Lifestyle
No, you don't have to put your home address on your resume : Life Kit
Photograph by Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images; Collage by Becky Harlan/NPR
Photograph by Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images; Collage by Becky Harlan/NPR
When was the last time you updated your resume?
If it’s been a while, you might want to give it a refresh, says Cynthia Pong, founder of the career coaching firm Embrace Change. But be aware — some of the best practices have changed.
Over the past few years, the resume format has shifted slightly, she says. Familiar elements like a home address, for example, have become less crucial due to the rise in remote and hybrid work. Meanwhile, adding a URL to your LinkedIn profile can be helpful as hiring managers increasingly turn to technology to aid in recruiting.
Despite these changes, she adds, “the resume is still a must-have for job seekers. Employers expect to see it and expect it to be a certain level of quality.”
Pong, who has helped hundreds of clients with their resumes, has some advice on how to write a CV that’s competitive and up to the latest industry standards. For more tips on resume formatting and style, listen to the podcast episode.
You DON’T have to include your home address
A standard resume usually has the same few components at the top of the page regardless of the industry, says Pong: your name and your contact information.
Do include your phone number and your email address, but don’t worry about adding your home address. It may indicate to an employer that you are not interested in a remote or hybrid situation, she adds, closing the door on potential jobs.
However, if you are applying for a job where location matters — say, a local paper, nonprofit or school — you may want to add your physical address to show “community ties or that you live nearby,” she says. “Even then, simply putting a city and a state will suffice.”
DO add the URL to your LinkedIn profile
Right up there with your contact information, you should have the URL to your LinkedIn profile, says Pong. “It’s basically the online version of your resume, with more bells and whistles.”
“People are going to Google you before the interview, so you may as well put it in there and make it as easy as possible for the person who’s hiring.”
DO write a mission statement
Under your name and contact information, add a 3- to 5-sentence paragraph conveying “who you are and your career in a nutshell,” says Pong. It should explain “what you bring to the table, your areas of expertise and what you excel at.”
She shares her formula for writing a strong, clear mission statement, using a podcast host as an example.
- Explain what you do using descriptive language. Podcast host and facilitator for mission-driven audio initiatives and organizations.
- Say what you’re good at. Excels at making guests feel at ease, asking curiosity-driven questions and creating engaging episodes.
- Explain your career goals. Is there a larger, overarching arc to your career? Is there a legacy you’re building? Strives to make podcast episodes more accessible and relevant to everyday life.
You DON’T have to include your graduation date
If you graduated from college more than a decade ago and you’re worried about age discrimination, “you don’t have to put the years you graduated,” says Pong. Do include it if you’re a recent graduate.
Don’t forget to add your major. “You never know what could spark a connection between you and whoever is reading the resume,” she says. “If it’s highly relevant to the opportunity you’re applying to, play up that you have years of specific education in that area.”
DO include volunteer work and skills-building activities
If you have gaps in your resume, don’t worry, says Pong. They’re not uncommon.
There are a few ways you can close the gap. Consider formatting your work history by year instead of month and year, she says. That can help cover up a few months of unemployment.
“If that doesn’t resolve the issue, insert unpaid community work, volunteer service, freelance work, education or skills development you might have done during that time,” she adds. “Focus on how you kept improving your industry knowledge.”
If there is a very long gap, you may need to explain that in your cover letter. And “be prepared to discuss it in the interview confidently if and when you get to that stage,” she says.
DO update your resume every six months
This might seem like a pain, but it can pay off in the long run. “If you keep your resume updated, you’re always ready to share your resume whenever opportunities arise,” says Pong.
“With how much folks have on their minds these days, it’s simply easier to document achievements, highlights and milestones as you go, versus sitting down and trying to remember after the fact — especially if you’re in a rush.”
For more great resume tips, listen to Pong’s full interview on Life Kit.
The audio portion of this episode was produced by Sylvie Douglis. The digital story was written by Malaka Gharib and edited by Sylvie Douglis and Meghan Keane. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.
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Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife in Hamnet.
Kate Green/Getty Images
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Kate Green/Getty Images
Actor Jessie Buckley says she’s always been drawn to the “shadowy bits” of her characters — aspects that are disobedient, or “too much.” Perhaps that’s what led her to play Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet.
Buckley says the film, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, offered a chance to counter a common narrative about the playwright’s wife: that she “had kept him back from his genius,” Buckley says.
But, she adds, “What Maggie O’Farrell so brilliantly did, not just with Agnes and Shakespeare’s wife, but also with Hamnet, their son, was to bring these people … and give them status beside this great man. … [And] give the full landscape of what it is to be a woman.”
The film is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best actress for Buckley. In it, she plays a woman deeply connected to nature, who faces conflicts in her marriage, as well as the death of their son Hamnet.
Buckley found out she was pregnant a week after the film wrapped. She’s since given birth to her first child, a daughter.
“The thing that this story offered me, that brought me into this next chapter of my life as a mother was tenderness,” she says. “A mother’s tenderness is ferocious. To love, to birth is no joke. To be born is no joke. And the minute something’s born into the world, you’re always in the precipice of life and death. That’s our path. … I wanted to be a mother so much that that overrode the thought of being afraid of it.”
Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn plays her brother Bartholomew in Hamnet.
Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features
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Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features
Interview highlights
On filming the scene where she howls in grief when her son dies
I didn’t know that that was going to happen or come out, it wasn’t in the script. I think really [director] Chloé [Zhao] asked all of us to dare to be as present as possible. Of course, leading up to it, you’re aware this scene is coming, but that scene doesn’t stand on its own. By the time I’d met that scene, I had developed such a deep bond with Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet, and [co-stars] Paul [Mescal] and Emily Watson, and all the children and we really were a family. And Jacobi Jupe who plays Hamnet is such an incredible little actor and an incredible soul, and we really were a team. …
The death of a child is unfathomable. I don’t know where it begins and ends. Out of utter respect, I tried to touch an imaginary truth of it in our story as best I could, but there’s no way to define that kind of grief. I’m sure it’s different for so many people. And in that moment, all I had was my imagination but also this relationship that was right in front of me with this little boy and that’s what came out of that.
On what inspired her to pursue singing growing up
I grew up around a lot of music. My mom is a harpist and a singer and my dad has always been passionate about music, so it was always something in our house and always something that was encouraged. … Early on, I have very strong memories of seeing and hearing my mom sing in church and this quite intense mercurial conversation that would happen between her, the story and the people that would listen to her. And at the end of it, something had been cracked between them and these strangers would come up with tears in their eyes. And I guess I saw the power of storytelling through my mom’s singing at a very young age, and that was definitely something that made me think I want to do that.
On her first big break performing as a teen on the BBC singing competition I’d Do Anything — and being criticized by judges about her physical appearance
I was raw. I hadn’t trained. I had a lot to learn and to grow in. I was only 17. I think there was part of their criticism which I think was destructive and unfair when it became about my awkwardness, or they would say I was masculine and send me to kind of a femininity school. … They sent me to [the musical production of] Chicago to put heels on and a leotard and learn how to walk in high heels, which was pretty humiliating, to be honest, and I’m sad about that because I think I was discovering myself as a young woman in the world and wasn’t fully formed. … I was different. I was wild, I had a lot of feeling inside me. I could hardly keep my hands beside myself and I think to kind of criticize a body of a young woman at that time and to make her feel conscious of that was lazy and, I think, boring.
On filming parts of the 2026 film The Bride! while pregnant
I really loved working when I was pregnant. I thought it was a pretty wild experience, especially because I was playing Mary Shelley and I was talking about [this] monstrosity, and here I was with two heartbeats inside me. Becoming a mom and being pregnant did something, I think, for me. My experience of it, it’s so real that it really focuses [me to be] allergic to fake or to disconnection.
Since my daughter has come and I know what that connection is and the real feeling of being in a relationship with somebody … as an actress, it’s very exciting to recognize that in yourself and really take ownership of yourself.
I’m excited to go back and work on this other side of becoming a mother in so many ways, because I’ve shed 10 layers of skin by loving more and experiencing life in such a new way with my daughter. I’m also scared to work again because it’s hard to be a mother and to work. That’s like a constant tug because I love what I do and I’m passionate and I want to continue to grow and learn and fill those spaces that are yet to be filled — and also be a mother. And I think every mother can recognize that tug.
On the possibility of bringing her daughter to travel with her as she works
I haven’t filmed for nearly a year and I cannot wait. I’m hungry to create again. And my daughter will come with me. She’s seven months, so at the moment she can travel with us and it’s a beautiful life. And she meets all these amazing people and I have a feeling that she loves life and that’s a great thing to see in a child. And I hope that’s something that I’ve imparted to her in the short time that she’s been on this earth is that life is beautiful and great and complex and alive and there’s no part of you that needs to be less in your life. You might have to work it out, but it’s worth it.
Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
Bruce Campbell
I’m Battling Cancer
Published
Bruce Campbell has revealed he has cancer, but says it’s a type that’s treatable, though not curable.
“The Evil Dead” actor shared the news Monday in a message to fans, writing, “Hi folks, these days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that — I’m having one of those.” He continued, “It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too.”
Campbell said he wouldn’t go into further detail about his diagnosis, but explained his work schedule will be changing. “Appearances and cons and work in general need to take back seat to treatment,” he wrote, adding he plans to focus on getting “as well as I possibly can over the summer.”
As a result, Campbell says he has to cancel several convention appearances this summer, noting, “Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand.”
He says his plan is to tour this fall in support of his new film, “Ernie & Emma,” which he stars in and directs.
Ending on a determined note, Campbell told fans, “I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch … and I expect to be around a while.”
Neve Campbell in Scream 7.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures
The OG Scream Queen Neve Campbell returns. Scream 7 re-centers the franchise back on Sidney Prescott. She has a new life, a family, and lots of baggage. You know the drill: Someone dressing up as the masked slasher Ghostface comes for her, her family and friends. There’s lots of stabbing and murder and so many red herrings it’s practically a smorgasbord.
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