I've heard of that study or one like it. I'm sure no one does it on purpose, but I'm sure it's possible subconsciously.

I agree with the above comment. It's a subconscious thing. You may be the least racist person on the planet, but everyone is exposed to stereotypes and we make subconscious judgments whether we like to or not. It's terrible, but the only way around it is to be aware we do it.

Maybe the safest way is to get a secretary or someone not involved in the decision making processing to gather the resumes and block out the names/addresses.

My married name is Japanese and my maiden name is English. When I was job hunting I sent out the two resumes, everything the same but the name and I received more calls on my maiden name, it happens.

It's not always subconscious... I worked for a Korean woman who would, very intentionally, put all the Kims and Lees at the top of the pile. She thought white girls were dumb (I eventually won her over but it wasn't easy), and she wouldn't hire anyone overweight because she thought they were lazy. Obviously these tactics weren't legal but it was a small company so she's probably still doing it to this day. Ridiculous but true!

In one of my MBA classes we discussed that although most companies look at resumes as an initial way to weed out applicants, it's definitely not the best way because of bias. Companies that are looked at as best in class for hiring practices use other methods, like "intelligence testing" to weed out canditates initially, rather than resumes to avoid this bias. It was really an interesting way to look at things.

Interesting.

Truthfully, this is the one of the main reasons I chose to keep my maiden name. My full maiden name is simple and feminine. I'm unsure if it's white-sounding -- it's just easy to read and pronounce.

Completely true. Parents who saddle their children with "unique" names/spelling might be making them so distinctive they will actually be saddling them with a disadvantage.

they weed people out for ANYTHING. so this doesn't surprise me at all.

I hate to bring politics into this, but unfortunately in the United States, discrimination against "ethnic sounding" names is huge-the biggest opposition to President Obama during the campaign seemed to be the baseless objection to his middle name "Hussein."

I wouldn't say that was the biggest opposition to Obama.

Sigh.

that's a ridiculous survey.. i'm greek and have a very complicated last name. i didn't have any trouble getting interviews or a job. people will find anything to complain about.

Hmmm...interesting, but probably true. My maiden name and my married name are both very "white" sounding, but who decides what's "white" sounding and what isn't? One of the guys my husband had to interview for a new position was Indian and his first name was really long, so he shortened it to "Sam" or something like that to American-ize it. My husband said he could care less about people's nationality; it's more important that they can do their job properly.

no problem with this in the bay area, NYC and any other metro areas in the west coast or east coast. why else would you want to even send in your CV to places that you think the majority of the people are acting this way subconsciously or not, anyway.

Film actor Kal Penn's real name is distinctly Indian: "Kalpen Suresh Modi ". One day, on a bet with his friends, and to test out the idea that "white" names get more attention on resumes, he angelicized his name on his resumes. Afterwards, his callbacks shot up by 50%.

Incidentally, when my sister named my nephew "Isaiah", my mom said: "Isn't Isaiah kind of a black name?" Yeah, my mom never ceases to amaze me sometimes. They picked it because it's biblical; not because it was "black" or "white".

I am sure any name that is spelled in a cutesy way is a disadvantage, too.

I have had lots of problems with "glitches in the system" with financial aid at school. Should I blame my very common white sounding name? My sister had to get government assistance after her divorce and she was flagged monthly for a year and given insane hassles (all while others parked new SUV's in the parked in the parking lot.) Should she blame her white sounding name, as well?

it's not usually greek names that are discriminated. it's usually middle eastern, african, spanish, and indian.

"but who decides what's "white" sounding and what isn't"
no one "decides" but it's pretty commonly known that last names from countries that are not part of europe (with the exception of spain) are not "white" sounding.

just fyi, the exception of spain is to explain that spanish last names have been spread to most of the americas. in the united states when somebody hears a spanish name, they don't think spain, but rather mexico, puerto rico, guatemala, etc. so the person might be discriminated against.

Actually,many people from spain have english sur names.

Let's not be so politically correct here.

Keisha, Shaniqua and Dasheida are considered "ghetto" or "Black-sounding" names. And if it makes you feel any better, I know these people and I'm Black too.

And last names like Gutierrez, Zinczenko, and Chin make the reader think that the person is foreign.

In my family, we kind of make fun of these names (the ghetto ones), because growing up we were taught that to get somewhere in life, you can't go around giving your kids names like I mentioned above. Was it right? No, it's downright mean that we did it, but I know it to be true.

We all have pretty normal names (I'm Danielle, mom Susan, aunt Ritta, cousins Alexander, William, and Peyton {who's in my profile pic!}) so I guess we feel confident that we wouldn't get discriminated against or have assumptions made about us as far as names go.

It's just a really messed up reality.

This is the silliest. Think about it. The CV is to get you a job in the U.S. where this phenomena is more prevalent. For international companies where there are offices situated else where in the world, can one HR director do this to every candidate. Just apply to their local office where you originate and insist a transfer to the U.S office once X number of years. Additionally, U.S. is owing lots of outside debt and is still depressed economically at the moment. To whom does U.S. owing the most debt, may I ask? Go to that country and you will find success because it adores foreigners and it's not eccentric enough for work discrimination. haha.

I once accidently received an e-mail from the person that hired me. The e-mail was a back and forth conversation she was having with the owner of the company's wife. She told the oweners wife that she could tell by my name that I was "black". The owners wife wasn't crazy about her hiring me. The person that hired me said she would, "give me a chance".

I personally think it HELPS minorities more than it hurts them! Many Human Resources people want to hire a woman or a minority for a job to make their company appear "politically correct" and satisfy so-called "affirmitave action" or "equity" legislation. Universities often admit minority or female students to good programs with lower GPA's or entrance scores than white men. (example: medical schools, engineering, science programs, etc.) So I don't want to hear any whining from crybaby minorities about name discrimination. They reap many benefits from their minority/gender status and Obama is only looking to increase this. More qualified white male candidates are often passed over for hiring/promotions because somebody is trying to push a left-wing, "politically correct" agenda. Just look at all the unqualified, dumb, woman CEO's that have been recently hired! And Barrack Obama's name didn't hurt him as he got the top job in the country. It's time that crybaby minorities stop making excuses and learn to stand on their own two feet like white men have had to.