marital status on CV advice please

cazziebo

I've been hesitating whether to butt in to this thread or not, but hey, sometimes I can't help myself. And my observations might prove useful to someone, if not quite PC. A CV is a sales tool to help you get to the next stage of the process, usually the interview. Everything on there should help you do that.

I've been involved in interviewing, recruiting, managing for years. Personally I never put age or marital status on my cv and on application forms I would put n/a. This is because as a single parent I knew only too well how interviewers and managers would concoct all sorts of prejudices about me, without ever knowing me or my situation. "Two young kids, she won't be reliable" "Might meet someone and have more kids" "Will need the money, offer her less". Whether women are married/single/20s/30s/40s whatever, people are too quick to judge, although they will deny it.

However, (and this is just observations from my own experience), it's a different story for men. Single men have no ties, can travel, will work long hours, no childcare issues. Married men are more stable, someone else running the house/family, reliable because they will be main earners in the household - and should be placed high on the pay scale. Whatever the situation, men are viewed more positively.

It's a lot of tosh. I know married men who are intolerably unreliable and married women work shamefully long hours. However, the whole recruitment process is often riddled with people's prejudices. And of course, my own prejudice is that female single parents strive never to let people down, go to the ends of the earth to demonstrate commitment, and constantly compromise their kids to please an employer

Sorry OP, hope I'm not hijacking your thread. I'm recruiting just now and have had enough of the other directors telling me the ideal candidate will be a young, single, graduate male. Might be the case, but I'd rather select on the potential to do the job, not on characteristics which don't mean anything!

Miseryschild

cazziebo - good for you! get the person who suits the job.

AlisonW - i would leave it off along with DOB - i have done and had no problems with it.


~MC

Oldernotwiser

Miseryschild wrote: »

AlisonW - i would leave it off along with DOB - i have done and had no problems with it.


~MC

Yes, but you haven't got a job although hunting for ages!

princess123_2

Hi Alison

This information doesn't need to be on your CV.
There are some good websites on the net giving you free template CV's and ideas.

Good luck with the job hunting.

LittleVoice

Given that it is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of marriage, leave it off. Just as you would not say you were black, white (or striped green and mauve).

Miseryschild

Older - true but now I know it isnt because of my age :P

~MC

BusyLizzie_3

I never include my marital status on my cv or job applications. It has no relevance and doesn't affect my ability to do the job or not.

Miseryschild

Good site for help with CVs if you still need it:

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/cvexamples.htm

HTH
~MC

Gingernutmeg

mymatebob wrote: »

Nor do you need to put dates when you went to school/college/uni - stops them working out how old you are!

Works the other way too - I graduated last year as a mature student and I like to put the dates on, just so that they know I'm not 'just' a recent graduate and I have quite a bit of work experience too!

mymatebob

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

Works the other way too - I graduated last year as a mature student and I like to put the dates on, just so that they know I'm not 'just' a recent graduate and I have quite a bit of work experience too!

Surely having the work experience on your CV will show that?
If you avoid dates then there is no issue at all