Does ones' address within Metro-Atlanta play a role in job opportunies (Riverdale: job market, school)

[mrdkb]

Does one's address within Metro-Atlanta play a role in job opportunities.

This is a question that someone asked me and I thought I'd put it out there for discussion.

If for example, one lives in Clayton County and put's Riverdale on their resume, could that cause the hiring manager to form an opinion (perhaps negative) before calling for an interview? Will the hiring manager even call?

[Big L]

It probably depends on the hiring manager. However, if a person thinks like that then you wouldn't want to work for them anyway.

At one of my old residences, I would occasionally get asked stuff like, "You live in City X, would the drive be okay for you?". It sounded like a legitimate question at first due to commute times, but I later found out that HR is not supposed to ask that question.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by mrdkb

Does one's address within Metro-Atlanta play a role in job opportunities.

This is a question that someone asked me and I thought I'd put it out there for discussion.

If for example, one lives in Clayton County and put's Riverdale on their resume, could that cause the hiring manager to form an opinion (perhaps negative) before calling for an interview? Will the hiring manager even call?

So don't put your address on your resume. It's been 12 years since I've been on the job market, but I don't recall putting a physical address on my resume.

If it's that big of a concern, go get a PO Box with an Atlanta or other address that you feel is better suited.

[researchnerd]

I suspect hiring managers do take location into consideration, especially if they have 200 applicants for 1 position. However, I know for a fact that it's not necessarily a dealbreaker - I've been hired twice for a job 50 miles away from home.

[berkeleylake]

More often, I don't think your address matters unless it is not in the Atlanta area. I know it could be a concern for a few in the position of hiring, but overall, if you live far from the job, could you be sure to be there everyday despite a far commute. Living far away could matter in that regard.

I think leaving your address off your resume is a good option as well.

[FlyiMetro]

This a very interesting question. I've never had HR education, but have work with hr at jobs in my past. They normally weed out based on gender & job history. I could see where ones zip code may keep them out of a job though.

[DawgPark]

I'm in the middle of a hiring process right now and location of the applicant certainly does matter to me. Granted, we are a small biz, not a major HR dept.
But, I have had many employees driving an hour thru traffic to get to my business and I simply will never do it again.

That being said, as long as the applicant lives within 20-30 minutes, I don't care what their address is.

[red92s]

Recruiters absolutely use zip codes to filter applicants, but only so they can narrow their search to a reasonable pool of people within a given distance. They are not really going off how bad or good they they think an area might be . . . but on the distance that area is from an open position. If your resume is on the big job websites, recruiters are scanning and sorting that info daily for possible fits.

[ATLTJL]

Well, they always say you should tailor your resume to whatever job you are applying for....

So if you are applying for a job in midtown, just fudge a midtown/Buckhead address. They'll never use your address for anything except sending a rejection letter, and who cares if you receive that? Then once you land the job, a couple of weeks in, just go to HR and say you just moved and need to change your address.

Dishonest? Well, maybe....but mildly. I don't think it really counts as resume fraud, like lying about education or past experience.

If you're really worried about it, I really wouldn't see a problem with getting any competitive edge you can. Of course, most people don't really look at addresses, I think they figure if you're out in the boonies but get the job, you'll probably relocate to be closer to it. At least, that's what I would think. But if you're applying to a cool tech job in midtown and they see a Canton address, they may think you are a hick. Or using the Riverdale example, someone would probably assume you are African American, so you'd probably weed out potentially racist bosses using that address.

As for the reverse, in the past I have tried going to local businesses and using the old "I'm right down the street!" attribute to try to make myself more attractive, but most places really don't seem to care. Maybe if you worked at a place where you could be called in at the last minute and how fast you could get there was a factor it would matter, but those jobs are few and far between and who wants to be called in at the last minute anyway?

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think it matters very much aside from filtering out jobs you probably wouldn't want anyway, but if you're really worried about it, I don't think anybody has ever been fired or not hired for fudging an address on a resume.

[neil0311]

These days, most correspondence for jobs is via email or through a recruiter or online service. I honestly don't know who is sending anyone snail mail letters regarding a job (either making an offer or rejection), and I'm telling you that when I have reviewed/screened resumes sent to me by HR, many don't even include their snail mail address.

I guess for some old school companies, it's still done, but for the most part no one cares about your physical address. If you are that concerned, get a PO box.