Most recruiters agree that the format of the CV influences their hiring decisions almost as much as the content of the CV. Thus, whether you are applying for your first job, looking for a job change, or applying for a job after taking a break in your career, you need to pay attention to the CV format your choose. The internet is flooded with various CV formats that you can select from to highlight your academic and professional achievements. While a good CV format helps in creating a good first impression on the recruiter, a poor format leaves the recruiter unimpressed and the CV being placed in the bottom of the pile.

Different formats of CV
Broadly speaking there are three basic CV formats that you can choose from while making your resume. These include functional format, chronological format, and combination format. While a chronological format resume lists all the academic milestones and career highlights in a chronological order, a functional format resume lists key skills and achievements of the person in order of their importance rather than occurrence. On the other hand, a combination format combines the key elements of chronological and functional formats.

More about different resume formats
Most of us are only aware of the chronological format of CV where the name and contact information of the applicant goes on top of the resume followed by professional accomplishments and academic achievements in reverse chronological order. This format is best suited to highlight a rocketing career graph with significant career growth from one job to another.

It is highly recommended that you use the functional format while making your CV if you are changing your career focus or have taken a long leave of absence in the recent times. This is because the functional format of CV breaks the chronology and deemphasizes any career detours and interruption of work while highlighting the skills as well as key academic and professional accomplishments of the person.

Final word
Regardless of the CV format you choose to make your resume, you should keep some basic pointers in mind. These include being true about your academic qualifications and professional accomplishments, using short sentences, checking for typo and spelling errors before taking a print out, using good quality paper, and keeping your resume between one to three pages. Do not include any graphics or your photograph, unless relevant and do not use all caps. Finally, do mention other skills that you may have such as specific computer skills, languages, and so on.