Truck Driver Career

The transportation industry has developed quite a lot in quite a short time and this development has picked up speed over the past few years. This industry is a very lucrative and a very productive one. There are a lot of jobs available in the transportation industry today and most of these jobs have quite a good salary. One of the prime jobs in the transportation industry is a career in truck driving. A truck driving career is a career which is generating a lot of interest at the moment and this interest looks set to grow. There is quite some responsibility associated with the job and punctuality is placed at a premium with a truck driver career.

Something as interesting as a truck driver career is being offered to a lot of people and there are a lot of people who are interested in following such a career. A truck driving career is a very interesting one. The job has a lot of adventure and traveling associated with it and people who enjoy driving and traveling all over should take up this job. There are many trucking companies which run programs to train people in a truck driving career. Most of these companies start with a basic program which starts with basic company truck driver training instructions and gives information on the various types of trucks which are on the road.

A truck driver needs a special cdl license and has to undergo extensive training both in simulated conditions as well as on road conditions. A truck driver career is quite an interesting path to follow as the individual gets to travel quite a bit and gets to meet a lot of people. The pay and the benefits associated with a truck driving job are also quite good and this job is definitely made for the adventurous at heart.

Owner Operator Trucking Jobs

As one of the professions, Owner operator truck driving has been on rise. Moreover, Thousands of people have benefited from this opportunity. Truck driver jobs, apart from having offered security, aid you in having climbed the success ladder easily. Nearly 70% of goods move through trucks all through the US. Several businessmen go on to have depended on trucks to facilitate supply of equipments, materials, and the other resources. The need for owner operator truck drivers is increasing day by day. You would definitely not repent after having entered this profession.

Anybody interested in becoming an owner operator truck driver can find excellent owner operator jobs. As such, there isn’t any specific degree required for getting in to this profession. You, however, are required of having passed out from renowned driving school, wherein you can hone of driving skills, so as to develop concern about road safety as well as driving rules. After having passed driving test, a ‘Commercial Driver’s License’ would be obtained, which would enable you of having driven through nation, that too, in truck.

Having acquired the job of a driver isn’t all that difficult. The driving school would guide you with regards to the same. There’re recruiting sites exclusively launched for truck drivers. They aid you in identifying and applying to the topmost companies. Handsome salary, along with numerous benefits is offered to truck drivers. These benefits are inclusive of health, bonus, retirement schemes, and family insurance.

Now, if you can derive enormous benefits just by being truck driver, imagine the amount of money earned by you by being an owner-operator! At times, truck driver goes to drive truck belonging to some other person. If you, however, happen to own the truck, it can be leased to one of the top trucking companies, thereby increasing your income with regards to owner operator trucking as well.

Find Truck Driving Jobs

truck driver jobs for the experienced or even if you have Never Driven a Truck Before!

Infotrucker.com is the trucking industry’s online home of excellent truck driving jobs, both for new drivers and veterans. In OTR trucking, you’ll find a job with exciting challenges, full benefits and great pay. Best of all, you’ll find a job that you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder all day.
If you’re considering a career as a truck driver but you do not yet have a CDL license (try our free cdl practice tests)or you have one but lack the training and experience, Then let us get you matched with trucking companies that have paid driver training schools in your area. If you have experience and lots of seat time in a big rig, you can hook up here with the best trucking companies of your choice. Regardless, it’s time to take to the highway – the Big road is calling.

If you’re a truck driver or owner operator looking for available loads go to our truckload loadboard

No Truck Driver job Experience Needed! Click here

How much money a truck driver makes can vary greatly depending on the driver’s experience, safety record and type of route. In general, starting salaries range at about $40,000 per year, and with experience can range between $60,000-$65,000 per year. Team drivers can make upwards of $70,000. However, it takes a special attitude and personality to be a successful part of a sleeper team, you are confined in close quarters for long periods of time. Similarly, solo drivers that spend weeks out at a time doing over-the-road deliveries tend to make more than city drivers.

