Standard resume templates usually include a location for your address at the top. AvidCareerist’s Donna Svei points out, however, how filling that area out can actually work against you and decrease your job opportunities.
Photo by aaron_anderer
When recruiters know exactly where you live, she writes, they take into consideration your commuting time:
You might not have thought about it, but in-house recruiters know that people with long commutes have more stress and often eventually quit “because of the commute.” If you quit, they don’t look good AND they have to replace you. That’s more work, with no more money, for them.
When you put your address on your resume, believe me, they do the maths. If your commute would be longer than what’s tolerable long-term, your resume often finds its way into the “maybe” or “no” pile.
So instead of including your home address, just put the city of your employer(s) in the experience section. Head over to AvidCareerist for examples of how this should look and more advice on commuting and job satisfaction.
The Real Reason You Shouldn’t Put Your Address on Your Resume [AvidCareerist]
Comments
9 responses to “Why You Shouldn’t Put Your Address On Your Resume”
I don’t think I’ve ever put my address on a resume. It’s just not relevant to helping identify if I’m a viable candidate and then be able to contact me if necessary. The golden rule with resumes is to only include relevant information.
Having seen this the current job I’m now is I got selected over one of the other candidates because I was just as qualified but closer to the business. They would rather someone that was able to get here fairly quickly in case of an emergency type situation as opposed to someone who was nearly an hour away.
Agree.
Good advice would be: Only put your address on your resume if it will help you get the position.
If you’re close to the office, it’s a good idea. If you live in frankston and the job is in south yarra, it’s not a good idea. … actually, if you live in Frankston, first, congratulations on having a resume, second, you Shouldn’t Put Your Address On Your Resume. 😉
It should not matter where you live, as long as you can make it to work by your specified start time who cares if you need to travel 10 minutes or 2 hours? If an employer doesn’t want you based on where you live then they are discriminating and you probably don’t want to work for them anyway.
But you or anyone else will never find out that they are discriminating. A job application can fail in many many sections, so you want to reduce the sections where it can fail, no matter the reasons.
Whilst this is true, we have lost employees in this situation before because eventually they got tired of commuting and found a similar position very close to their house and they were gone in a flash.
It is sound reasoning for not including an address on your resume. Though as a recruiter managing many locations across a city it is one of the first questions I ask of someone because we need to decide where to place them that suits both parties and the closer they are the better.
Now you see me, meow you don’t – Genius!
Of course they are discriminating, but it is not illegal to discriminate on the basis of residential address. They also discriminate on the basis of experience, skill and education.
I also think employers make assumptions about you based on where you live, eg politics, race etc.