As an HR professional, a resume is often my first introduction to a prospective candidate. As an employer, the resume is in many ways like a promise of what you can expect the candidate to bring to the table, how he or she might change your organization, and how she or he will perform as a member of your team. But what is all this talk of doing away with resumes entirely? Have you heard of this new craze?

Blind hiring is the idea of throwing out the resume as a critical tool in the selection process. Instead of accepting and screening resumes, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, some hiring managers are choosing to skip the paper altogether and go right to the task at hand! In lieu of resume reviews, hiring managers are assigning tasks to prospective job candidates and then proceeding with interviews for those who successfully complete the task. The only information that the hiring manager sees is the results of the task; the hiring manager is not aware of where the candidate went to school, what previous job titles he or she held, tenure at any one employer, or any other details about the candidate’s employment history and successes or failures. Interesting concept, right?

Here’s a few flaws that we can think of with this whole concept…but if these details were to be ironed out, maybe blind hiring could lead somewhere amazing. After all, blind hiring already eliminates the bias that comes with a prestigious school or a competitor in the industry.

1. You may be eliminating a large section of the candidate pool who are simply not in need of work and don’t want to play this game, or who have other reservations about this innovative and out-of-the-box method.
2. Hiring managers will have less of a “gut feel” input in terms of the culture fit for their organization (results will be more of a black and white task-oriented approach to hiring).
3. The presentation of the resume, the details, the cover letter – these all add up to a 360 representation of the candidate before you even have to speak to prospective talent. If someone takes the time to have an impeccable resume, maybe that is a quality you’d like to have on your team.
4. Basing interviews on tasks will eliminate some of those candidates who may not respond well to pressure or are having a bad day. Some may argue this is not a thorough approach to hiring and selection of quality candidates who will be in it for the right reasons.

That being said, we definitely think entertaining this idea has some merit as well. Removing bias before it has a chance to play into the selection process, rating individuals based on their ability to do a job-related task rather than their perfect resume, and eliminating details that could sway a hiring manager in one direction or another definitely has its positive points as well. What do you think of this new idea in the search for talent?