Resume Contact Information: What to Include and Skip
Whether you are “Summa Cum Laude” or looking for a career-breaking opportunity, if you anchor your resume contact information with unnecessary details, you might as well go down with the ship.
What is the use of spending countless hours amping up your resume when you swamp it with meaningless contact information that no one has the time to read or what to do with it?
Importance of Resume Contact Information
If you think you will get a foot in any of the leading organizations, you might as well end up in a never ending pile of faceless resumes whose destiny leads to the dreaded strips of the shredder. Writing a resume is an art where you present your skills and achievements to potential employers and recruiters. Once you have aced in giving a professional feel to your resume, you wait for an answer.
Ah! There lies the rub. You will never receive an answer unless you know how the organizations will contact you or if you exist. Crafting an effective executive resume can be challenging, as you must be spot-on even on the tiniest details. Why? Because you need a response to your resume, and it is only possible by plugging in all the relevant information.
Irrespective of all the resume builders and professional writers, always remember that your contact information is the most important element in any resume. No matter how qualified you are, everything will go down the drain if the hiring manager cannot contact you!
Why is Resume Contact Information important?
To be honest, how hard can it be to add contact information correctly on the resume? It only requires a little more attention and a bit more relevance. But then again, if you screw up the information, the chances are that you have screwed up the entire application.
Let’s review a few sections of this blog and understand the importance of contact information on the resume.
What information should be in the contact information section?
It’s better to see the scoreboard before we step onto the field and domicile the details. Let’s start by compartmentalizing the section and sub-section.
What to add?
Name: Make sure you spell your first name, middle name (if any), and last name correctly.
Phone Number: It would be easy if you could provide at least two contact numbers on the resume—for example, your personal cellular number and another landline number, such as your home. Ensure you correctly write the provider’s code, such as ‘004-412-2019.’
Email Address: This is where most resumes fail to see the light of being called for an interview. Don’t use any restricted email domain; please try to select a decent user id. For example, ‘simon.akerson@gmail.com’. Avoid using nicknames and numbers, such as “captain.america.74321@gmail.com.
Location: Even though we are living in a digital world where location, cities, or countries are mere economic realities, at times, it helps the recruiter to shortlist the candidate based on how close the person lives to the working place. Studies have revealed that organizations experience low turnover if most of the workforce lives within a radius of 5 miles. The specifics of the location will help the recruiter in ascertaining the relocation allowance as well.
Date of Birth: Yes, this section warrants much deliberation, but some recruiters do need this information, as they need to assess if a job requirement necessitates a particular age of the candidate and if the incumbent can handle stress and work pressure.
In addition, it also depends on what position you are applying for, and, in this particular case, some optional information becomes primary, such as a professional title and the URL of your LinkedIn profile.
I hope you are still with the blog as we are ready to dive into the best practices while populating resume contact information.
How to add information?
Name: Simplicity is the key, but in doing so, make sure you spell it correctly and in a legible font. Avoid fancy style and pastel colors. Another note is to maintain consistency. Make sure you use the same name that you have used in all social media handles. Moreover, give yourself a suitable professional title that best describes your abilities, such as Google Certified Digital Enthusiast, Licensed YouTube Content Curator, and others.
Don’t add too many titles to the line.
Keep it simple.
The professional title is very important as it will help the recruiter sort the resume according to the job advertisement. Last but not the least, avoid generic professional titles, such as Financial Advisor or Digital Marketer. Be focused and bang on target.
Punctuations: You may only use commas or periods in your name and avoid any kind of parenthesis or brackets.
Now that we have added what to include let’s look at information that may not seem pertinent, inappropriate, or irrelevant at this particular point.
What information should not be part of the contact information section?
Since we have already highlighted the sections above related to contact information, let’s deal with what small steps we can exclude or avoid that prevent our resume from being in the spotlight.
A beginning to a new end
If you want to give your career some adrenaline-pumped action and keep the recruiters at bay, it’s time to put your resume in the front-seat standing ovation. There may be a whole new universe of resume writers, but only a few would have the ins and outs of industry trends. Cruising through a minefield of careers may be adventurous, but you don’t want to get stuck in a decision of regret. Always prefer someone who pays special attention to details, can add value to your resume, and set expectations near to bay. If you still have some doubts then you see these resume examples to get the clear idea of how should a resume should look like.
Also, if you’re looking for some assistance on your career journey, you’re in luck because the Finest Resume Writing Services will guide you with the right resume contact information. Our team includes industry experts open to all forms of communication and collaboration.
