring managers and employers.

With dozens of templates to choose from, Teal's AI-powered resume builder makes it easy to create a compelling, skills-focused resume in minutes -- helping you land your dream job faster.