It might actually be a clumsy attempt at the opposite - we do our first review with names and locations removed to avoid bias - but I don’t see how having the applicant remove it is helpful. Or maybe they’re saying make sure no SS number, etc.,?
Probably they do not want to end up with any more Personal Identifying Information than necessary (name, contact information) that they have to manage in accordance with GDPR, CCPA, etc.
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Agreed PII seems to have become a big deal lately.
I mean, my guess was that they were making sure that, for example, photos weren’t included by applicants coming from parts of the world where photos on resumes are standard, but yeah, even if I’m right about that that’s not the optimal way to ask someone for it.
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That they used the specific words “Personal Identifying Information” gives a big clue as to what they want to avoid, but many job applicants may not be familiar with what can be PII or why companies may want to avoid getting any PII that is not useful (i.e. getting unwanted PII can be an additional liability for no benefit to the company).
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The privacy standards in Europe are different than in the US. The resume conventions in Asia are different than in the US. This is an effort to make sure that marital status (common on a resume in some countries), a photo (ditto), number of children, etc. are not being uploaded to a system which is in use around the globe.
I don’t think there is anything nefarious here. I frequently see resumes of folks in the US which are chock-a-block of data which- in the US- does not belong on a resume. “Country of origin” is very big in the Middle East for example. So putting that you are from Bangladesh but are living in Dubai…. common.
You will also see from time to time various “signals” loaded onto a resume of an American. “Proud Girl Dad of three Christian teenagers” or “Married to a devoted Trad-wife who maintains our homelife while I devote myself to my career” and things like that. There is no bias intended by asking candidates to leave that stuff off- in fact, it’s the reverse.
And there are still folks putting their social security numbers on their resume.
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I misread this at first and thought they wanted all PII removed, including the name and contact info. Glad it was my mistake, otherwise the resume would have really been pointless!
From the federal government (source):
What are examples of personally identifiable information (PII)?
Examples of personally identifiable information (PII) include:
Social security number (SSN), passport number, driver’s license number, taxpayer identification number, patient identification number, and financial account or credit card number
Personal address and phone number
Biometric records such as photographic image (especially of face or other distinguishing characteristic), x-rays, fingerprints, retina scan, voice signature, facial geometry
Information that when combined with other information like that listed above which can then be used collaboratively to identify a specific individual. For example, date of birth, place of birth, race, religion, geographical indicators, employment information, medical information, education information, financial information.
Based on this, however, how do they expect resumes not to be PII when resumes combine the phone number and name (and possibly the address) along with geographical indicators (like where they went to school or the location of various employers), and employment indicators (a good chunk or the resume)? Are the companies just trying to redact the PII to eventually get rid of un-selected resumes? Or would they have to consider the whole resume PII anyway because of the combination of information?
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Right, your initial reading of the request was also mine, and my C23’s—and like you said, that would have been a most interesting but pointless resume to submit indeed!
(Though the social science researcher in me does think that it would be an absolutely devious and at-least-borderline unethical but probably at-least-mostly-legal way to get a bunch of anonymized resumes to study, so I guess there’s that.)
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I actually thought this was what they wanted at first and that it was a GOOD idea. When submitting certain creative samples, I’ve seen them ask to not have the name of the submitter on the document so that it can be judged without bias. They just append an applicant number to it. I was thinking maybe this was the same thing since there have been bias studies where resumes with certain names are deprioritized or rejected. So I was kind of hoping it was asking to remove that info.
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I think that’s what the HR office would need to do if they don’t want reviewers to display any potential biases related to the name. Or at least to say, please select a 16-digit random set of numbers and letters as the name on your resume and then on a separate submission put your name and code together.
But to submit something to an organization for a potential interview and have no name to call you when setting up a time for an interview seems problematic. Especially for organizations that check basic eligibility for a position (like sex offenders being ineligible to work for a school district) or other info stated on the resume (like, wow, do we really have a Pulitzer Award winner applying to us or is this complete bupkus?…one might elicit an excited offer to interview while the other might be sent straight to a trash pile).
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I was thinking they’d separate the resume from the application. So the application through HR would still do the verification. Then resumes with some pre-screening would be sent to the hiring manager. They’d say “Let’s interview this random 16-digit number”. Then, the hiring manager would get the rest of the info. Or something like that.
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People still sometimes send federal govt resumes with SSNs. So maybe that?
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True. But a private sector employer has different privacy protocols and trying to manage sensitive information during the application stage is challenging.
Oh, I meant people sometimes think the Gov needs SSNs because they used to, but now they don’t. The govt doesn’t want that PII either, and you definitely can’t include a photo either.
Really, the company should’ve been more clear about what not to include, regardless
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Yes, the reason that we are talking about “Personally Identifiable Information” or PII here is because of a job seeker being uncertain about what that term meant when reading the job description.
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Sending personal information isn’t always in the control of the applicant…for example, many HSs/all the public HSs in a given state include a student picture, and/or SSN, and/or vaccine records as part of the HS transcript. My S had to send HS transcripts for several internships/jobs he applied for (he didn’t attend a HS that put that personal info or picture on the transcript.)
Seriously, I don’t understand why parents allow this to continue. Think about all the people who see HS transcripts…every college admission reader (undergrad/transfer/post-grad), scholarship readers from small community based places to large national ones, many employers, etc.
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Wow. I can’t imagine putting any of that stuff on a resume — smh.
Outside of the US, some of that is completely normal and a resume is incomplete without it.
So in some cases it’s a culture clash issue.
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This article about how applications are screened and how to get your resume past the AI to a human screener is interesting:
This is a link to the organization that produced it.
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Here’s an interesting but not happy Gallup survey. It address new grads feelings/experiences as well as those of folks in the workplace.
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