Before my response, for context, all my Recruitment experience has been in IT and primarily recruiting for mid to senior level positions.

As a Recruiter myself, when I see functional Resumes, the first thing I’m thinking of is “potential red flag”.

Usually when I have seen functional resumes, its because the applicant is trying to cover up something which would otherwise be made obvious through a chronological Resume.

Not that this is always the case - but it usually is.

So if you’re sending a Resume out to a Recruiter, I would advise against a functional Resume and stick to reverse-chronological - because most Recruiters will feel this way.

On the other hand - perhaps if you know for a fact that your Resume will go directly to a Senior Executive who will be reviewing it, that might make sense.

I’d still caution you however - because most Resumes out there are reverse-chronological, when someone suddenly reviews a functional Resume, it seems confusing and all over the place compared to all the reverse-chronological Resumes they’ve been reviewing.

Dean