Almost half (49.4 percent) of surveyed employers said they prefer chronological resumes, according to results from the 2010 Orange County Resume Survey.*
Almost 39 percent preferred a combination of a chronological and functional resume format, while just under 6 percent preferred a purely functional format, 3.5 percent had no preference, 2.4 percent preferred a portfolio.
Given strong sentiment against any type of functional format reported by employers in recent years, the finding that more than a third in this survey preferred a format with combined chronological and functional elements is surprising. Respondents likely had widely varying concepts of what a “combination” format looks like.
A chronological format is always the safest choice, but some situations — career change, employment gaps, lack of clear career path — call for chrono-functional formats. Thus, it’s encouraging that, at least in this survey, employers were open to these combo resume formats.
*The 2010 Orange County Resume Survey by The Center for Career and Life Development, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA, Eric Hilden, Career Placement Officer, was distributed by email to 2,000+ employer contacts in Orange County and shared online employer contacts in Orange County and shared online via social-networking sites including Linkedin.com and Twitter.
