Ask a Manager: Rejecting a candidate for including "servant of God" on their resume

[minoanmiss]

Can you reject someone for including “servant of god” on their resume?

I recently saw a question come up somewhere else about receiving a candidate’s resume that included the phrase “servant of god” prominently under their name, with no connection to work experience or job-relevant context. I understand that religious identity cannot be used as the basis for hiring decisions, but can you consider a person’s judgment in including something like that on their resume or must you entirely disregard it?

Technically you should disregard it. I completely get what you’re saying — you wouldn’t be rejecting them for their religion, you’d be rejecting them for their bad judgment in injecting religion somewhere it doesn’t belong — but you risk being on shaky legal ground if you’re trying to split those hairs in court one day. If the person otherwise would be someone you’d advance to an interview, theoretically you should do that and then probe into how well they’ll be able to work respectfully with people with different beliefs. (That said, in my experience the people who include stuff like this on their resumes tend not to be the strongest candidates anyway, even when you remove that.)