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When we find a candidate we're interested in pursuing, we ask our recruiting operation to do two things prior to sending us the candidate's resume. 1) Remove t

When we find a candidate we're interested in pursuing, we ask our recruiting operation to do two things prior to sending us the candidate's resume. 1) Remove the candidate's name/address. Replace with local-to-office = yes|no. Leave phone for screening call. 2) Replace the candidate's education credentials with yes|no on post-HS attendance, and the focus of study. No other information necessary. It's made a huge difference to us.

moftz 9y ago
Is GPA included? I bombed my first two years at school due to being totally unprepared. I took a semester off and came back to actually do well but the damage was done. I was consistently looked over at nearly every career fair interview. I never put my GPA on my resume and the moment the question would come up, I already knew they weren't going to hire me despite anything else on my resume or what we discussed in the interview. The only time I would actually get offer letters is when no one asked my GPA. I know that internships are competitive and I would only want to be judged on merit but being judged solely on one number was the most frustrating thing during school.
- jroseattle 9y ago
  No. We have yet to find a predictive correlation between GPA and performance metrics for our employees and their work.
  - hexane360 9y ago
    Seeing as you've done some exploratory inference, are there any surprising correlations you have found?
    - jroseattle 9y ago
      I lead teams of software engineers, and what we have learned is that those who bring drive and active energy in their positions excel the best. It's a performance business, and over the long haul effort matters greatly. It's also a marathon. Tech is constantly changing, and we all need to stay current and avoid becoming a dinosaur. It requires a persistent drive to always be willing to learn new things, to challenge what you've learned in the past, and stay on top of changes in our industry. We put our trust in those who sustain this over time.
vita17 9y ago
If you're only considering local candidates aren't you still filtering out most universities just indirectly?
- jroseattle 9y ago
  The local-candidate attribute is for logistics, not filtering. We consider candidates both local as well as national/remote. The local-candidate attribute tells us if someone is around/nearby for onsite interview planning. (National/remote requires more planning, obviously.)
kxyvr 9y ago
I appreciate that you and your company is doing this. Many years back, I sat on the graduate school acceptance board for my department at a tier-1 research university. Before we were given the applications, we were given a spreadsheet with the applicants name, GPA, GRE, and last university. This led the members on the committee to immediately pull the applications from the known universities and given them preferential treatment. This made it difficult for students who came from underrepresented groups to have their application appropriately considered. They may have had good research and work experience, taken the appropriate classes, but they went to local state schools, not tier-1 universities. Literally, I was told one student was a B-student at Columbia, which is like an A-student anywhere else. Anyway, I lobbied to have all of this information stripped in the future, but my request was denied. I'm glad someone is doing it. In my belief, if the majority of workplaces used this process, a large amount of implicit bias and discrimination during hiring would be eliminated.
- jroseattle 9y ago
  That's basically the intent -- remove elements that sway us. And for sure, we're not _anti_ credentials. If you have earned your MBA, we're not looking to avoid you. We have some great colleagues who have earned degrees from very good schools (including elite ones). We've just found that those colleagues can stand on their own work, and their abilities shine through. Credentials don't impress us; work ethic, moral code, positive personal energy, and drive -- that gets our attention.

moftz 9y ago

Is GPA included? I bombed my first two years at school due to being totally unprepared. I took a semester off and came back to actually do well but the damage was done. I was consistently looked over at nearly every career fair interview. I never put my GPA on my resume and the moment the question would come up, I already knew they weren't going to hire me despite anything else on my resume or what we discussed in the interview. The only time I would actually get offer letters is when no one asked my GPA. I know that internships are competitive and I would only want to be judged on merit but being judged solely on one number was the most frustrating thing during school.

jroseattle 9y ago
No. We have yet to find a predictive correlation between GPA and performance metrics for our employees and their work.
- hexane360 9y ago
  Seeing as you've done some exploratory inference, are there any surprising correlations you have found?
  - jroseattle 9y ago
    I lead teams of software engineers, and what we have learned is that those who bring drive and active energy in their positions excel the best. It's a performance business, and over the long haul effort matters greatly. It's also a marathon. Tech is constantly changing, and we all need to stay current and avoid becoming a dinosaur. It requires a persistent drive to always be willing to learn new things, to challenge what you've learned in the past, and stay on top of changes in our industry. We put our trust in those who sustain this over time.

vita17 9y ago

If you're only considering local candidates aren't you still filtering out most universities just indirectly?

jroseattle 9y ago
The local-candidate attribute is for logistics, not filtering. We consider candidates both local as well as national/remote. The local-candidate attribute tells us if someone is around/nearby for onsite interview planning. (National/remote requires more planning, obviously.)

kxyvr 9y ago

I appreciate that you and your company is doing this. Many years back, I sat on the graduate school acceptance board for my department at a tier-1 research university. Before we were given the applications, we were given a spreadsheet with the applicants name, GPA, GRE, and last university. This led the members on the committee to immediately pull the applications from the known universities and given them preferential treatment. This made it difficult for students who came from underrepresented groups to have their application appropriately considered. They may have had good research and work experience, taken the appropriate classes, but they went to local state schools, not tier-1 universities. Literally, I was told one student was a B-student at Columbia, which is like an A-student anywhere else. Anyway, I lobbied to have all of this information stripped in the future, but my request was denied. I'm glad someone is doing it. In my belief, if the majority of workplaces used this process, a large amount of implicit bias and discrimination during hiring would be eliminated.

jroseattle 9y ago
That's basically the intent -- remove elements that sway us. And for sure, we're not _anti_ credentials. If you have earned your MBA, we're not looking to avoid you. We have some great colleagues who have earned degrees from very good schools (including elite ones). We've just found that those colleagues can stand on their own work, and their abilities shine through. Credentials don't impress us; work ethic, moral code, positive personal energy, and drive -- that gets our attention.