Your resume tells a story. It’s an evolving narrative of your career experiences and accomplishments, and it can illustrate your ability to meet a potential employer’s needs. 

As we all know, first impressions matter; so how you tell that story is important. For survivors looking to return to work, trying to explain a gap in employment history due to treatment can be challenging. Fortunately, there are ways around this. Creating a “functional”-style resume is one of them.

A functional resume highlights the skills you possess that are most relevant to the position you are seeking. Rather than chronologically listing your job experiences, a functional resume features those key applicable skills first, followed by the roles in which you applied those skills. This format encourages hiring managers to focus on your qualifications rather than on the specific dates of your employment.

According to a recent article by The Muse by career advisor Jaclyn Westlake, this type of resume is particularly useful for those with gaps in their work history, those with an unconventional work history and/or those seeking a career change. If you opt for this format, keep in mind that the basic rules of resume writing still apply, including avoiding common mistakes (e.g., spelling and grammatical errors; incorrect information and links; irrelevant content). 

To help you get started, Cancer and Careers has a number of resources in our Looking for Work section, including an article on how to write your best resume.

Once you have a solid draft in place, submit it to our free Resume Review Service to get customized feedback from one of our professional career coaches.

Our archived “Job Search” webinar, part of our Balancing Work & Cancer webinar series, is another great source of information on resumes.

To read the complete Muse article, article by The Muse.