Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, March 2004 (Vol. 32, No. 7). All rights reserved.

Jobs

If there are items on your résumé you'd rather not share, then don't

by Donna Gerson

How much information should you share with a potential employer? Is it OK to avoid mentioning certain "hot button" affiliations on your résumé?

When I travel to law schools and meet with students, I'm often asked for advice about listing or omitting certain résumé entries. Concerns include whether or not to include political work, membership in organizations that promote a controversial cause or point of view, or information that would suggest the applicant's age, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.

Anxiety about revealing such information stems from a fear that an employer might hastily disregard a résumé upon seeing a controversial entry before considering the candidate's substantive skills and accomplishments. Adding to the anxiety is the inability to prove that this sort of winnowing, whether conscious or unconscious on the employer's part, is the cause for an applicant's failure to secure an initial interview.

What should you do if you think you have a résumé hot button? The lawyerly answer I give students is, "It depends." I then engage in a conversation to help clarify the student's intentions and goals.

First, it's important to identify a résumé's purpose. A résumé enables you to list relevant academic credentials, work experience, and skills for an employer's convenient review. Relevant is the most significant word in this definition.

Depending on the employer, you can (and should) emphasize different experiences or skills, customizing your résumé to suit your audience based on your research of the employer.

When applying for a position, it's important to emphasize skills and experiences that relate to the employers' practice areas and office culture. Thus, if you want to work with a public interest organization that advocates on behalf of children, you should prominently list all relevant child welfare or juvenile justice experiences. Listing other public interest work also could be relevant because nonprofit organizations often share a similar work culture. Your goal is to demonstrate you have something in common with the employer. You want to give ample reason to meet you and discuss your credentials.

When it comes to including potential hot-button entries on your résumé, consider two schools of thought. One approach is to list all jobs and affiliations, regardless of the employer you're applying to. After all, who wants to work for an employer who disapproves of some aspect of who you are based on your résumé?

Another approach is to craft a résumé that ensures the broadest access to the interview process. Students who adopt this approach will tailor their résumés to fit hiring criteria whenever possible. If you're concerned about work experiences or affiliations that may raise an employer's eyebrows, you can emphasize the skills you acquired and your accomplishments-especially if they're relevant to the position you seek. But if you cannot identify concrete skills or accomplishments you gained from the affiliation, there's nothing wrong with leaving it off your tailored résumé. You always can include it if you apply to an employer who's likely to appreciate this part of your background.

Students also ask about including résumé entries that indicate various personal attributes. To some degree, the choice is in your control.

One's first name usually divulges gender, so there's little you can do to conceal this information if you wanted to. But if you have a gender-neutral name (such as Kerry, Kim, Alex, Chris) or a non-English name that isn't familiar to most Americans, you may want to add a "Ms." or "Mr." designation in parentheses before your first name on your résumé. This is a courtesy to hiring partners and recruiting coordinators who strive to treat applicants with respect by addressing correspondence correctly.

For students who enter law school after other careers, age sometimes causes concern. Should you highlight the fact that you graduated from college in 1979? Will listing significant managerial experience for the past decade give a clue about your age? Is this disclosure cause for concern? Weighing and balancing the relative pros and cons with your career adviser will help. Although age-related employment discrimination is illegal, you may need to think about and rehearse how you'll answer interview questions about your openness to taking direction, working long hours, and handling entry-level tasks.

What about including membership in or work experience with racial, ethnic, or religious organizations? One way to look at the question is to remember that many legal employers are embracing the hiring of a diverse work force. Some of these employers may find it helpful if you list on your résumé activities or affiliations that identify yourself as a racial minority. This certainly is the case when applying to employers at minority job fairs, which are designed to promote diversity in hiring. The same can be said for applicants with affiliations or work experience that indicate sexual orientation. Gathering information through your career services office and other sources can help you determine how friendly a law firm may be to lawyers who belong to underrepresented groups.

Often, however, listing such affiliations is useful only if they're relevant to the specific job you're applying for. Whenever possible, highlight a skill or accomplishment. If you can't do this, you may be better off omitting the information unless you know for certain the employer would be interested in it.

As long as you're truthful, disclosing information on your résumé largely remains in your control. Depending on the circumstances, there are good reasons to provide information and equally good reasons to downplay certain information.

It's always a good idea to consult your career services office or faculty mentor for further guidance on these issues. Whatever conclusion you reach, choose your approach carefully. You don't want to get burned when handling your résumé hot buttons.

Donna Gerson, a former career services director at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, is author of Choosing Small, Choosing Smart: The Secrets of Small and Mid-Size Firm Hiring (NALP, 2001). E-mail her at donna@donnagerson.com if you have comments on this article or would like her to speak at your school.

For more career and job search guidance, visit the ABA Career Counsel at www.abanet.org/careercounsel/students.html.