6.4 Functional CVs
A functional CV is one that focuses on you and your skills, rather than your work history. It allows you to say more about your ability and the things you have achieved in your life. This is because it presents the information according to the type of work you have done and the responsibilities you have had, rather than by individual jobs.
Look at Zin Mi Mi Aung’s example CV below.
Zin Mi Mi Aung
5 Ywar Ma Kyaung Street
Hlaing Township, Yangon
Mobile: 0975565443
Email: zinminminaung@gmail.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/mm/zinmimiaung
PERSONAL PROFILE
A Human Resources manager with experience in both the public and not-for-profit sector. Have up-to-date knowledge of Myanmar labour law and practices, and am results focused. Have an excellent track record of achieving individual and team objectives, and welcome challenge as demonstrated by my ability to progress in my present organisation. Strong team worker, flexible and adapt well to changing goals. I am now keen to find a position that offers the opportunity for me to broaden and develop my HR and managerial responsibilities.
SKILLS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
People skills
Good communicator – able to enthuse others to work with me on setting up new recruitment procedures, as demonstrated by effective implementation.
Natural team worker – I have had consistently good feedback about my cooperation and reliability and been invited to work on projects outside my own role.
Networking skills – build relationships with new colleagues, both face-to-face and online, and a member of the Myanmar Society of Human Resources.
Technical skills
Problem solving – methodical in analysing data to understand problems and then advise on appropriate action. For example, I reviewed which job advertisement methods were most successful in attracting candidates and now managers are using those more regularly.
IT/computer literacy – competent user of Microsoft Office, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Internet, and Myanmar and English typing.
Personal and transferable skills
Planning and organising – good at managing own time, evidenced by the ability to juggle different deadlines at work to successfully complete projects.
Numeracy – able to produce and analyse basic statistical data with high degree of accuracy.
CAREER HISTORY
Human Resources Deputy Manager 2010–present | Support for Life Charity |
- Responsible for recruitment and induction of all permanent and voluntary staff.
- Ensuring recruitment procedures conform to legislation.
- Creation of statistical reports to help management to see which recruitment processes are the most effective.
- Arranging induction courses for all new starters.
- Liaising with manager to review how new recruits are settling into their roles.
- Advising managers on people-related issues.
Human Resources Administrator 2007–2010 | Support for Life Charity |
- Advertising all vacancies and responding to applications.
- Arranging interviews.
- Post-interview administration, including letters of acceptance or rejection, taking up references, arranging medicals, etc.
- Dealing with telephone enquiries from managers and job applicants.
Career break 2003–2007 | Raising a family |
Receptionist 1999–2003 | Yangon City Council |
- Answering telephone and directing calls to appropriate staff.
- Dealing with on-site visitors and members of the public.
- Maintaining room bookings system.
- Acting as First Aid contact for ground floor staff.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
| Diploma in Human Resource Management, Yangon University of Economics | 2007 |
| Bachelor of Business Administration, Yangon University of Economics | 1995–1999 |
| No. (2) Basic Education High School, Hlaing Township | 1995 |
| (Distinction in Economics and English) |
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Election commissioner (EC) of class, Yangon University of Economics – representing views of my classmates to the University.
Served as a representative on the staff communications committee at Yangon City Council for two years and contributed to introducing new staff suggestion scheme.
Excellent spoken and written English.
Full driving licence.
As you can see, this highlights skills rather than job changes. Therefore, it can be useful if the job you are applying for is different from those you have done previously. The functional CV allows you to emphasise strengths and skills developed in different situations.
It is generally easier to group skills together and you can use the four skills clusters from ‘Skills that employers want and how they can be developed [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’ to do this. You might have noticed that this example makes an attempt at that. The disadvantage with this type of CV is that it is less ‘standard’ than the chronological type. You have to think about how you want to prepare it to ensure that is it clearly relevant to the job. Any gaps in employment are likely to be less prominent, but assume that employers will notice this and you should be prepared to explain them at the interview.
If you already have a CV in the chronological style, you might want to write a second functional one as a way of clarifying what skills you have to offer.
Either of these types of CV would be as part of a job application, where a CV is required. In this case, though, you would need to tailor it to reflect the specific job.
The place to begin though is to create a basic CV that you can later tailor to different situations. The next section offers some general guidance on how to do this.
6.3 Chronological CV