Clients often ask whether optional identity details belong on a resume: pronouns, and in earlier years, vaccination status. The coaching job is not to have one rule for everyone. It is to help them choose on purpose.
Materials should cover the job requirements. They should also be honest about where this person will be safe and effective. Optional signals can help that matching, and they can also screen someone out.
Walk through three questions together:
- Values. If LGBTQ inclusion is non-negotiable for the client, pronouns on a resume or LinkedIn can be a useful filter. Organizations that reject that signal were unlikely to be a good place to work.
- Region and role type. In a more conservative labor market, especially for in-person SMB roles, optional identity lines will stand out. That can attract mission-aligned employers and close others quickly. Name that tradeoff out loud so the client is not surprised.
- Target culture. If they are set on conventional corporate environments where team pages show no pronouns, adding them may cost interviews they still want. If they are targeting public sector, education, or advocacy employers, the same line may be expected.
Do not treat this as a branding trick. Treat it as informed consent: the client decides what they are willing to signal, and you help them predict how different employers will read it.