Some resume manuals suggest you include your marriage status, dependents, health status, and physical characteristics (height and weight) at the very top of your resume. Don't! If you happen to be single, and your prospective employer has his heart set on a stable, married individual, by putting your vital statistics up at the top you are inviting your prospective boss not to read the rest of your resume! The same holds true if you happen to be short or divorced. If your prospective employer doesn't care for short or divorced people, he may never bother reading about your outstanding qualities. It just doesn't make sense to include any personal information at the top of page one. If you do include such statistics, the place to do it is at the end of your resume after your prospective employer has formed an opinion of you based on what really counts-your work experience and education.
More important than your vital statistics is the information that you reveal about your personal interests and background. It's worth including something about this "other side" of you if only to prove that you are not just "all business"-that you are a well-rounded and interesting person. But beyond this, including something personal can help in another way. Given a choice between two people, your prospective boss will have to hire the one who appears to be capable of accomplishing most for him. But, given a situation where you and someone else have similar experience and have made nearly identical contributions, then the swing factor may well be something totally unrelated to business. For example, you and your prospective boss may both play tennis. Your prospective boss may need a fourth, and, just that simply, you may get a job.
If you doubt that personal information can sometimes spell the difference between a turn down and an interview, consider this. A manufacturing-staff friend of mine told me about the job interview that led to his current job. It seems he and his interviewer didn't talk business for very long. Somehow or other the conversation turned to a small item at the bottom of his resume, the small town where my friend had grown up. It turned out to be the same hamlet in western Canada that the prospective boss came from. The common geographical background of the prospective boss and the potential employee brought the two together. My manufacturing-staff friend was offered the job and accepted it. Keep in mind, then, that something personal can make a difference. And you can never tell what personal item on your resume is going to be of greatest interest to your prospective boss. Frequently sports are a common denominator. It might be hobbies such as woodworking or photography. It might just be old school ties, or civic associations in which you are active, such as Lions or Elks. It could even be a political group or church organization.
At this point I am often asked whether or not the mention of political groups or church affiliations can hurt. Suppose your prospective boss is a Republican and you are a Democrat. Will that knock you out of the ball game? With a few bigoted people, yes. But you wouldn't want to work for them anyhow. On the other hand, if you present your personal background in a positive fashion, you're likely to touch on a common interest that could be beneficial in your interview. For example, you may be in charge of the speakers' program for Kiwanis; your prospective boss may be in charge of the speakers' program for the junior chamber of commerce. He may want to learn more about the speakers' program in your organization. And ... your resume may well end up in the stack marked "arrange for interview" instead of that other stack to receive the usual "Dear John" letter.
Military Experience
If you've spent any time in the armed forces, you need to include this fact on your resume if for no other reason than to account for your whereabouts during these intervening years since college. If you are a younger job-seeker, just out of the service, your military experience can be used to demonstrate your worth relevant to the position you are going after. Consider your military positions as you would positions in business and develop worth points in each, which demonstrate your administrative capacity, leadership ability, etc. If it has been some time since you were discharged, however, and your military career isn't relevant to your current position and job objective, then just use a line or two to indicate the duration of your stay, your branch and specialty, and your rank at the time of your discharge. One suggestion for older job candidates: If you were in the service prior to college, and want to appear a little younger to prospective employers, then consider leaving out your military experience altogether. Just start your resume with your formal education. No one questions the years before college. If you do this, you can subtract a few years from your life.
