To Share or Not to Share: Your Location on Your Resume

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!

Should Your Resume List Where You Live?

Lately, it seems increasingly popular for job seekers to leave their location off their resumes. (On LinkedIn, the equivalent is choosing “United States.”)

Here’s why that’s a mistake, one that works against you.

As you may be aware, when you apply for a position, your resume almost always goes into an applicant tracking database. Recruiters with access search these databases to find suitable candidates for additional or future openings, so the resume you shared may get you considered for multiple job opportunities over time. When recruiters search these resume databases, two of the most common search criteria we use are 1) skills (keywords like “food safety”, “plant manager”, or “chocolate”) and 2) location (typically city, state). Even for remote positions, it’s not uncommon for employers to have preferences about where the ideal candidate lives.

When we include a location in our database search criteria, for example, “Los Angeles, CA,” our search returns any candidates whose resumes indicate that they live within a certain number of miles from that location. (Often 30 or 50 miles.) If there is no location on your resume (or in the case of LinkedIn, “United States”) your resume will always be invisible. You will never show up in the search results!

You don’t need to use a full postal address. City, state and (ideally) zip code are sufficient.

Get Found by Recruiters and Hiring Managers – Include Your Location Information

There’s a common sense corollary here. It would be inconvenient for a job seeker if jobs were posted without noting a work site location. Similar transparency from the Job Seeker for the hiring employer in return will help us help you!

Again, we do not recommend including your full home address anymore, which was common in days past. But listing your city, state and zip code (or closest metropolitan area like Chicago, IL or New York, NY) makes you more recruitable.

This blog post was written by George Blomgren, Kinsa Group Recruiting Manager. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Related Post:

https://www.kinsa.com/2020/01/27/resume-location/