The hiring process always involves disclosing professional information to an employer, like your skills, experiences, and qualifications. Generally, we advise that job seekers avoid disclosing information that is more personal in nature. But, there are some cases where personal qualities or experiences could feel relevant or necessary to tell an employer.
Let’s talk about what kind of personal information someone might consider disclosing, and why we might consider sharing with an employer.
Disclaimer: This article is a general intro on disclosing personal info, but your circumstances will be unique. We recommend seeking personalized services/advice regarding whether to disclose your particular information.
Types of Personal Disclosure
Broad categories of personal information you might disclose are:
Identity – Identities are things that you are, inherent aspects of you as a person. Some examples are: a person with a disability, a 2SLGBTQ person, or an Indigenous person. Many identities fall under the protection of the Ontario Human Rights Code.
Personal Experience – Experiences are things that have happened to you, they may be in the past or ongoing. Examples could be: experience with immigration to Canada, or experience with homelessness.
Identity and Experience can be connected. For example, someone with a disability might have more experiences with the healthcare system than someone without.
Visible – in some cases, someone can get information about your Identities or Experiences just by looking at you. Someone’s disability might be visible if they have a visual impairment and use a cane.
Invisible – most Personal Experiences and many Identities are ones that someone wouldn’t know about just by looking at you. Experiences are most often Invisible as they take place at a specific time and place. Many disabilities are invisible, such as learning disabilities or chronic pain.
Reasons to Disclose Personal Information
1) To get accommodations we need for the hiring process or to do the job.
Someone might state outright that they use a wheelchair when scheduling an in-person interview to make sure the building is accessible for them.
2) Our identity or experience makes us a stronger candidate than others without that identity or lived experience. If applying for a role supporting people to find housing, disclosing your own experience with homelessness might help to convey that you can directly relate to your clients’ experiences, or have knowledge about housing services you learned from that experience.
Even if we have a clear reason to make a disclosure to an employer, we still have to balance that with the possibility of facing discrimination or stigma against the identity or experience that we share.
Stay tuned for our next post where we will talk about considerations for when and how to disclose personal information.