5

I live in the city of Antwerp. Antwerp is the capital of the province of Antwerp, Belgium.

What I would like to have displayed under my name on my résumé:

Antwerp, Belgium

Second best choice (redundant, but technically correct):

Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

If you really, really insist that there should be a province/state code, then let me enter:

Antwerp, ANT, Belgium

What is currently displayed:

Antwerp, VAN, Belgium

It doesn't matter if I leave the state/province field blank or if I fill in another value, the VAN value always pops back up.

After some searching I gather that the VAN value that you are using is the ISO 3166-2 code for the names of the principal subdivisions, but I have never before seen someone in Belgium use that, and certainly not on a résumé.

The V in VAN comes from our very peculiar state structure: Belgium is divided into three regions, two of them are subdivided into five provinces each. (The Brussels-Capital Region does not belong to any province, nor does it contain any.) The province of Antwerp is part of the Flemish Region (Dutch: Vlaamse Gewest, hence the V). Things like ISO standards have to be pendantic about these matters, but in normal usage you never make this further subdivision.

You make a site for an international audience, so don't automatically assume that what is customary in the USA is also true in the rest of the world. At least give me the option to override/localize settings.

(What makes it extra confusing is that Van is a regular Dutch word and often part of the last name of a person, like in my case)

1
  • 2
    I think the last point (about "van" being a regular Dutch word) is a huge factor; Careers typically helps people in their region; anything that muddies the appearance of the candidate in their region is a bad thing.
    – casperOne
    Commented Nov 12, 2011 at 14:36

1 Answer 1

2

Thanks for pointing this out. We’ve made a change so only the US & Canada have their state/province displayed. Would you try it again and let us know if it works as you wish?

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .