Should You Bring Your Resume to an Interview?

If you’re scheduled to have an in-person interview, then you are likely wondering if you should bring your resume with you.

Years ago, it was common place to bring a paper copy of your resume with you to the interview. However, with the advent of email and resumes being sent in PDF and Word formats, how common is it to bring a paper copy of a resume?

Well, it would surprise you. It’s actually still pretty common. In fact, in many industries you will be expected to have not one but two copies of your resume with you. This is so that you and the interview can both have a copy of your resume in front of you during the interview.

What Happens If You Don’t Bring a Resume to an Interview?

Nothing. It’s not a huge deal. For many roles I would always suggest people to bring two copies of their resume with them, but oftentimes they would not. And it wasn’t every a huge deal.

The reason that it’s helpful to bring a copy of your resume is that it means that the interviewer does not have to look at their laptop or computer while speaking with you. They can simply hold the printed out resume and refer to it during the interview.

This eliminates the awkward instances where the interviewer has to sit far away and look at a computer screen. It’s just easier to sit with a piece of paper in front of them.

There have been issues when the interviewer does not have a copy of the resume for some reason, and the candidate who is interviewing did not bring their own copy. In those instances, it does look bad for the person to not have brought their own resume. In many cases, the person who is conducting the interview was not given a printed out resume by their staff so they just don’t have a copy. And you would not believe how many people are not able to print out resumes on their own, let alone the number of people who can’t find resumes that were emailed to them.

So, to avoid all of these issues I always suggest people print out several copies of their resume and also get a nice resume folder to carry with them on interviews.

Won’t The Interviewer Have A Copy of Your Resume?

This totally depends on the interviewer. Some people are going to prepare and have a hard copy of your resume out and available to look at during the interview. Some are not.

You never want to rely on the interviewer to have something for you. That’s not being proactive.

The other concern is that if the interviewer expects you to have a copy of your resume and you don’t have one, then that can be a problem.

You should not expect all people who conduct interviews to have a copy of your resume on hand. Any number of issues might come up that prevent them from having a copy of your resume.

• They might not have a printer handy
• Their assistant might not have printed it for them
• They might have forgot to print it out
• Lastly, they might expect you to bring a copy of your resume to the interview

How Should You Bring Your Resume to an Interview?

Ok, so now that we’ve basically determined that you should bring your resume to an interview, how should you bring it?

What is the best way to bring a resume to the actual interview? In a resume binder or resume portfolio.

You don’t want to have a loose leaf piece of paper as your resume. You should own a classic business portfolio, or at least a good quality resume folder that you can safely store your resume in.

Some people will bring their resume in a large manila envelope, which isn’t the worst thing. As recruiters, it’s more common to see this or a cheap folder that you can get online then a nice resume portfolio. But, that resume portfolio is much more attractive.

Whatever you do, don’t just keep a folded up copy of your resume in your back pocket or in your purse. It will make you look completely unprofessional and not someone who should be hired. Frankly, this alone is enough to turn someone off hiring a person in the first place.

How Many Copies of Your Resume Should You Bring to an Interview?

You should bring two, unless you are asked to bring more. If you have a hundred copies of your resume in a binder, it will look like you’re just out their hitting the pavement, so to speak.

There’s not problem printing out a large number of resumes, but you don’t want to look desperate. After all, interviewing for a job is a sort of psychological game.

The reason you want to bring two copies of your resume is that it helps when the interviewer for some reason wants to go over your resume with you. For this reason, you’re going to want to have two copies of your resume.

Always bring at least two copies. You will want to be able to hand one to the person conducting the interview as well as review your own with them.

And most importantly, you do not want to ever ask the interviewer for your resume back. Just leave your resume with them. Even if it is later tossed into the trash, it is a bad look to ask for your resume back. So, just go in expecting to leave your resume.