If there’s one resume format you absolutely need to master, it’s the chronological resume. Learn how to use this versatile format to your advantage.
Career Expert
A chronological resume format is one of the best options out there to showcase your work experience and qualification. It highlights not only your job history, but also any awards, recognition or accomplishments that you have earned. Plus, its simple structure makes it easier to navigate and scan.
Read on to learn more about why a chronological format is a great option for your resume.
This guide will show you:
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Eager to learn more about resume writing before diving into your chronological resume? Check out these resources:
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A chronological resume is a resume that focuses on your work history or your education, presented in the order from your most recent achievements to your humble beginnings. It’s the most common of the three resume formats, the other two being the functional resume and the combination resume.
Sometimes, the term reverse-chronological resume is used. It sounds like the opposite of a chronological resume, but in fact the two terms mean exactly the same. Why do people use it?
They want to emphasize that a resume goes “back in time” from your most recent position to your earliest relevant jobs, hence the word reverse.
No matter if you’re writing your first resume with no experience or applying for a senior position at an international company, a reverse-chronological resume is always a good choice. Here’s why:
Of course, there are a few exceptions. For example, your work history might be hard to present in a nice, structured way (this sometimes happens to freelancers and creatives). Or you may be starting a whole new career, so you feel that your skills are much more relevant than your previous experience. In this case, you may opt for a functional resume, which focuses on skills rather than work history.
Or you may be applying for a senior position where extensive experience and a unique skillset are equally important, so a combination resume might work better for you.
However, the reverse-chronological resume is still the best choice for the majority of candidates and the majority of jobs.
There are two basic ways to structure a chronological resume, depending on how experienced you are:
If you have relevant experience, make it the most prominent part of your resume and put your education below it.
But if you’re just starting out, put your education above your (modest) work experience. You’ll flip them in a few years’ time when writing your next resume.
The quickest, easiest way to write a resume is to use a resume builder with a rich gallery of built-in resume templates. You just fill in the blanks using our built-in tips and autofill features, fine-tune the colors and fonts, and hit the Download button.
Here are some of the reverse-chronological resume templates that have helped our users land their dream jobs:
This chronological resume template is a favorite among our users. Its bold contrasting sidebar offers ample space for your skills, languages, and personal info. Your work experience and education section get all the attention they deserve thanks to the clean, structured layout.
Cubic is one of our most versatile templates for a chronological resume. No matter how much (or how little) information you’d like to put on the page, it never looks empty or overcrowded.
Expert Hint: With all our templates, you can adjust the font sizes as well as the line and entry spacing to make sure your resume fills the page optimally.
Primo gives you an opportunity to establish your personal brand without hiring a designer to create your logo—a sleek, modern graphical interpretation of your initials is an integral part of this chronological resume template!
This template is a mirror image of Cascade—this time, the distinctive sidebar is on the right. As always, feel free to use the editor’s drag and drop functionality to reorder the resume sections according to your needs.
This reverse chronological resume template offers a clean single-column resume layout and a sophisticated logo in the corner. The smart use of whitespace makes this template remarkably easy on the eyes.
This bold resume template is another great choice for reverse-chronological types of resumes. The timeline emphasizes your growth and progress, and the modern round icons help guide the reader’s eye towards the most important information.
Writing a resume can be a daunting task, but we know how to make it easy and painless. You can check out our full data-driven guide on how to write a resume or go through the steps outlined in this article.
The resume header is the part on top of your resume that contains your contact information, that is:
While writing a resume header sounds simple, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Your resume profile is that little paragraph on top of your resume. There are two kinds of resume profiles:
In a resume summary, you point out a few of your key achievements and promise to achieve similar (or even greater) successes for your new employer.
A resume objective, on the other hand, focuses on your skills and how you’re going to use them to help your new employer achieve their business goals.
Whichever one you pick, here’s a universal formula to follow:
Here’s what a resume summary can look like, as seen on a senior marketing specialist resume:
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For most candidates, listing education on their chronological resumes is a sheer formality. If you have over 2 years of relevant experience in your field, make your education section brief and to-the-point. Include only:
Like in this example:
BSc in Mathematics; Minor in Italian
The City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY
Recently graduated and don’t have a solid work history to show off yet? Do two things:
First of all, make your education section the main selling point of your chronological resume. Put it above the work experience.
Secondly, add more details about your educational background: list relevant coursework, honors and awards, extracurricular activities, and other achievements. You can learn more by reading our guide to perfecting your education section.
Writing the skills section feels like tiresome guesswork to many candidates. But what if we told you that it’s actually very easy to identify the skills the recruiter wants to see on your resume? They’re all in the job ad.
Read the job ad carefully and highlight all skills-related keywords you can find. There’ll be quite a few.
Pick somewhere between 8–10 of them, put them into a bulleted list, and you’ve got the skills section of your resume. Just make sure that these skills actually apply to you!
To make your expertise more believable, sprinkle the skills from your list all over your resume profile and work experience sections. This will make your resume more cohesive. Also, resume-evaluating software will love seeing keywords from the job ad in your resume.
Need more tips? Check out our complete guide to skills to put on a resume for an in-depth look at crafting a job-winning skills list.
By now, you’ve completed all the mandatory sections of a reverse-chronological resume. But, where do you put additional certifications? Awards? Relevant volunteering experience? Unique hobbies? Well, that’s what additional resume sections are for. Here are some common ones:
A word of warning, though: your resume shouldn’t include every remotely interesting fact about you. Only include relevant information and boost your value in the recruiter’s eyes.
Are you a DIY kind of person? Prefer to create your resume from scratch using Word or Google Docs? Here’s a basic template you can copy and paste:
[Resume Objective or Resume Summary]
Experience
Education
[School Name & Address]
Associations
Certifications
Skills
Languages
Interests
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The reverse-chronological resume focuses on your work history and education. It presents your professional growth by starting with your most recent achievements and ending with your earlier successes. Because it’s so versatile, the reverse-chronological resume is the most popular resume format.
Here’s how to write it step by step:
Questions? Concerns? Need further help? We’re here to listen and respond. Drop us a line in the comments, and I’ll get back to you double-quick!
At ResumeLab, quality is at the crux of our values, supporting our commitment to delivering top-notch career resources. The editorial team of career experts carefully reviews every article in accordance with editorial guidelines, ensuring the high quality and reliability of our content. We actively conduct original research, shedding light on the job market's intricacies and earning recognition from numerous influential news outlets. Our dedication to delivering expert career advice attracts millions of readers to our blog each year.
Written by Olga BerOlga is a career expert with a background in teaching. At ResumeLab, she writes actionable guides to help job-seekers highlight their unique strengths and unlock their career potential.
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Certified Professional Resume Writer, Career Expert
* The names and logos of the companies referred to above are all trademarks of their respective holders. Unless specifically stated otherwise, such references are not intended to imply any affiliation or association with ResumeLab
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