Resume contact info
The contact line is the smallest section of a resume and the easiest to get wrong. Here's the modern shortlist.
Include: full name, professional email, phone, city + state (not full address), LinkedIn URL, and a portfolio URL if you have one. Leave off: home address, photo, age, marital status, secondary phone, second email. One line under your name, parseable by ATS.
The required fields
Full name. Professional email (firstname.lastname@gmail or a personal domain). One phone with the country code. City and state (not full street address). LinkedIn URL (the customized one, not the default '/in/firstname-lastname-7384a92'). That's the line. Five fields, one row, parseable by every ATS.
Where to put it
On the first line of the body of the document, NOT inside the page header element. This is one of the most common parsing failures we see — Word's page header looks identical visually but is invisible to most ATS parsers, so your contact info gets dropped. The fix is to use plain body text on line 1.
What to leave off
Home street address (city + state is enough; full address is a privacy risk and irrelevant to most jobs). Date of birth, age, marital status, photo (US-illegal for hiring side to consider, drops your resume in many companies). Secondary phone, secondary email, fax. Personal websites unrelated to your work. Pronouns are optional and increasingly normal but not required — your call.
Email address rules
Use a professional address. firstname.lastname@gmail.com is fine. firstname@yourdomain.com is better if you have one. coolguy_92@hotmail is not. Avoid old free providers (Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL) if you can — they don't disqualify but signal a stale digital footprint. Avoid your current work email — recruiters notice.
LinkedIn and portfolio URLs
LinkedIn: use the customized URL (linkedin.com/in/yourname). It signals you spent 30 seconds setting it up. Portfolio: only include if it's current, loads in under 3 seconds, and represents your current bar. A broken or outdated portfolio link is worse than no link. GitHub: only if your contributions are recent and public; private profiles or 2-year-old activity is worse than no link.
Side by side
Jane Doe · Brooklyn, NY · jane.doe@gmail.com · +1 555 123 4567 · linkedin.com/in/janedoe · janedoe.dev
Jane Doe (32, Married, US Citizen). 1234 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. coolgirl_92@hotmail.com. Mobile: 555-123-4567. Home: 555-987-6543. linkedin.com/in/jane-doe-7384a92.
Mistakes that get this wrong
- Contact info inside the Word page header element (drops in most ATS)
- Full street address instead of city + state
- Photo, date of birth, marital status (US-illegal to consider, drops the resume in many companies)
- Default uncustomized LinkedIn URL
- Broken or outdated portfolio link
Put the five required fields on line one of the body text, in a single row, with separators (·, |, or em dash). Leave off everything else. Test the resume in Google Drive's PDF preview to confirm the contact line parses.
Frequently asked
Should I include my street address?
No — city and state is enough. Full street address is a privacy risk and the hiring side doesn't need it until offer stage.
Is it OK to use a personal domain email?
Yes — and it's a small positive signal. Make sure the domain doesn't redirect to a side project that contradicts your professional brand.
Should I list pronouns?
Optional and increasingly normal. Some companies appreciate it; none disqualify for it. Your call.
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