Do we need to include personal details in a resume?
If this is you wondering what personal details you should add to your resume or if you should add any personal details at all, you’ve come to the right place.
Although resumes are supposed to present your career trajectory in the best light possible and must be focused on your professional history, your personal details like contact information are crucial to your resume.
The reason is simple - even if your skills and experiences make you the ideal candidate, if the recruiters can’t contact you for an interview, there’s no way you’re landing the job.
But having said that, adding unnecessary personal details to your resume can also hamper your chances of getting shortlisted.
For instance, surveys show that 13% of resumes that includes a photo are rejected by recruiters, whereas adding a link to your updated LinkedIn profile could boost your chances of getting shortlisted as 77% of recruiters rely on the site to filter qualified candidates.
Read on to learn more everything about personal details in resumes and get clarity on related FAQs like the following:
- What personal details can you add to your resume?
- Why should you add personal details to your resume?
- How to add personal details to a resume?
- What personal details shouldn’t you add to a resume?
What Personal Details Should You Add To Your Resume?
There are several types of personal details that you can add to your resume. The first and most important type is your contact information.
It is advisable to mention your contact details in the topmost part of your resume. These details must include:
- Your full name as the header (consider initializing your middle name if you have one)
- A reachable phone number (with an ISD code and a ‘+’ sign before the number)
- A professional email address
- Current address (city & state)
- A link to your online portfolio or updated LinkedIn profile
- Your current or most recent profile title
Apart from your contact information, you can personalize your resume and showcase a little bit of your personality by adding sections about your:
- Hobbies & interests
- Volunteer experiences
- Awards & recognitions
- Language skills
However, you need to be strategic while deciding on which personal details you can to your resume. For instance, if you’re applying for a marketing role, adding your volunteer experience in the healthcare industry wouldn’t make any sense at all.
Therefore, the personal details you add to your resume need to be relevant to the role or company that you’re applying for. If the personal detail doesn’t add to your candidacy for the role, it’s better to skip it.
Why Should You Add Personal Details in Your Resume?
As stated earlier, when rightly done, adding personal details to your resume helps showcase your personality and can help you stand out from the crowd of applicants by exemplifying how you are a cultural fit for the company.
Given that 90% of employers say that it is important for them to find a candidate who is a cultural fit, you might not want to sleep on showcasing personal details that vouches for you.
Plus, adding personal details can showcase your soft skills which can increase your chances of getting shortlisted as studies show that 92% of employers believe soft skills are just as important as technical skills in the workplace.
Furthermore, including personal details that present you as a well-rounded candidate with innovative and out-of-the-box ideas, will definitely boost your candidacy.
Also Read: What are interpersonal skills on a resume and why are they important?
How to Write Personal Details in a Resume?
While adding personal details in resumes can be advantageous, it must be done correctly. Otherwise, it can backfire and make your resume look irrelevant and unprofessional.
Given below are some tips that you can follow to include personal details in resumes the right way:
Research the Company
Researching the company to understand its company culture is a crucial step to identifying relevant personal details you can add to your resume.
What are the company’s mission statement, objectives, and vision? Are they involved in any community service? Do they vouch for sustainability?
When you gain clarity on these questions, you can add personal details that align with them.
For instance, if your targeted company believes in sustainability and is devoted to reducing its carbon footprint, you can add details of any volunteer experience or projects that you might have worked on that supported the cause.
You can follow the same approach to show community involvement if it aligns with the company’s vision. Doing so will help your resume stand out to recruiters.
Add Relevant Resume Sections
Most of the candidates who apply for the same position as you are also equally qualified.
Thus, to stand out from the crowd, you can add sections like hobbies & interests, awards & recognition to your resume that serves as a proven track record of your unique personality traits and transferable skills that can be an asset to the company.
You can thoroughly analyze the job description provided in the specific listing you’ve targeted to understand which soft skills, personality traits, and skills are the most important for the role.
Accordingly, you can include personal details that showcase your potential to meet these requirements.
For instance, if one of the top requirements of the role is teamwork and good communication, listing details about your experience in a school sports team can exemplify these skills.
Link Your LinkedIn Profile
An optimized LinkedIn profile can be a game changer when it comes to increasing your chances of being shortlisted for jobs.
If you have positive recommendations on your Linkedin profile from past employers and colleagues, it adds to your credibility and supports personal branding.
Also Read: How to list contact information on a resume?
Mistakes to Avoid While Writing Personal Details in Resumes
Listed below are some practices that you must be wary of while including personal details in your resume:
- Ensure that the email address you provide in your resume sounds professional. Avoid providing unprofessional email addresses like ‘cooldude@hotmail(dot)com.’
- Unless specified by the employers, avoid including a snapshot of yourself in your resume. It serves no purpose.
- You need not provide your full address in your resume as it again serves no purpose. Simply mentioning the city and state will suffice.
- Avoid providing personal details that are not relevant to the role or company you’re applying for.
- Do not provide lengthy descriptions of your personal details in your resume, Keep it short and crisp.
Also Read: What are some resume dos and don'ts that you must follow in 2023?
Key Points from the Blog
- The personal details you add to your resume need to be relevant to the role or company that you’re applying for. If the personal detail doesn’t add to your candidacy for the role, it’s better to skip it.
- Researching the company to understand its company culture is a crucial step to identify relevant personal details you can add to your resume.
- Analyze the job description to understand which transferable skills and personality traits are crucial for the role and include personal details that exemplify the same in your resume.
- Add a link to your updated LinkedIn profile to allow recruiters to get a deeper insight into your candidacy and personality.
If you want to build an impressive resume within minutes, use Hiration’s AI-powered Resume Builder which comes with 24x7 chat support. You can also write to us at support@hiration.com if you have any questions.
