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Resume/CV Personal

Disciplines > Job-finding > Resume / CV > Resume/CV Personal

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

In the Personal section of your resume/CV you can put any information that helps the recruiter understand you as a person better. Information you may put here includes:

Family information
Hobbies
Volunteer activity
Significant other activities (eg. 'sailed around the world')
Basic abilities such as having a clean driving license
Membership of clubs and associations
Awards and accolades

Remember in this to include information that will help you get the job and avoid that which may make you seem weird, lazy or otherwise undesirable.

Do keep this section quite short.

You can show humanity in this section by adding emotion words such as 'enjoy' and 'keen'.

Example

Married, with two children and two dogs. Keen amateur photography, entering local competitions. Coach local children's football team. Enjoy 'adventure' holidays in remote places.

Discussion

Personal information makes you human and an occasional 'enjoy' shows passion that may imply 'passionate at work' also.

This is a useful place to put information that shows you as 'good' person, for example by indicating ways you help the local community.

Foreign travel is a good item to include as it shows you are not parochial and appreciate the wider world.

Even if early recruiters pay little attention to this, interviewers may well look at this section, for example to find a point of early discussion to help you relax.

Legislation exists in many countries against unfair bias, which means that information that may once have been included in a resume/CV now is usually left out. Personal information you not need to add includes such as age, birth date, height and weight, health, marital status, pregnancy, disability, number of children, race, religion, salary history, etc.

Despite legislation and depending on local culture it can be useful to put such as family information as it shows you as a 'normal' person, although this is of course not necessary.

If you have a disability which would limit your ability to do the job, you still may not have to declare this as 'reasonable adjustment' may be assumed to be undertaken by the employer. If in doubt, consult relevant legislation or support groups.