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Comment by auggierose | Hacker News Reader

These problems don't go away by not including a picture... In Germany a resume without a picture looks odd.

This reminds me of a funny conversation I had with a coworker: he's black and was complaining that his sister named his nephew "Lashawn" (for those outside the US: it's a very stereotypically African-American name). He remarked: "do you want his resume to go directly to the trash bin every time?" Funny at the time but kind of depressing in retrospect.

I have to add the obligatory reference to Freakonomics and the impact your name has on "how a child performs in school and even her career opportunities".

Great write up in either the first or second Freakonomics book about how adversely impacting being called Jasmin is in the the US.

[0] http://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-much-does-your-name-matt...

Dr. Marijuana Pepsi, holds a doctorate in higher education leadership. Her dissertation was entitled, “Black names in white classrooms: Teacher behaviors and student perceptions."

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/columnists/jim-stingl/20...

We call her Mary Jane Pepsi

She goes as Marijuna, but in some situations, she goes as “M P”.

I know your coworker was probably exaggerating for the point of the joke but Lashawn isn't even that bad. It's when people slam together parts of three different names to make some four syllable albatross of a name that your resume gets trashed by default.

There's also white people names that will get your resume trashed for implying low class but they tend to lack the aural flare that stereo-typically low class black people names have.

Examples of low class white names? I'm curious.

Jeb, Cecil, Jethro, Dustin...

Cecil is lower class? I'd say the opposite, that makes me think mortarboard and prep school. Similar for names like Percival.

Lower class names are going to be the cliche'd, trying-to-be-different names like Corbin, Jameson, McKenna, Liam, Elijah, Aiden, Kaydon, Grayson, Mason, etc.

That's, "Jeb!", for your information.

It does reduce bias in the screening stage, which is exactly what its intended purpose is.

But it's not something that you can decide to do as a candidate. Without a picture, you're the oddball that doesn't get past the first screening.

Has this changed as hiring gets more international? When I started seeing CVs with pictures I thought it was really, really weird, but I soon realised it was just the norm in some countries.

I still think CVs with _pie charts_ are pretty weird, tho...

FWIW, I'm with you on pie charts. :)

That is only true when everyone else includes a picture. As others said it is great in the US that nobody includes pictures on their resume.

What's the benefit to employees and employers?

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