New York Lawyer
May 22, 2001

Q:
I�m going to leave law practice to return to my previous career in business planning and development. I know that in face-to-face interviews I can show how my law firm experience benefits me, but I�m afraid that if I use the usual reverse chronological resume, they�ll see the law firm first and pigeonhole me as a lawyer. Is it okay to use a chronological resume so that my earlier accomplishments in my chosen field appear first?

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A:
In a word, no. Some of the conventions in job-search land are pretty rigid, and the depiction of one�s career path reverse-chronologically is one of them. The logic behind the convention is sound: supposedly, we�re supposed to get smarter and wiser with age. Ergo, your most recent position theoretically represents your highest level of capability � and it also reflects your most recent decision about what you want to do for a living. If you try too hard to emphasize your past, you�re likely to raise questions about whether something is wrong with your present.

Any unusual formatting technique or stunt � including Olde Englishe type, purple paper, or binding your marketing verbiage in a bound Morocco leather binder � is likely to backfire. It may get you attention, but not the way you want.

A particularly dumb bit of conventional wisdom holds that career shifters should utilize a functional resume format, where you hide (on the second page) or completely omit your career chronology and instead list a bunch of claimed capabilities or competencies. I can�t agree. In my experience, functional resumes usually are regarded as evasive and manipulative, and frequently are thrown away without being read.

Ah, but there is an out. In many resumes, after you�ve stated a career profile or objective (and please never write contentless garbage like: �I want a challenging job in a progressive company that will utilize my many skills and abilities and contribute to the goals of the company.� Arrgh!), you list your employer, your dates of employment, your title, your responsibilities . . . and then some �selected accomplishments.� These are brief, past-tense, verb-driven phrases that state what you did and what the stakes were.

However, it appears to be kosher to gather up a number of your tastiest, most relevant (for your new role) accomplishments, and push them to the front of the resume. Right after your profile, you can put another heading � something like �Relevant Career Accomplishments� or �Selected Accomplishments� � followed by 4-6 (no more, please) accomplishments. Moreover, you can put them in any order you want; here, they do not have to be reverse-chronological.

Generally, human logic says that things that come first are most important/relevant, so you may want to arrange these so that the capabilities that are most germane to you new calling are the first things the reader sees. Make sure, however, that the format of your resume shows that right after this section, your �Professional Accomplishments� section is still visible on page 1. The reader, at a glance, must see that he/she is going to get what he or she wants: a reverse-chronological career history. And by the way, keep your education at the back. In anything but your first or second job, you should be selling your accomplishments, not your education.

Sincerely,
Douglas B. Richardson
President, The Richardson Group