"I don't know how to put religious info or similar info on my resume in a general sense. But I do have some volunteer experience with a legal aid organization and also serve on the board of directors for different religious organizations. The names of both organizations imply religious affiliation. Is it a bad idea to include those, as it will just make people nervous, discrimination, et cetera. Or include those because they boost my work experience?"
Yeah. So there's really nothing wrong. For the most part, I don't think people have any issues with different religious organizations. The big thing they're looking for in any resume, and the reason that religious things and so forth can detract from that, is they really just wanna make sure that you can be managed.
And so the problem, it's not just related to religious stuff, it's also related to things to do with, someone put something about a lot of pro bono, like we saw earlier today. That makes it seem like maybe you can't be managed.
And then sometimes people put things on their resume about different organizations that look very left wing or right wing, and that makes people nervous. When you get down to religious organizations and so forth, I really do recommend being careful to some extent. And I'll tell you how I learned this and why I think it's important.
When I was in college, I grew up in the Midwest. And my girlfriend was Jewish and when I would go visit relatives in different parts of rural Ohio and stuff I just couldn't believe, like, how much discrimination there was against Jews there. I'd never grown up with discrimination, I'd never seen discrimination and I didn't like it. And it actually made me completely shocked.
And so the fact is, there is discrimination, and some people... That actually probably would be a very good thing to have in certain markets, like New York or LA. But in rural Ohio, no. You have to be careful. So that can draw people the wrong way.
I remember after September 11th, also I had a candidate who was Muslim and went to a top 10 law school, had worked at a really good firm and was looking for a job. And I couldn't get him an interview anywhere. I think at that point in time there was, in New York, there was discrimination against Muslims.
So you just have to be very careful about this sort of stuff. And then, I remember when I was interviewing with colleges, I went to this one college that was very religious, and a different type of religion. And they were very rude to me and told me I was white bread and all this kind of stuff, 'cause everyone there wasn't of the same background.
So there's discrimination. So you need to be careful, and you have to ask yourself, "What's the price?" If you're LDS or Mormon, you're applying to firms in Utah, it's not a big deal. There's not a lot of discrimination against people. But you just have to be careful about putting religious information on your resume.
You also... I say this, and I say this with the utmost of respect, but anything that identifies you as one thing or another sometimes it can hurt you because you don't know who's reviewing your stuff. I don't like it any more than you do. My job is to get people jobs, and it's my passion. But you just have to be very careful about putting that stuff.
And I've written about this extensively, I've been called names for writing about this and saying you shouldn't do this, you should try to leave this stuff off your resume. But I recommend to the extent you can, being careful. You don't know who you're gonna alienate.
If you look at the Democrats versus the Republicans, the level of hate on both sides is insane. I was on CNN and I forget the guy's name, but he was saying anybody that voted for Trump is evil and a racist — this is the lead reporter — and should be arrested. And then you watch, Fox and they talk about how Democrats are crazy and evil and you can't win. So a lot of times you're much better off leaving that stuff out or at least knowing your audience and being careful about that.
Even when you go into an interview, you may go into an interview and be the same ethnic group as someone, the person's gonna pick up on it, but you don't even wanna bring it up because that will make them uncomfortable. People wanna feel like it's a meritocracy and that's how that works.
