I agree whole heartedly. But it is not limited to the US alone. No personal information like age, marital status etc is requested on a resume here in Canada/US. That leaves 'Names' as the only personal information. Quite possibly due to this, names are all that can be used to conjure up all kinds of images and resulting biases.
Sometimes companies are flooded with hundreds of resumes for a single posting. Strange and creative means are used to thin out the candidate list. One manner in which names are used to weed out candidates is to judge their language proficiency through their names. Here in Canada I have had a few friends and colleagues who have felt this happen to them. They changed their name on the resume to western sounding names and suddenly their hit ratio (responses from job postings) went up. That increased their chances tremendously because now they had a chance to prove themselves in an interview. The person who ultimately interviews/hires you will hire the best person for the job because they want the job done right. Once you reach the interview stage you have equal opportunities. This sort of thing is not institutionalized, but more on a personal bias of the person sifting through the resumes. It would be interesting to do a similar study here. Dharmesh -----Original Message----- From: Jerry Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: January 15, 2003 12:00 PM To: CF-Community Subject: Re: The racial Bias in the US.. Not that racial bias doesn't exist, but I wonder how the same test would work for "redneck" sounding names or "biblical" sounding names. Fern, Vern, Bubba, Duke, Buck, Merleen, Bodie, Ovine, Luther Ray, Tammy Lynn, Darla Beth, Inez, Billy Joe, Billy Bob, Joe Bob, Sissy, Clovis Caine, Abel, Ahab, Barnabas, Ezekial, Goliath, Obadiah There may be none, but I would suspect that in certain parts of the country, and in certain industries, any name that falls out of "the norm" might have a significant effect on the interview and hiring process. Jerry Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