Best trucking companies and transportation jobs

P.A.M transport choose to drive truck in six divisions – No Truck Driving Experience Needed!
Truck Driver Pay
As a first-seat truck driver, you can expect to make up to $40,000 in your first year, and approximately $5,000 more than that in your second year. After completion of the CDL training, you’ll go over-the-road with an experienced truck driver trainer, where you’ll earn a salary of $300 per week. Once you complete the OTR training, you will go on mileage pay as a first-seat truck driver, starting at $.28 per mile.

Truck Driver Benefits
P.A.M. Transport has developed a benefits package for our truck drivers to promote both healthy bodies and healthy finances. Company truck drivers for P.A.M. Transport enjoy the following benefits:

Healthcare Coverage
Medical
Dental
Prescription

Life Insurance
Basic Term life insurance
Disability insurance

Retirement Plan
401k plan with company match

Paid Time Off (PTO)
1 week after one year of employment
2 weeks after two years of employment
3 weeks after five years of employment

Marten Transport, Ltd. truck driver job Marten Transport, Ltd. is looking for experienced, Class-A CDL truck drivers for their fleet. Marten offers Excellent Home Time, Great Benefits, and Competitive Pay.

Benefits:
We offer basic medical, dental and vision insurance, and company paid life insurance as well as:

* Disability insurance available
* Supplemental Life Insurance for driver, spouse, and children
* Flexible spending for medical and dependent care
* Employee Assistance Program – free counseling, with legal and financial services
* Orientation Pay- $500 for a Limited Time
* Transportation & Lodging for Orientation covered by Marten Transport
* Free TripPak Express
* Open door management policy
* Rider program available
* 401K eligibility after one year of employment
* Stop pay of $20 (excluding first and last drop/pick-up)
* Layover pay
* Loading and unloading pay – 100% reimbursed
* Direct deposit / weekly payroll
* Holiday incentive pay

Transforce Truck Drivers TRANSFORCE, the nations leading provider of professional CDL driver leasing/staffing services is seeking CDL Class A Haz-Mat drivers. Experienced Haz-Mat drivers need for long term temp to hire position in Columbia, SC.

We are currently looking to fill multiple openings immediately. Our mission is to provide our customers with the best possible customer service and timely deliveries in the industry. To do this, we are looking for only the best. Are you one of those drivers?

What you will find at TransForce…
* Hourly pay
* Full benefits available after 60 days FT
* 401 K
* Direct Deposit
* Weekly pay
* Respect, rewards and success!

Morgan Southern, Inc Truck driver jobsMorgan Southern is looking for Company Truck Drivers to run regionally.

Our Mission, is to provide the highest quality transportation services to the intermodal and shipping community.

Drivers will Recieve:
*Excellent Pay
*8 Paid Holidays
*Vacation
*Lease Purchase Plan (no down payment)
*Referral Bonus
*Great Equipment
*Personalized Dispatch
*Health Insurance
*Dental Insurance
*Prescription Plan
*Short Term Disability
*Life Insurance
*401K Savings Plan

Home Time:
Short Regional Driver – Home Often
Requirements Drivers must be 25 years old with minimum 2 years tractor/trailer driving experience, CDL-A with Hazmat, and a good driving record and work history.

Roehl Transport Inc high paying trucking jobs, You have a choice – You can choose a pay plan based on your individual needs, the pay plan that works best for you! For over nine years, independent surveys have ranked Roehl driver compensation among the 10 best in the nation. Roehl Transports attitude is defined below as:

Great trucking companies

don’t succeed without you. Different things are important to different people. And while there are any number of things to consider when choosing a company to drive for, we’ve noticed most people entering the business have four primary concerns:
* Income Potential – in other words how much will I earn?
* Home Time – will I have a family life and personal time too?
* Safety – will I be safe on the road?
* Training – how will I learn the job?
How about a $3000 sign on bonus?
You read it right, $3000 for signing on as an experienced driver to any of our available fleets. We have openings in our Regional and National Van Fleets, Regional and National Flatbed Fleets and our exclusive Hometime Plus Fleets with guaranteed home time.

