do you still need a mailing address on your resume?

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I teach a course for adult learners on how to prepare for a job search, and I’d like to get your take on including addresses on resumes. Personally, I think it is unnecessary, particularly in our modern world of remote and hybrid jobs, and just introduces a potential safety issue. You had a different opinion when you answered this question in 2014, but I’m wondering if your advice has changed in the last 10 years!

Yes, this has completely changed in the last 10 years! It’s utterly normal now for resumes not to include full mailing addresses. Most people still include city and state, but a lot of people don’t even include that.

Not including an address used to be seen as a sign that the candidate was trying to hide their location (for example, because you didn’t want them to know yet that you weren’t local), but conventions have changed and it doesn’t read that way anymore.

Frankly, the convention had been outdated for a long time before it finally changed. The practice of including a full mailing address goes back to the time when employers might contact you by postal mail and that hasn’t been a thing in decades, so this evolution was long overdue.

This feels like a speed round question. Is it time for another speed round?