Katherina Hansen propvids an article on hen to use a functional resume here; http://www.quintcareers.com/functional_resume.html 

Some points on when its appropriate to use functrional resumes are here;

• Those with very diverse experiences that don't add up to a clear-cut career path.
• College students with minimal experience and/or experience unrelated to their chosen career field.
• Career-changers who wish to enter a field very different from what all their previous experience points to.
• Those with gaps in their work history, such as homemakers who took time to raise and family and now wish to return to the workplace. For them, a chronological format can draw undue attention to those gaps, while a functional resume enables them to portray transferable skills attained through such activities as domestic management and volunteer work.
• Military transitioners entering a different field from the work they did in the military.
• Job-seekers whose predominate or most relevant experience has been unpaid, such as volunteer work or college activities (coursework, class projects, extracurricular organizations, and sports).
• Those who performed very similar activities throughout their past jobs who want to avoid repeating those activities in a chronological job listing.
• Job-seekers looking for a position for which a chronological listing would make them look "overqualified."
• Older workers seeking to deemphasize a lengthy job history.

Any comments from hiring managers?