What to know about putting an address on your CV

When writing your CV, you need to include all the information necessary for a hiring manager to select you for an interview but adding your address to your CV can be a complicated task. Do you need to include your street address? Should you just include your city and postal code? Does including your address make you more likely to be a victim of identity theft? Here’s what you need to know about including or not including your address on a CV.

If you put your address on your CV, it will go at the top. A full home address will look like this:

#### N. Name St.

City, Postal Code

If you’re only including a shortened form of your address, you’ll typically include your city and postal code, but nothing else. If you have a separate P.O. Box or mailing address, put it on your CV instead of your home address.

There are a few positive aspects to putting your address on your CV. Most importantly, it can indicate that you’re geographically close to a job. In the hiring process, it’s often important that a hiring manager is looking for local candidates. If you do live near the job posting, adding your address can showcase that you live nearby.

Another reason to add your address to your CV is that it may be important to the applicant tracking system (ATS) that an employer might use to scan your CV. The thought is that it helps recruiters file your CV, and if you don’t include your address in your contact section, you might not get a job offer. However, this argument likely traces back to a Time Magazine article from 2012, which is both out of date and doesn’t include any sources for this claim. It’s probably not an effective reason to put your full address when you’re job hunting.

What about the cons? There may actually be more cons than pros when it comes to putting your full address on a professional CV. First of all, it just takes up extra space. If you have a lot of work experience, adding your address to your contact information can make it more difficult to put everything on a one-page CV.

Next, if you’re willing to relocate, the address can show that you’re not close enough. Your job application shouldn’t include things that might negatively impact your job search, and if you live very far away, your address will showcase that. If you’re open to relocating, you should mention this in either your CV or your cover letter.

Some people also worry that adding your address can raise privacy concerns. You may say, “If I put my address on my CV along with things like my full name, email address, and phone number, anyone who gets that CV can steal my identity!” However, your home address is typically public information, and these things will show up during background checks. Typically, you don’t need to worry about putting contact information on your CV.

In general, it’s best to avoid putting your full mailing address on your CV, but it’s usually a good idea to include your city and state. By adding your city and state to the CV, you’re showing your location without including any extra detail. It can also go in your CV header so you’re using less space to do it.