“Should I put my full address on my resume” is one of the most common questions among job hunters. The job hunters are always hesitant about adding the address or contact information in the resume because they don’t know if that information is necessary or not.
The resume generally includes a comprehensive set of all the information you want to provide to the employers or hiring recruiters. This information can be anything like your phone number, mail ID, etc., along with your skills and your academic and employment history.
Some believe that mentioning the full address is a big mistake because most candidates are ready to leave their hometown if they get a better opportunity somewhere else. In such a situation, mentioning the address in the resume is useless.
But do you know that sometimes saying a full address on the resume can also work in favor when the company wants to recruit a new candidate in a very short span of time? In such a situation, they always look for a candidate who lives in the same area or city to avoid any problems for both parties.
In this article, we will discuss this topic in detail. But first, we should jump onto our next question, why is it even necessary, as recruiters are never going to visit you at your home.
What is the Main Reason For Putting to an Address?
One of the strongest arguments among the people who believe putting the address in the resume is mandatory is that it provides a location-specific search to the recruiter. Even if you have uploaded your profile to a job portal, the company uses several shortlisting methods which give them a list of all the candidates already residing in their city.
This makes their shortlisting process much more accessible, manageable, and smooth.
The second most important reason is that the company specifically wants to know if the eligible candidates are ready to relocate to the city or not. The candidates who are willing to relocate generally mention the “relocating town” and the” state” instead of the full address in the resume.
So again, it works in favor of the hiring recruiters to make their process easy and better without making any extra effort. But mentioning or not mentioning the address entirely depends on the job hunters. Still, it should always be considered that mentioning or not mentioning the address can work in favor or against you.
So in the next section, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages in detail.
Bonus Read: 18 Highest Paying Remote Jobs.
What Are the Advantages And the Disadvantages of Including Address in the Resume?
Every coin has two sides, so in the same way, mentioning your address or not mentioning your address can work in favor or against you. So it is a considerable debate whether you should mention it or not. It varies from one person to another and entirely depends on your personal choice.
The Advantages :
- If the recruiters want to find out someone who can join the company immediately, then they do not want a candidate who resides out of the city. In such a situation, it can enhance your chances of getting shortlisted or getting a call for an interview.
- When you provide a complete address mentioning the street name, it gives the recruiter a strong message that you are not hiding your location, making you much more trustworthy.
- If the company provides any commute opportunities or facilities to their employees, and if you are at a reasonable distance, the company would not have any problem providing the facilities.
On the other hand, if you are very far from the company, they will have to consider it and pay you an extra amount for your commuting facilities. So mentioning the address can always favor you in such situations.
- The address also helps to verify the background information of the job hunter. So if you have mentioned your address, it will be effortless for the recruiters to do that. Still, if you have not mentioned it, they will call you to ask for your details if it’s a mandatory step for the company.
The Disadvantages:
- The traditional method of selecting a new candidate has always been observing and analyzing the resume. If you have excluded any important details, then it will not match the standard of various companies, especially when they’re too old in the industry.
- If a candidate does not want to invade their privacy, then there will be several privacy-related concerns if the employer asks to mention the complete address in their resume.
- The company will not have a proper address, which can negatively impact your profile as it doesn’t make the profile much more trustworthy as compared to a person who has included the full address.
- Another important reason is that they take up extra space in your resume. If your resume is too long or you have a few years of experience in different companies, then mentioning your address can also take up considerable space in the resume making your resume too long. In such a situation, it will be better to omit the information because your employment history will give them an idea about your city, state, or country.
You should always provide the location of your previous companies so that they may get an idea if you are from the same city or not. This will also help you to protect your private information if the hiring recruiters have not asked it to be specifically mentioned in your resume.
- The recruiter or the managers may have a question like what you are hiding or whether you should be called or not for an interview.
- Few hiring recruiters generally become location biased, which lets them discriminate based on your location. For example, if you are from a particular state and the recruiter does not want their candidate to belong to that state, or they believe that a single ethnic group lives in that place, they will generally avoid shortlisting you for the next round. So, it’s a fault on the recruiter’s end, and you can not do anything about it.
- Invasion of privacy, selling private information or personal information, or identity theft is the significant risk of listing the address in the resume.
Kindly note: Nowadays, several routers are completely okay even if you have not mentioned your physical address in the resume because the contact information has been limited to a phone number or email.
