Resume Screening Without Bias
🚧 ExpandingI’m still building this one out, but the headline is worth saying now: by the time you reach the interview, you’ve already made dozens of decisions about who gets an interview — and that’s where some of the most invisible bias lives. A résumé carries a lot of noise that has nothing to do with whether someone can do the job (a name, a school, a gap, a non-traditional path), and that noise quietly nudges decisions unless you build the screen to resist it.
What the full version will cover:
- Defining must-have criteria up front, before you read a single résumé
- Which signals actually predict performance — and which are pedigree dressed up as merit
- Reading employment gaps and non-linear paths fairly
- Practical de-identification and consistent scoring at the top of the funnel
💡
Write your screening criteria before you open the stack, and score each résumé against that list — not against the last impressive one you saw. Deciding what “qualified” means in advance is the single cheapest way to stop your gut from rewriting the criteria to fit whoever you already liked.
📚 Go Deeper
Books
- Work Rules! — Laszlo BockWhy credential and pedigree signals predict less than we think, and what to weight instead.
Tools
- GitLab Handbook — Hiring & Talent AcquisitionThe structured, criteria-first mindset that should start at the résumé, not the interview.
- Project Include — Hiring recommendationsPractical steps for reducing bias at the top of the funnel, including screening.
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