Job applicants who “whiten” resumes have more success

On Behalf of | Feb 2, 2021 | Uncategorized |

It’s one thing for a company to say that they’re an equal opportunity employer. It’s quite another to actually see that in practice. Research has shown that workers still face many biases and instances of discrimination, even if they are not so overt as they were in previous decades.

Altering resumes gets results

You know you should be honest on your resume, but some workers have grown fed up with what they felt was discrimination based on race. No, the company couldn’t say that no minority workers should apply or that they’d only hire white candidates, of course, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still hiring only white candidates.

To test this theory out, some applicants have deliberately changed their resumes. Those with names tied closely to a specific ethnic group have picked generic “white” names instead. Some who had experiences in college where they joined minority student unions or other such groups have left those details off. Overall, they created resumes that, during the few seconds a recruiter would look at them, appeared to come from white candidates. All of the real details about education levels and experience were not altered.

As you can already guess, this gets results. These candidates get more interviews. Does this increase their chances of getting hired? It may, but it also exposes the fact that discrimination still exists. Workers should never have to disguise who they really are just so that they can get their foot in the door with an interview and desperately try to prove that they deserve the job. That’s not an equal opportunity at all.

Have you experienced discrimination?

It’s very unfortunate that we’re still dealing with bias and discrimination, but it’s the reality for many workers. If this has happened to you, you need to know what rights and options you have, and it can help to have an experienced law firm on your side.

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