Central Transport We need good truck drivers, If you are a quality driver looking for a company position in either Local Pickup & Delivery or Regional Linehaul operation, contact us today and find out what we can offer you!
Central Transport, Inc. one of the nation’s largest carriers, has immediate openings for qualified drivers
Qualifications:
* 21 years of age or older
* Must possess a minimum of six months experience for city positions and 12 months for road positions
* Must possess a valid CDL with Hazardous Materials and Doubles endorsements
* Must possess an acceptable Motor Vehicle Record in accordance with company standards
* Must be able to perform freight handling duties utilizing motorized forklift and manual pallet jack/handcart
* Successful completion of Department of Transportation physical
* Successful completion of drug tests
* Ability to follow instructions and work independently and/or as a team

NFI Industries trucking and transportation jobs with nearly 50 trucking/maintenance facilities nationwide – over 8,000 tractors & trailers – OTR and dedicated fleets

OTR Driver Qualifications Do You Have What It Takes? Only the Best Drive for NFI…
Standards for NFI driver are higher than those of many other trucking companies.
You may qualify if…
* You are 23 or older
* You have at least 1 year over-the-road/tractor trailer experience within the last 3 years
Or, 6 months over-the-road experience within the last 3 years for the Transition Program. (Call our toll free numbers for information on our Transition Program that is 20 days or 3 weeks depending on your area applied for. We pay more than any other carrier in the U.S., $350 per week.)
* You meet all DOT/NFI requirements, including a drug screen and a formal check on your background, medical history, and safe driving record.
* Valid Commercial Drivers License (Class A CDL). HazMat Endorsements a plus for Regional/OTR and some dedicated accounts.

Schneider National professional truck driving opportunities nationwide — At Schneider National, experienced truck drivers enjoy immediate coverage on medical, dental, vision and life insurance, a 50%-100% company-matched 401(k) plan and paid orientation. In other words, the best jobs in trucking today! Visit the benefits section for more information.
Schneider Offers Industry Leading Pay
1 year experience 39¢ – 42¢/mile
3 years experience 40¢ – 43¢/mile
5+ years experience 41¢ – 45.5¢/mile
Inexperienced Drivers
Never Driven a Truck Before?

Schneider National offers company-provided truck driving school for qualified candidates. With its world-class training program, the Schneider Training Academy will teach you how to drive a tractor-trailer. We put a strong emphasis on safety to make sure you and other motorists remain safe on the road.
Many Schneider National drivers had other careers before they joined our team. Schneider truck driver trainees come from all walks of life prior to enrolling in the Schneider Training Academy. Find out why they chose a career in truck driving.

C. R. England Trucking Company – The nation’s largest refrigerated carrier. has provided truck driving jobs to experienced and inexperienced truck drivers alike for more than 87 years. Inexperienced truck drivers or those who want to start their truck driving career can attend one of four truck driving schools offered by C.R. England for a truck driver training program considered among the best in the industry.
Trucking Jobs:
The truck driver can become a company truck driver with all the benefits of working with a large company. The truck driver can become a team driver with their spouse, a friend or C. R. England will match him with another truck driver. Once a truck driver has 6 months experience the truck driver can become a Truck Driver Trainer and earn extra money by training new truck drivers for C. R. England.
Truck Driving Schools

Due to the growth of C. R England and the need for truck drivers, England in 1988 started their own truck driving schools. Currently there are four truck driving schools located throughout the country providing CDL truck driver training for individuals seeking a new career. Truck driving students, who complete the course at a C. R. England Truck driving school, are guaranteed a job with C. R. England.
Provide Truck Drivers with Top of the Line Equipment

C. R. England is known for it’s top of the line equipment. A truck driver for C. R. England will never drive a truck older than 3 years. A truck driver with C. R. England has many choices for a career with C. R. England. A truck driver can own his own business as an Owner Operator by leasing or buying his own truck. England will lease a truck to the truck driver for no money down and no credit check and then contract with the truck driver to deliver freight.
The Best Truck Driving Job

If you are looking for a truck driver job, a truck driving school and starting a new career as a CDL truck driver, C. R. England is the trucking job for you.

Find Better Truck driver Jobs Today! jobs for owner operators, company truck drivers and every industry you can think of.

10 Ways to Stand Out From Your Competition

Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor

Job hunting on the Internet is fast, easy and economical. According to a survey of outplaced managers by international outplacement consulting firm Lee Hecht Harrison, more than 40 percent of those who posted their trucking resume or retrieved job listings online got interviews as a result.

Only problem is, with the sheer volume of job seekers on the prowl, it can be hard to get an employer’s attention. Most companies today use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to scan resumes and weed out irrelevant candidates. The systems use keywords and phrases that describe the required skills, education and experience to place the most qualified resumes at the top of the list. So, how do you make it past the gatekeeping technology? Here are 10 things you should keep in mind:

Pay close attention to the employer’s or recruiter’s instructions for submitting your resume on each posting. What format should the resume be in and should it be embedded in an e-mail, e-mailed as an attachment, faxed or mailed? Do they want you to include a position code to help them identify the job you’re applying for?

Don’t get labeled a resume spammer by applying for jobs you are not qualified for or by applying for the same job several different times.

Do post one or more versions of your resume on national online recruitment sites. It gives employers’ 24/7 access to your credentials and targets your resume to more jobs.

Think twice about using a resume distribution service that “blasts” your resume to thousands of recruiters, headhunters and potential employers. The resumes are generic and may not address the actual job qualifications. Corporate recruiters are largely unimpressed as one described these mass mailings as “a lazy person’s way of looking for a job.”

All resumes should be accompanied by a brief cover letter or note (it should take no more than two screens to read) that specifies the job you are applying for and sells your credentials. Make sure you use keywords so that search engines will pick up on them. Since most e-mail programs don’t have spell-check, you may want to compose it in a word-processing program and copy and paste it into the e-mail message.

If you’ve sent your truck driver resume to a corporate Web site, follow up once to see if the job is still available and remind the employer that you are interested and highlighting one or two qualifications.

While fancy resume designs may look attractive on a hard copy, they could pose formatting problems online. Remember to keep it simple. Choose a standard typeface and avoid using any graphics or shading or indents. To enhance readability of your text resume, make sure you left justify all text. Most online sites give you the ability to preview your resume before it is submitted. Make sure you do so thoroughly.

Never send an unsolicited resume as an e-mail attachment. Fearful of viruses, many companies warn employees not to open attachments from unknown senders.

Make sure your resume is noun-intensive. Scanning technology used by most companies tends to search by nouns, not verbs. For example, instead of writing “managed projects” on your resume, write “project manager.”

You may also want to include a Career Summary section at the top of your resume to allow you to use more of the keywords and jargon that describe your skills and accomplishments. This will increase your chances of your resume making the first cut by the ATS as well as the recruiting staff.

Kate Lorenz is the article and advice editor for CareerBuilder.com.

When Your Skills Aren’t a Perfect Match

Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor

In the course of a truck driver job search, it’s very common for job seekers to locate openings that closely match their skills and experience but are not a perfect fit. So what do you do when the description fits you to a tee but your skills fall just a little short? Overwhelmingly, experts say that you should not be discouraged and should apply for the job. Consider these dos and don’ts for getting noticed for the skills you do have instead of those you lack.

DO use a functional resume. A functional resume emphasizes experience. It can be tailored around the specific job you are trying to land by highlighting the credentials that most qualify you for the position. Experts suggest that you strategically order your qualifications based on the order they appear in the job description. Typically, the most important job duties are listed at the beginning of the job ad and the less important ones at the end.

DO insert trucking job skill categories into your resume to highlight the specific experience and unique qualities you possess and how they relate to the job requirements. This is a highly-effective way to grab the hiring manager’s attention. Depending on the type of job you are applying for, categories might include “sales management,” “customer service,” “account management,” or “copywriting.”

