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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.
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I agree about omitting ANY volunteer experience if it is not relevant experience. Regarding church affiliation, that should be left off a resume if it is not relevant to the position as the candidate could be opening themselves up to discrimination based on religion.
For every hiring manager that says they don't care about anything except your qualifications for the job, there's another hiring manager that says they want to know about you as a person and so yes you should include outside interests.* Its one of those things were job-seekers are guaranteed to be damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Listing information that falls within a protected class like religion, though, seems like an obvious no-no. If the person absolutely wanted to include it, they could anonymize it--"Early childhood volunteer instructor: Once-weekly volunteer instructor for a classroom of twenty children, aged 3-5."
*Disclaimer: Yes I know Annerk may or may not be a hiring manager and may or may not be involved in hiring decisons and this may or may not be a hypothetical situation and this may or may not be just venting and this may or may not contradict any previous rants about how stupid the entire job-seeking world is.
For every hiring manager that says they don't care about anything except your qualifications for the job, there's another hiring manager that says they want to know about you as a person and so yes you should include outside interests.*
Listing information that falls within a protected class like religion, though, seems like an obvious no-no. If the person absolutely wanted to include it, they could anonymize it--"Early childhood volunteer instructor: Once-weekly volunteer instructor for a classroom of twenty children, aged 3-5."
*Disclaimer: Yes I know Annerk may or may not be a hiring manager and may or may not be involved in hiring decisons and this may or may not be a hypothetical situation and this may or may not be just venting and this may or may not contradict any previous rants about how stupid the entire job-seeking world is.
I agree with you that volunteer work is (generally) fine to list. I also like the way you stated it. It leave the religious aspect out--for all the hiring manager knows, you volunteer with your local library or literacy group, which I can't see anyone getting their panties twisted over.
I go to church each week, it's not on my resume, I even do a lot of work there, I let it come up during the interview.
I do list that I was the president of th College Republicans though, because that it my only leadership experience in a formal setting, since I am a young grad. I think that it's a plus, most people don't care, I just mention that I worked with the dems on a few projects as a bullet point so I don't seem like one of those who hates democrats and can't stop talking about it at work.
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?
If it has nothing to do with the job applied for, I think it should be left off.
I saw an application that asked to indicate any volunteer, social, etc. organizations to which the candidate belonged. They specifically stated to exclude religious ones.
Maybe it's because some job seekers think it will give them an edge--make them seem like nice, stable people because they belong to X church.
I don't get why people put all sorts of stupid things on their resumes but these days, everyone is giving out advice, much of it bad, so people are scrambling to 'include it all.' Another example is a photo w/a resume...what is that about?
I must admit, part of the reason I went to my college was because it's associated with the Jewish community. If you're not Jewish, you probably would have no idea (it's not like a bible college) but if you are Jewish, you'd be aware of it. And I often wear my Star of David to interviews depending on the last name of my interviewer. Horrible? Sure. But enough people here tell me that Jews have some big web of wealth conspiracy so I might as well use it to my advantage.
I'm a recent college grad so I have many of my volunteer and leadership roles on campus still on my resume. I've left off the specific political campaigns that I worked practically full time for 2 years and simply left the organization I did that with. I also didn't mention Hillel or any of the religious stuff I did. While trying to find volunteer work to do while job hunting, I'm purposefully avoiding religious groups so I can safely list them on my resume.
Maybe it's because some job seekers think it will give them an edge--make them seem like nice, stable people because they belong to X church.
I don't get why people put all sorts of stupid things on their resumes but these days, everyone is giving out advice, much of it bad, so people are scrambling to 'include it all.' Another example is a photo w/a resume...what is that about?
Actually 30 years or so ago it was customary and almost required to include a photo on your resume. Very old school, although still done in Europe.
My take on them listing their religious affiliation on a resume isn't that they are stable, but rather that they'll be a Bible thumper who will proselytize at work--not someone we'd want to hire.
Personally, I think it's OK to list what you do for your church/community. It should be brief and the religious affliation should not be mentioned.
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