New Rule about Street Address on Your Resume

There is a new philosophy about including your street address on your resume and why it’s not always appropriate. Let me first say that I don’t believe any resume rules are 100% black or white. Individuals must customize based on their individual industry and candidacy but this new suggestion about not including your street address does give us all something to think about.

Indicating a street address and city/state on a resume can illustrate a home court advantage and roots in a particular community if that is desirable for the hiring organization. If knowing the territory is important to your job and you can show that you are a native or local – then by all means, list at least your city and state. The next few ideas might encourage you to consider a post office box to achieve the same results or just leaving off your street address in your contact header.

With identity theft rampant and the use of online job searching tools, there is a valid concern with posting a resume with your home address for the world to see.

1. Personal Safety – you are opening yourself up to a security risk. While most of us would not post our home address on Facebook or other social media sites, it begs the question – is our resume safe with a home address listed in cyber space? Sadly, thieves and scam artists traffic the internet frequently looking for this exact type of personal information.
2. Rejection letters – eliminating the street address might pay dividends. While we can only hope that reputable organizations will send you a rejection letter if you don’t land the job – without an address, they are forced to make a call. This extra bit of communication with a human might give you an opportunity to ask about why you were not a good fit so you can use that information as you move forward with your next interview. You might even get in a last minute pitch and ask the company to keep you in mind if their hiring needs change in the future. Being a consummate professional is imperative and could pay off down the road.
3. Economic profiling – perhaps your street address leads your employer to do some additional research about the value of your home/neighborhood and will impact the kind of salary offer they give based on what they perceive as your current economic condition. Creepy, right!

These ideas come from a compelling article by Kevin Morris in EZine Articles and thankfully he also queried many HR Directors in a variety of organizations to get their take on the address question. While most agree the address is not essential on the resume, others believe that location could impact the success of the candidate at work. Consider the stress level of someone who had a 2 hour commute each way for a job. Those are the kinds of things HR Directors consider when making an offer.

The bottom line according to Kevin Morris, and I concur, you must control your contact information and how you disseminate it to your advantage. All they really need is your phone, email, city, and state. You make the choice and whatever you decide be prepared to defend your decision with confidence.