The Skills Based Resume: Template & Writing Guide

What is a skills-based resume?

A skills-based resume (also called a functional resume) is a resume format that organizes your qualifications under job-relevant skills instead of presenting a timeline of your previous jobs.

For example:

If you’re struggling to highlight your relevant qualifications and transferable skills in a standard resume format, the skills-based resume might be for you.

Free skills-based resume template

Here’s a template you can download and edit that uses a skills-based format:

Download This Resume Template

Find skills for your resume

Try our AI-powered skills generator to find the right skills for your target job.

Is a skill-based resume right for you?

A skills-based resume is most appropriate if you:

• have a non-traditional career path
• are changing industries
• have a long gap in your employment history

Otherwise, you should stick to the chronological resume format. It’s the most widely accepted resume format, and straying from the norm can make employers think you’re trying to hide something.

To build trust, remain transparent about your history and use your cover letter to explain why the skills-based format best highlights your qualifications for the role.

If you think highlighting both competencies and work history would strengthen your application, consider a hybrid (combination) resume. This format balances skill clusters with a visible timeline to mitigate the risks of a purely functional layout by providing recruiters with clear chronological context for your achievements.

Make your resume in minutes

Quickly build a resume that highlights your strengths, whatever your background. Choose a template and get personalized content that sounds natural and professional.

Build my resume

Chronological vs. skills-based resumes: Key differences

The primary difference between a chronological and a skills-based resume lies in their focus and layout.

A chronological resume acts as a professional timeline, emphasizing your career progression by listing your work history in reverse-chronological order. Conversely, a skills-based resume prioritizes your specific competencies, grouping your achievements under categorized skill headings rather than specific job titles or dates.

These formats direct the reader’s attention to different parts of your professional story. A chronological resume highlights growth and stability by placing your job experience front and center.

In a skills-based resume, your work history is typically condensed into a simplified list at the bottom of the page, allowing your technical or soft skills to serve as your primary professional narrative.

Tips for writing a resume that highlights skills

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing a skills-based resume:

1. Choose your most relevant skills

When deciding what skills to include on your resume, take into account both the needs of the position and what you consider to be your greatest personal strengths. Striking the right balance between these two is key to landing the job you want.

If you’re not sure where to start, one good approach is to carefully read through the job description and highlight all the skills the company mentions. From there, shortlist the skills you have and begin to note examples of your experience applying those skills in work or life experience.

After a bit of brainstorming, you should see the basic structure of your skills section coming together. Choose roughly 3-5 skills to serve as subheadings for your skills section.

Here’s an example of how the skills section of a skill-based resume should look:

2. Give specific, action-oriented examples

Remember when using the skills-based resume format to give detailed examples of how you applied each skill you listed on your resume. This approach lets employers know you’re not making empty claims.

Under each skill category, write a few bullet points describing how you’ve used this skill in a professional capacity.

As you normally would in the work experience section of a standard resume, start off each bullet point with an action verb rather than something passive like “responsible for”.

Here’s an example of how a candidate described their sales experience on a skills-based resume:

To make your own relevant skills bullet points more effective, take a cue from the above example and add details like the type of project, any software or tools you used, and how your efforts helped reach a desired result.

Employers also love to see hard numbers on a resume, so mention the following metrics whenever relevant:

• Budget size
• Number of clients served
• Revenue generated
• Success rate
• Reduction in expenses
• Customer satisfaction rate

3. Include a concise professional experience section

In a smaller section, list some basic information about your employment history. For each entry, include these details:

• Company/organization name
• Position title
• Dates of employment (usually just the years)

Here’s an example of a condensed work experience section from a skills-based resume:

If you have lots of sporadic work experience, pick what you think employers will most want to see or what gives context to the experiences you mentioned in your skills section.

4. Select a clean, well-organized template

When using a non-traditional resume format, it’s especially important to make sure the other elements are in line with employer expectations.

To make sure your resume passes applicant tracking systems, choose a professional resume template that avoids tables, text boxes, or graphics and uses standard section labels like “Skills,” “Experience,” and “Education.”

Resume examples for different industries

Not sure what your resume should look like? The best way to learn is by taking inspiration from resume examples written by other candidates in your industry.

20 categories

+457 free templates

Browse Resume Examples

Additional skills-related resources

Below is a list of skills that are highly sought after by employers that you can add to your skills-based resume.

• Analytical skills
• Sales skills
• Marketing skills
• Collaboration skills
• Leadership and management skills
• Organizational skills
• Teamwork skills
• Transferable skills
• Customer service skills