title: MySQL multiple tables or serialized data
body: <p>I'm writing up a job recruitment site for ex-military personnel in PHP/MySQL and I'm at a stage where I'm not sure which direction to take</p>
  
  <p>I have a "candidate" table with all the usual firstname, surname etc and a unique candidate_id, and an address table linked by the unique candidate_id</p>
  
  <p>The client has asked for more data to be captured, as in driving licence type, religion, SIA Level (Security Industry Authority), languages spoken etc</p>
  
  <p>My question is, with all this different data, is it worth setting up dedicated tables for each? So for example having a driving licence table, with all the different types of driving licence, each with a unique id, then linked to the candidate table with a driving_licence_id cell?</p>
  
  <p>Or should I just serialize all the extra data as text and put it in one cell in the candidate table?</p>