Putting your home address on a CV? Got asked about the distance/commute at interview

[caramond]

I had an interview this week which I thought went really well but I didn't get the job. No problem, it happens...

One thing I was left wondering about though was how much they seemed to focus on where I live, which they knew because I put my address on my CV. The role was mostly WFH with occasional attendance at meetings in a particular London borough. I live about an hour away, in another borough, so really not an unusually long commute in London. It was just the focus on it that bothers me, partly because I live where I do because I can't afford to live more centrally! I have lots of evidence that the commute is not an issue (similar commute to my current job and a previous place of study etc).

Anyway, it's made me wonder if I should just leave my address out of my CV given all communication is via email and phone anyway? Is there potential for an unconscious bias based on where someone lives? I'd understand being asked if I lived hours away in another city perhaps but commuting across London shouldn't be so unusual.

I thought address and age were no longer a thing on CVs

Definitely not age, but I do put my postcode on

Mine has the city I live in but no more narrowed down than that

In future, maybe just put 'London'
Their questioning does seem odd though! Like you said, its not like its a 5hr commute!

I used to interview and normally wouldn't ask anything about their commute etc. We did have 1 applicant who would have had a 4hr commute. When queried about it- he assumed WE'D pay for him to stay in a hotel when working for us! 🙄

It might just be that they've had problems with past employees around commute/travel and now they're being over cautious about it.

Definitely possible, I’ve been openly turned down for a job before simply because they didn’t think I’d want to do the 35 minute commute because they wouldn’t…

I wouldn’t of thought an hour commute would of stood out as an issue pretty standard

I don't expect to see a home address on a CV but we make it clear where we are based and attendance in the office is mandatory - someone living an excessive distance from the office would raise big concerns - one hour would be totally normal - 3 hours would be a straight no.

No way should you include your address

Just phone and email

Definitely don’t put the address. When I was first being tasked with selecting candidates for interviews about 15 years ago my manager (and co-interview panel) overrode one choice. She (awful person in all aspects) decided that he would have a difficult commute and would therefore be an unreliable employee.

Also as a PP said, unconscious bias could impact, say if the interviewer had a previous bad experience in life with someone from that area.

Thanks, will take it out going forward. I'm finding a lot of places still have their own application forms though and they usually ask for an address. I even completed one recently that asked for date of birth too 🙃

Any applications for LA and schools are anonymized, so we don't see any personal details ( name, age, address, )

I even completed one recently that asked for date of birth too

You can guess people's age group from their qualifications.

You can write your CV so you remove the year you are awarded things but unfortunately some types of qualifications and subject names will give the game away.

I have just had my post code only on CV for nearly last decade.

I’m fortunate in local knowledge knowing a Chelmsford employer will rarely consider an application from south Suffolk under to far to commute. Some places locally aren’t great either.

A decade ago I would travel from Braintree to Loughton and that was a trek but today not sure 😥

Plus, grade inflation means that the GCSEs that looked great in 1990 look mediocre compared to 21st century strings of 'A stars' in 20 subjects.

We have online application forms which ask for post code (might be full address, but we can't see it). Most of our interviews are in person and I use the post codes to schedule candidates based on where they are probably travelling in from (nowadays assuming they might be WFH). Previously I would have based it on their place of work.

Wouldn't put it on CV though.

Even when you have no idea what the candidate's arrangements are - they may intend to get a hotel or have an arrangement where they can stay in a friend's spare room for example. Or even relocate.

@caramond this is all the more reason why you shouldn't include your address. Better to understand the employer's expectations and then you can work out if it's a fit.

I have never put my address on my CV. And certainly never my age. That said, after a certain level of experience, no one is going to be very young. You don’t need to put an age or years of graduation on when your CV outlines your 20 years of experience in X (an area you’d need a degree in) for everyone to expect you’re at least in your 40s. 😆

I haven’t put my school qualifications on a CV in many years. Literally no one cares about my standard grade in art.

I’m not sure at this point that anyone cares at all about my degrees even. It all seems like ancient history at this point in my decrepitude.

None of the CVs I get for jobs I’m recruiting for in my team have school level qualifications on them in general. Even when I was in the civil service and we’d get application in with that stuff (because the system was set up to ask for it), I’d just check they had an appropriate degree for the post (specified in the advert) and not look any further. Their A* in maths GCSE wasn’t going to be relevant.

Mine has mobile phone number, email address, and a link to my LinkedIn page. Haven't included address for ages.

For jobs in education this is a safeguarding necessity. Same section of the application form that contains gender/race/disability.

But that section of the CV isn't seen by the interviewers so it isn't factored.

Names aren't even given at the shortlisting phase so that gender/age can't be assumed.

I've done my fair share of interviewing, and I've definitely wondered about how someone's commute would work out, so I've been really clear in the interviews, that it's 3 days in the office. Two from home. Reasonably flexible on which days barring a massive customer meeting etc.

One guy at the outset tried negotiating in the interview how he could only do two and no matter what they had to be Monday and Tuesday and referred me back to the comment about hybrid working. Which I explained was the 3/2 split. And sometimes our customer meetings fell on a Thursday. His body language and everything just made me say no.

another guy 2.5 hour commute. Fully explained it to him. He had no problems. We offered him the role.

So, I'd say, we certainly recognise it, but it's not a no based on it.

My money is on this.

I don't even put my general location on my CV. I'm an IT contractor & apply for roles nationwide. Never been an issue, but appreciate that's a slightly different scenario.

When you're interviewing for an employee position, I'm pretty sure even asking where you live is an illegal question. Where you live has nothing to do with your ability to do a job, unless there's an on call aspect where you'd need to get there quickly. It's even less relevant if the role is remote/hybrid.