DON’T over-inflate your qualifications to land an interview. There’s nothing worse than exaggerating your experience and being called on it during the interview. It’s better to be truthful about the skills and experience you do possess rather than face this embarrassing situation in the interview.

DO write a compelling cover letter to accompany your resume. Cover letters should be no more than one page in length and should convince the reader that you have something valuable to contribute to their company. It should address the job requirements and how your experience applies. If you possess four of the required five – six skills the company is seeking, your letter should emphasize these four and ignore the skills you lack. A good cover letter should show the reader that you have researched their company and that it will be worth their time to interview you.

DON’T be tempted to re-use a standard cover letter. A cover letter is your first chance to make a positive impression. Don’t blow it by using an uninspired message. Customize your letter for the specific job. Hiring managers can see right through generic ones and may sort them right into the circular file.

DO ask yourself the following question: “If I were the hiring manager, why would I hire this person over the others who applied?” Use the answer as your inspiration when writing your cover letter.

DON’T neglect your interpersonal skills. The ability to work well with others, maintain a positive attitude, and handle confidential information are crucial qualities that all employers seek in their candidates. You should emphasize these attributes in your cover letter and resume.

DO show that you are willing and able to learn new skills. If you lack a required skill, but are a good match otherwise, consider signing up for a course on the topic and mention this in your cover letter. If experience is the best teacher for a required skill, show how you have learned other desirable skills in your present job to demonstrate your ability to learn while you work.

DON’T limit your experience to paid jobs. Many skills are learned through volunteer work, hobbies, school, church and community activities. Be sure to include these life-learned skills in your communication to potential employers. For instance, if the job posting requires budget management skills, show how your role as treasurer for the PTA taught you how to manage multiple projects and budgets and report spending.

Bottom line, no matter how you handle these near-perfect matches, remember to always emphasize the positive.

The One Thing That Will Improve Your Résumé

Too many books on résumé writing are out-of-date. Although well-intentioned and filled with other good information, most have not been updated for the modern job search.

Your résumé will be seen by many eyes, including electronic. Computers “score” résumés by the number of keywords (also known as “buzzwords”) the employer will find most relevant. If you don’t account for this, your résumé could stay locked in some database, never to be even seen by anyone while you wait for a call that never comes.

Write a “Keyword Competencies” section.

One solution for the electronic gatekeeper (or applicant tracking system) is to include a special section called a “Keyword Competencies” section. You want to focus on the words most likely to be used by either a HR administrator, hiring manager or recruiter. They search résumés by keywords. The greater number of relevant keywords you can include, the higher relevancy score your résumé will be given.

This section should list all the relevant keywords pertaining to your career and skills. This section is best listed at the beginning of your résumé to introduce the skill sets you possess early on from an interviewing standpoint. Include no more than 75 keywords.

For example, if you were a Java Programmer, your “Keyword Competencies” section might look something like this:

“Java, Visual C++, perl, ticl, application development, visual basic, Windows NT/XP, programming, GUI, html, project management, layer 2, BSEE.”

The idea here is to put in as many relevant, searchable keywords that describe your potential trucking job title, technical skills, management or organizational skills, relevant software and/or mechanical abilities and expertise. Include anything that might be important to the particular job.

In addition, if you can locate a description of an actual job or one similar to the actual job for which you are applying, copy in all the applicable buzzwords listed under required and desired skills. This includes education levels (if they require a BS in Electrical Engineering, then include “BSEE” as well).

If you spend some time on this, you should easily come up with a list of from 40 to 80 relevant searchable keywords to include here.

As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their career. You can discover more insider job search secrets by visiting http://www.jobchangesecrets.com.

Joe Turner, Career Coach

Avoid These Résumé Blunders

A résumé in and of itself may not get you that killer job, but if you blunder in composing it, you might kill any chance for an interview.

Here are some blunders, big and not so big, to avoid when putting your résumé together.

• Lying about your experience.
  Augmenting your credentials with a little fiction might help you get the job, but you almost certainly will be found out. This could cause you to be fired sometime down the road. Worse, you will have gravely harmed your reputation within your chosen industry. Industry people travel in the same circles. It’s highly likely that your employer will someday bump into someone who knows the real you, so don’t say you were Phi Beta Kappa if you were a C student. Even a little white lie can backfire.

