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It is illegal for employers to ask your religion, so don't include it. Including a picture is also not recommended. It may be considered a means of discriminating on the basis of race. I don't care how good-looking you think you are.
I wouldn't list membership in a particular church, but I would (and have, successfully) list leadership positions in religious organizations. I listed them because they were, in fact, leadership positions. Leading an organization with 30+ people was something I wanted to tell potential employers. I won't be obnoxious about my faith (and never talk about it at work unless someone asks me a specific question about Christianity/Church/Faith/etc), but I also am not going to hide the fact that I am a Christian. If someone won't hire me simply because of my religious beliefs, then I probably don't want to work for that person.
Putting purely personal information on a resume is a crap shoot. While it might appeal to one person it may turn off another. Get the interview first and then decide if there is an appropriate time to talk about it. But even then I would shy away from it unless it specifically comes up. Wait until you have the job to start babbling about stuff like that.
I'd say they only add it on to make themselves look decent and respectable. But this attitude always presumes that the HR staff doing the recruiting and selecting give a poo about charity, or that religions conviction is a positive. Even though HR should be non-discriminatory in recruitment and selection policy, HR people are human beings also, with their own beliefs and attitudes. This naturally affects who is chosen to be recruited and who is chosen to be selected.
Adding that one attends a church would not mean this person's resume would be dismissed, since it is in many countries illegal to do so, what with equal opportunities and diversity laws we have now. But to assume that it puts one on an automatic good light is not always true. Adding political beliefs/affiliations is also a no-no.
I would say though that adding hobbies/interests is a must. It makes one look like a well rounded person, who can properly balance work with everyday living. And good hobbies too, not saying "watching TV" or "going to bars" lol.
I think in general though, a good resume should just have personal contact details, qualifications, work experience, hobbies/interests, and future career goals.
I've gotten a fair number of resumes submitted lately that have indicated membership in a various church. Usually it's been volunteer work, a few times it's just flat out stated that they were a member of "insert name of religious organization here."
Now I guess I could see it if the work was specifically relevent to the job--ie applying for a carpentry job and have volunteer experience with the Church of ABC men's club installing wheelchair ramps in disabled veterans homes or something along those lines. But for example, teaching Sunday school to six year olds is never going to be relevent to an administrative job that isn't in a school or religious institution, and I'm not sure why that type of information is included.
My opinion is that details like that which serve no purpose should be left off a resume.
What do the rest of you think?
I agree with you; it should be left off the resume.
I would say though that adding hobbies/interests is a must. It makes one look like a well rounded person, who can properly balance work with everyday living. And good hobbies too, not saying "watching TV" or "going to bars" lol.
I look at a decent amount of resumes. I really don't give a crap about what someone puts down as their hobbies/interests. I assume everyone does something outside of work. I don't need to read about it on a resume.
I look at a decent amount of resumes. I really don't give a crap about what someone puts down as their hobbies/interests. I assume everyone does something outside of work. I don't need to read about it on a resume.
Unless that hobby is directly related to the position being applied for, I think that listing them can cause more harm than good. I used to list them, I've since taken them off my resume, they don't fit if I want it to print on one page.
I also look at a lot of resumes, and have never paid an ounce of attention to the applicants hobbies, unless they have posed a red flag due to religious, political, etc. affiliations. Frankly I don't care that the applicant enjoys knitting, playing with their dog, or riding dirt bikes in their spare time. And I'd worry about our health insurance costs rising after dirt bike boy crashes and suffers a broken collarbone.
That said, if the applicant is younger and doesn't have a ton of actual work experience, I think that listing outside interests that show either leadership skills or organizational skills is better than a lot of white space. But listing outside interests as "hanging with my frat brothers," "dncing at rave parties," etc. isn't so cool.
The one thing that I think is always good to list on a resume is volunteer work with a fire department, the coast guard auxilliary, rescue squad, Red Cross, etc. That shows that you give back to the community and can be counted on to keep a level head in a crisis or emergency.
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