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Resumes Are a Terrible Way to Hire People
“In 2016, leading industrial organization researchers
analyzed a hundred years of data to determine which popular hiring screens
actually correlated with candidates’ on-the-job performance. They found that
top resume “boosts” like years of relevant education and experience, interests,
and GPA had little to no correlation to later job performance. In other words,
a century of data tells us that the candidate with the highest number of
degrees, straight A’s, and work experiences — even in the “right” industry —
isn’t always the “right” candidate.”
Related:
A Tilted Playing Field: New research finds bias in
elite professional services hiring.
From a 2014 interview with Google’s Chief Recruiter:
How
to Get a Job at Google
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google-part-2.html
“Your college degree is not a proxy anymore for having the skills or traits to do any job.
What are those traits? One is grit, he said. Shuffling through résumés of some of Google’s 100 hires that week, Bock explained: “I was on campus speaking to a student who was a computer science and math double major, who was thinking of shifting to an economics major because the computer science courses were too difficult. I told that student they are much better off being a B student in computer science than an A+ student in English because it signals a rigor in your thinking and a more challenging course load. That student will be one of our interns this summer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google-part-2.html
“Your college degree is not a proxy anymore for having the skills or traits to do any job.
What are those traits? One is grit, he said. Shuffling through résumés of some of Google’s 100 hires that week, Bock explained: “I was on campus speaking to a student who was a computer science and math double major, who was thinking of shifting to an economics major because the computer science courses were too difficult. I told that student they are much better off being a B student in computer science than an A+ student in English because it signals a rigor in your thinking and a more challenging course load. That student will be one of our interns this summer.”
Or, he added, think of this
headline from The Wall Street Journal in 2011: “Students Pick Easier Majors Despite
Less Pay.” This was an article about a student who switched from electrical and
computer engineering to a major in psychology. She said she just found the
former too difficult and would focus instead on a career in public relations
and human resources. “I think this student was making a mistake,” said Bock,
even if it meant lower grades. “She was moving out of a major where she would
have been differentiated in the labor force” and “out of classes that would
have made her better qualified for other jobs because of the training.”
The Statute of Limitations on College Grades
http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-statute-of-limitations-on-college.html
Calvin Trillin (1990):
“What I'm saying is that when it comes to college grades, there is a sort of statute of limitations.
http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-statute-of-limitations-on-college.html
Calvin Trillin (1990):
“What I'm saying is that when it comes to college grades, there is a sort of statute of limitations.
It kicks in pretty early. By the time
you're 28, nobody much cares whether or not you had to take Bonehead English or
how you did in it. If you happen to be a pompous 28, wearing a Phi Beta Kappa
key on your watch chain will make you seem more pompous. (If we're being
absolutely truthful, the watch chain itself is a mistake.) Go ahead and tell
that attractive young woman at the bar that you graduated magna cum laude. To
employ a phrase I once heard from a country comedian in central Florida, `She
just flat out do not care.' The statute of limitation has already run out.
This information about the statute of limitation ought to be comforting to the college seniors who are now limping toward commencement. In fact, it may be that commencement speakers -- some of whom, I regret to say, tend to wear Phi Beta Kappa keys on their watch chains -- ought to be telling the assembled degree recipients. Instead of saying 'life is a challenge' or ‘commencement means beginning,' maybe a truly considerate commencement speaker would say, 'Take this degree, and, as to the question of how close you came to not getting it, your secret is safe with us.'
It's probably a good thing that after a while nobody cares. On the occasion of my college class' 25th reunion, I did a survey, using my usual scientific controls, and came to the conclusion that we had finally reached the point at which income seemed to be precisely in inverse proportion to academic standing in the class. I think this is the sort of information that students cramming desperately for the history final are better off not having.”
This information about the statute of limitation ought to be comforting to the college seniors who are now limping toward commencement. In fact, it may be that commencement speakers -- some of whom, I regret to say, tend to wear Phi Beta Kappa keys on their watch chains -- ought to be telling the assembled degree recipients. Instead of saying 'life is a challenge' or ‘commencement means beginning,' maybe a truly considerate commencement speaker would say, 'Take this degree, and, as to the question of how close you came to not getting it, your secret is safe with us.'
It's probably a good thing that after a while nobody cares. On the occasion of my college class' 25th reunion, I did a survey, using my usual scientific controls, and came to the conclusion that we had finally reached the point at which income seemed to be precisely in inverse proportion to academic standing in the class. I think this is the sort of information that students cramming desperately for the history final are better off not having.”