Here’s a real workplace example: An employee’s company was relocating to another state, and people were offered severance packages if they did not want to move. This man used the company fax machine to send a résumé to a potential employer. He listed his current position as chief information officer, when in fact he was not involved in technology at all and held a lesser title. He was found out because he left his résumé in the company fax machine, where co-workers found it. Not only did he not get the new job, he lost the one he had, along with severance benefits he would have received.

• Typos and misspellings.
  You send a very negative message about your quality of work and attention to detail if your résumé and cover letter aren’t perfectly clean. Don’t rely on your computer’s spell check function. Your computer won’t know if you negotiated with unions or onions. Review each word carefully, and have someone else review it too. Even if you are a good word person, it’s easy to miss a typo because you know what you intended to write.

• Cutesy-pie layouts and stationery.
  Some people believe that their résumé will stand out in the crowd if they stray from the conventional layout. This might work well if you are sending a résumé for a creative job like a graphic artist and you know that someone is definitely going to look at it. It could work against you, too. In fact, some companies scan résumés into a computer for later review. If yours is too radical, it may not scan and you won’t be considered at all. If you want to alter the color of your stationery, make sure the cover letter and résumé are the same color. And keep it conservative – no hot pinks.

• Telling too much about yourself.
  Don’t feel that you have to share personal information, and be careful what you do share. You might run into someone’s bias, so avoid hitting those hot buttons. If you were president of the Young Republicans, your Democrat interviewer may not be impressed. Working for environmental or political causes won’t impress everyone the same way. If you list golf as a hobby, someone might think you would spend too much time on the course. Even mentioning leadership roles at your place of worship could keep you from getting an interview. You can always discuss what’s important to you once you are seated face to face, but don’t deny yourself that opportunity.

Five Easy Ways to Improve Your Trucking Résumé

Ah, the wisdom of teen movies. Remember in “Clueless” when Cher and Dionne gave Miss Geist a makeover in the faculty lounge? All it took was a few minor adjustments to turn the disheveled teacher into “not a total Betty, but a vast improvement.” The same principle can be applied to your trucking résumé.

Look at your résumé: Would you still be compelled to read it if it wasn’t your own, or would the vast array of typos, unusual fonts, long sentences and obscure language turn you away? While your résumé may not be a full-on Monet (meaning, up close, it’s a big old mess), it may simply need some minor tweaking in order to get noticed. Take these five small steps to see big results.

1. Spell check… the old-fashioned way.
Spelling and grammar errors can be the kiss of death for résumés: They show employers that you don’t pay attention to detail. Computer spell-check programs don’t always pick up these errors, so make sure you proofread it yourself before handing it in. For insurance and a fresh perspective, have a friend look it over, too.

2. Put it in reverse chronological order.
Organize your résumé to reflect your most recent job at the top and include dates of employment. Employers tend to prefer these over functional résumés, which can be great if you’re switching career paths, but otherwise make it difficult to determine when you worked where and can hide employment gaps.

3. Simplify your language.
Keep your sentences short and don’t worry about fragments.

• Leave out personal pronouns like “I,” “my” and “me.” Saying, “I performed” this or “I demonstrated” that is redundant. Who else would you be talking about if not yourself?


• Omit the articles “a,” “an” and “the.” Instead of “Coordinated the special events for the alumni association,” simplify it to say, “Coordinated alumni association special events.”


• Take out terms like “assisted in,” “participated in,” and “helped with.” If you assisted in managing client accounts, simply say, “Managed client accounts.” You can explain later what this role entailed.


• Change passive statements to active verbs. Saying “Coordinated client meetings” instead of “Ensured client meetings were coordinated” adds punch and clarity to a job description.


• Exclude words like “responsibilities” and “duties” under job listings. Your résumé should focus on accomplishments, not tasks.

