4 ms·

I'm somewhat confused by your question, but generally it's not a secret what gender someone is based on their resume/application. You may also be able to glean

by bruxis 9y ago

I'm somewhat confused by your question, but generally it's not a secret what gender someone is based on their resume/application. You may also be able to glean race from this. This information is rarely anonymized. That said, the "numbers game" doesn't really start until after you pass the on-site, and any inherent bias likely occurs more frequently there since there are more opportunities (likely a single phone screener/resume screener, then 4-6 on-site participants). From what I've seen in management in SV, bias tends to rear it's head more in the phase of considering on-site feedback in the topic "does this candidate fit in here?" before anything gets to the offer stage. At the offer stage, the actual financial details are usually left to a different set of individuals, depending on the size of the company (hiring manager, HR, CTO, CEO, etc.). There's a different opportunity for bias here, but I think generally, it's smaller.

cyberferret 9y ago
Well, with Western names, I guess a recruiter can guess at the gender, but with some Sub-continental or Asian names - that can be hard to do. Which leads me to another question - Do people use pseudonyms to increase their chances of getting through initial screening of their applications? (Anecdote: I had a (female) business mentor many years ago who said that she had trouble getting businesses to meet with her. Until she stopped using her full name on letters to company executives. She changed her signature from 'Anna Smith' to just 'A. Smith'. She said she then started getting lots of replies addressed to 'Dear Mr. Smith'.)
- bruxis 9y ago
  I suppose depending on where you're located, a name may be difficult to pinpoint gender. Though I think it's more common than not to be able to tell (or guess). I think it's important to understand the context of SV, and especially the larger companies. Most companies are flooded with applications (less so on the referral side, which I think this post points to being useful a bit). Because of this, most people applying seem to shotgun apply to many companies in hopes of having a good one respond in a reasonable timeframe. It seems rare to have a tweaked resume per position, let alone per company. I would not be surprised if there were some people that choose to leave out some details from their resumes to avoid early bias, but I personally don't think it does much to help them, as they would likely face that bias eventually anyways. I don't, however, think it's particularly common to see this. You do see the occasional "American-ized" name from time to time, where an individual from an Asian/South Asian, or other area where pronunciation differs greatly from the common US English, will adopt a pseudonym to be more easily accepted, pronounced, or not hear their name butchered by every person they work with. I also don't think this is overly motivated by avoiding hiring bias. (Anonymized anecdote: a previous fellow I know is Chinese and his name is 'Xiang', but he goes by 'Jacob')
- richardknop 9y ago
  Depends. With Chinese people applying for jobs, for example, Chinese people have English first name as well as their Chinese first name. And they would use their English first name when applying for a job at US or other large international company. So you could definitely guess gender there. Sub continental names I would agree, if you are European or American it might be difficult to guess the gender from name. But from the resume you might be able to guess it based on other information (lots of people put their photo on their CV which makes this a moot point obviously).
  - cyberferret 9y ago
    > Chinese people have English first name as well as their Chinese first name I've always been intrigued by this. I assume they do this when they decide to travel to the West for work or study (in order to make it easier to communicate with locals), as opposed to being given dual names at birth?
    - richardknop 9y ago
      I think it might depend on country. Mainland China I'm not sure about but in Taiwan/HK/SG I think parents choose a second "unofficial" English first name for their children. This is useful exactly for reasons of traveling, studying or working abroad or for multinational corps.

by bruxis 9y ago

cyberferret 9y ago

Well, with Western names, I guess a recruiter can guess at the gender, but with some Sub-continental or Asian names - that can be hard to do. Which leads me to another question - Do people use pseudonyms to increase their chances of getting through initial screening of their applications? (Anecdote: I had a (female) business mentor many years ago who said that she had trouble getting businesses to meet with her. Until she stopped using her full name on letters to company executives. She changed her signature from 'Anna Smith' to just 'A. Smith'. She said she then started getting lots of replies addressed to 'Dear Mr. Smith'.)

bruxis 9y ago
I suppose depending on where you're located, a name may be difficult to pinpoint gender. Though I think it's more common than not to be able to tell (or guess). I think it's important to understand the context of SV, and especially the larger companies. Most companies are flooded with applications (less so on the referral side, which I think this post points to being useful a bit). Because of this, most people applying seem to shotgun apply to many companies in hopes of having a good one respond in a reasonable timeframe. It seems rare to have a tweaked resume per position, let alone per company. I would not be surprised if there were some people that choose to leave out some details from their resumes to avoid early bias, but I personally don't think it does much to help them, as they would likely face that bias eventually anyways. I don't, however, think it's particularly common to see this. You do see the occasional "American-ized" name from time to time, where an individual from an Asian/South Asian, or other area where pronunciation differs greatly from the common US English, will adopt a pseudonym to be more easily accepted, pronounced, or not hear their name butchered by every person they work with. I also don't think this is overly motivated by avoiding hiring bias. (Anonymized anecdote: a previous fellow I know is Chinese and his name is 'Xiang', but he goes by 'Jacob')
richardknop 9y ago
Depends. With Chinese people applying for jobs, for example, Chinese people have English first name as well as their Chinese first name. And they would use their English first name when applying for a job at US or other large international company. So you could definitely guess gender there. Sub continental names I would agree, if you are European or American it might be difficult to guess the gender from name. But from the resume you might be able to guess it based on other information (lots of people put their photo on their CV which makes this a moot point obviously).
- cyberferret 9y ago
  > Chinese people have English first name as well as their Chinese first name I've always been intrigued by this. I assume they do this when they decide to travel to the West for work or study (in order to make it easier to communicate with locals), as opposed to being given dual names at birth?
  - richardknop 9y ago
    I think it might depend on country. Mainland China I'm not sure about but in Taiwan/HK/SG I think parents choose a second "unofficial" English first name for their children. This is useful exactly for reasons of traveling, studying or working abroad or for multinational corps.