The Correct Method of Mentioning the Address in the Resume?
Even if the company is using artificial intelligence to shortlist candidates, the formatting of your resume can play a significant role. We all know that formatting the resume in an appropriate structure is very important.
It provides a better understanding to the hiring recruiter and doesn’t make your resume boring to read. A few factors that you should keep in mind while listing the address in the resume are listed down below:
- Always list your general location instead of your full address, like mentioning the street name, house number, etc.; You can always mention the address by using a geographic region, state, or city.
- You should not mention the address anywhere in the resume. The address should always be mentioned along with the other contact information like email ID and phone number.
- Nowadays, most candidates are happy to relocate to another city if they get better opportunities with much higher salaries. So if you are one of such candidates, it would be better to mention the city name where you are relocating. If the company is in the same city, it can work in favor of you.
- If you are one of the candidates who want to work remotely, then you can list your home address, or you can just mention “remote.” In this situation, you can mention your time zone because most employers want to know your working hours to have better communication. This also helps in analyzing the cost of living in your area by the employer, which can positively impact your earnings.
Why is it Mandatory to Provide the Address Information in Government Jobs?
In all the government jobs, it is mandatory to mention your address information because there is no way of hiding it from the government, as they already have a proper set of information about all the citizens in the country. So whenever you are applying for a government job, it is a mandatory option that the candidates fill.
Real-Life Examples of Mentioning the Address:
Situation one: If you only want to mention the city and the state. Ex. Los Angeles, California
Situation two: If you only want to mention the state and the country. Ex. California, US
Situation three: If you only want to include a geographic region. Ex. Chicagoland Area
Situation four: If you only want to mention the full address or the pin code. Ex 546 old street, Ariana, AR 065156
Situation five: If you are ready to relocate for the job purpose. Ex. Relocating to Los Angeles in August 2022.
Situation six: If you have not decided on the expected time frame of shifting to your relocating address. Ex. Los Angeles, California
Situation seven: If you want to work remotely, Ex. Remote (Time zone of your location)
What Other Information Can You Include in Your Resume?
As mentioned earlier, you should always include your contact information like email ID and phone number in the resume. This is very important because if you are resuming, get shortlisted for another round, or are selected for the job, they will contact you in your provided mail IDs or phone number.
You can easily omit details like gender, marital status, social media links like Facebook, your photo, and your full street address.
Cautions to be Taken While Mentioning the Address?
Always research the company and hiring managers when listing your full address. You can also try to find the company’s review on the other websites to make the process much more trustworthy. You must omit the information if there have been any company frauds on these websites.
This will help you to be safe from any scam or fraud. There are several red flags, so you should never forget them and take the next step to provide any personal information. You can use the other alternative options, like mentioning the city, state, etc., but not the complete address.
Always avoid listing information like Social Security numbers or any additional confidential details because these are irrelevant to your hiring process. You can mention the Social Security number whenever you apply for a government job, but it is generally listed as a mandatory step.
You don’t have to give any extra information that is not being asked during the application process.
If you are applying for a job through a 3rd party site, then omit your personal information. Or you can opt for a more accessible option for verifying the information or job profile. You can simply visit the company’s website, as every company has a “career” option.
You can simply apply by your resume on the company’s site instead of opting for a 3rd party website to apply for the same job. Even if there is no option for that job profile, the company will have specifically mentioned all the details of their association with a 3rd party site. So always check this information to protect yourself from any fraud or scam.
Conclusion
Whenever you are making your resume, there are several pieces of information that can be or cannot be included in the resume. Mentioning the full physical address can be a problematic situation for the majority of the job hunters, especially in the condition when they don’t want to disclose their address.
It has always been a debatable topic because the new methods of phone numbers and email ID have replaced traditional ways like post letters, which require an appropriate address.
Nowadays, recruiters generally use the mailing or calling system to connect to candidates. Omitting out or listing the full address in the resume has always been a personal choice, but it can work in favor of you if you are from the same locality and the company wants to hire someone who lives nearby. In such a situation, it can always benefit you.
So, whenever you decide to mention the full address, always read the job description carefully. If you are applying for a company in the same city, you must include your address. But if you believe that you are disclosing a lot of personal information through your resume, then it is better to not mention it.
In the end, we will just recommend you to give it a thought and make your own decision, because this situation has some advantages and disadvantages which vary from one person to another.