4. Eliminate clutter.
Format your résumé for consistency and easy reading.

• Bold, italicize or underline important headlines (just don’t do all three at once – that’s overkill).


• Create a bulleted list – not a paragraph formation – for job descriptions


• Use a standard font like 11 point Times New Roman or Arial. Fancier fonts are not only harder to read, but they may become garbled in an e-mail format.


• Combine series’ of short, odd jobs into one listing. (For example: “1999-2002 Barista – Village Café, Starbucks, Seattle’s Best…”)

5. Read it aloud.
Reading your résumé aloud will help you identify areas that need improvement or clarification. If something doesn’t sound right to you, it won’t sound right to a hiring manager.

Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com writer

Seven Cover Letter Don’ts

Tag and Catherine Goulet, co-CEOs of FabJob.com

Don’t Risk Using the Wrong Résumé?

Many job seekers are aware of only one type of résumé format: chronological, in which your work history is presented in reverse order. But just because this style is the most popular doesn’t mean it’s the best option for you.

Employers prefer this type of résumé over others because it provides an easy-to-follow snapshot of your work experience. A chronological résumé is a good option if you are pursuing a position in a field in which you have a solid and consistent record of progress. Using this format, however, can be detrimental to your job search efforts if your most recent work experience does not relate to the job for which you are applying.

A chronological résumé also can be troublesome in the following situations:

You have worked exclusively in one field and are applying for a job in a different profession.

You are seeking an entry-level position and have almost no work experience.

You have been a chronic job hopper and held most of your jobs for less than one year.

Your employment history has large gaps.

If you feel a chronological résumé is not right for you, consider these other options instead:

The Functional Résumé
The functional résumé is organized around your skills, experiences and accomplishments rather than on specific jobs you’ve held. It omits (or only mentions in broad terms) your previous roles and dates of employment. Overall, a functional résumé warrants considerations if:

You are an entry-level job seeker with no significant work-related experience.

You are re-entering the workforce after a lengthy absence and little of your work history has bearing on the kind of job you are trying to find.

You have held several jobs, but those jobs do not demonstrate professional growth.

Advantages

The chief advantage of a functional résumé is that it enables you to give prominence to those aspects of your background likely to be of special interest to would-be employers, such as experience in a particular industry or time spent working overseas. This format also shifts the focus away from aspects of your background — long periods of unemployment, for example — that might hurt your chances of getting by the initial screening process.

Disadvantages

The major disadvantage of functional résumés is that many employers view them with suspicion. While your strengths and accomplishments are important to a potential employer, most want to know what specific job you held that enabled you to demonstrate the skills you’re describing. They also want to know how recent that experience was and, if possible, see some continuity.

The Combination Résumé

The combination résumé incorporates the best features of both chronological and functional résumés. Generally, it leads with a description of your functional skills and related qualifications, followed by a reverse-chronological employment history. The combination résumé may be a good choice if:

You are looking to change careers and want to highlight general skills that relate to your past jobs.

You have had no luck in getting past the screening process with a chronological résumé.

You are applying for a job that interests you and that you think you can handle, but the connection between your work history and that particular job is not particularly strong.

Advantages

The principal advantage of a combination résumé is that, like a functional résumé, it enables you to establish early on what you have accomplished in your career and what skills and attributes you can offer a potential employer. But because you also will include a description of your work history, you can diffuse the suspicions that may arise when the information is omitted.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of a combination résumé is that some employers — those who prefer chronological résumés — may assume that you are attempting to conceal certain aspects of your background. This is not a significant disadvantage, however, as combination résumés are becoming increasingly common.

Ultimately, there is no one right format that you should use when writing your résumé. It might make sense to choose a certain layout for one prospective employer and a different one for another in order to best showcase your skills. But no matter which format you use, make sure your résumé looks professional, provides proof of real results and is targeted to the company’s needs. The extra time you take to customize it will pay off by generating more interest from hiring managers.

Robert Half International is the world’s first and largest specialized staffing firm with a global network of more than 360 offices throughout North America, South America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. For more information about our professional services, please visit www.rhi.com.

Robert Half International