Does Your Resume Need Your Address?

Laurie Hyllberg

Laurie champions Kinsa Group’s position as the top food and beverage recruiting firm in the nation and its presence in the global FMCG marketplace. To her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Business Management, and Marketing she adds over 20 years of executive search experience in the food and beverage industry at Kinsa. Building a network of executives and professionals through membership in the Women’s Foodservice Forum, Institute of Food Technologists, FaB Wisconsin, Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network, and maintaining professional expertise in recruiting as an Executive Board Member for the Recruiters Of Wisconsin association, Laurie is able to connect top talent in the food industry with food and beverage processors and foodservice providers growing their teams at the C-Suite, VP, Director, and Management level. Connect with Laurie today!

Omitting Your Location From Your Resume Is A Mistake

Increasingly, we see candidates omitting their location from their resume and/or LinkedIn. That’s a mistake, for two primary reasons. Before going into those reasons, note that it’s perfectly acceptable not to include your full address, but at the very least you want to include your city and/or zip code. Here’s why.

When a recruiter does a search using LinkedIn, Indeed or their own database, we typically use a few relevant keywords, plus a geographic delimiter. (Even if relocation is an option, we will still typically set some type of geographic boundaries, even if it’s just “United States.”) If your resume or profile doesn’t include your location, you are literally invisible to our searches!

If You Must For Privacy Reasons, Tell Us

Additionally, when someone omits their address, it leaves us wondering. Why are you hiding your location? Whatever your reason for not wanting to divulge your location – if you are upfront about it, maybe it’s really not an issue. Or, at least, it’s one that can be resolved. Help us understand, so we can answer our client’s questions and position you favorably. Consider an example I ran into recently. I had a candidate apply for a VP position in California. His resume didn’t list his location, but based on his recent work history, I was able to figure out he lived in New York. When I contacted him, he explained that he had been hoping to relocate to California but didn’t know if the employer was okay with that. I discussed his situation with my client and now he’s on a short list of finalist candidates.

Get Found; Include That Location Information

There’s a common sense corollary here. It would be inconvenient for job seekers if we posted jobs without noting their locations. It’s not unreasonable of recruiters to hope for the same transparency in return. Help us help you!

Again, you don’t need to include your full address. But listing your city and/or zip code makes you more recruitable.

This blog was written by George Blomgren, Recruiting Manager at Kinsa Group.