What can Job Applicants do to combat Unconscious Bias?

As you search for a job in higher education or in any endeavor, there are unconscious biases the hiring authority (whether it be an individual or a group of individuals like a search committee) often unconsciously possess. These unconscious biases are often undiscussable and rarely explicitly communicated during a review of applicants. These unconscious biases run the gamut, but the one commonality they all have is they are based on assumptions one has formed over their lifetime. Whether it be your current employment status, age, ethnicity, gender identity, physical or mental disabilities, one’s experience, your pedigree, or some other form of differentiation, depending on the person, they can display unconscious bias without even knowing it. For example, I have seen people look at an applicant’s resume or curriculum vita and try to estimate how old a person is (by calculating their age based on the year they receive their bachelor’s degree, assuming they are 22 years old). Depending on the position being advertised, some people have an unconscious bias against people above a certain age and make assumptions about them based on their age. They may assume a person of a certain age is not up to the mental or physical demands of a job without any concrete evidence to support this assumption.

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???????????The ultimate question arises, is there anything an applicant can do to minimize the adverse effects of unconscious bias? The answer is yes and no. One can try to mask the characteristic they are trying to hide. For example, they can delete their graduation dates for their academic degrees. However, someone can always google and get your age if they want. A more difficult one to traverse is one’s current title. If your current title has Emeritus or Emerita, for some people, this connotes retirement and any associating implications someone may draw from it.

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???????????For ethnicity, I discourage applicants from putting a digital picture of themselves on their CV. Also, there is not much you can do about one’s surname. For gender or gender identity, I recommend applicants not identifying their gender pronouns. While it is a trend for people to identify with their gender pronouns, it is a risk if one uses them, because you never know how reviewers implicit biases might interpret the pronouns. I realize what I am advising may offend people, because it diminishes part of their personal identity. While I wish this was not necessary, I have seen too many incidences of discrimination and bias against applicants and colleagues who share too much of their personal life. In this case, the adage of it is better to be discrete in what you share about yourself during the application process may be prudent.

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???????????In addition to recognized classes of a person’s identity, I have seen first-hand where one’s experience has little to no value to search committees. For example, for a Dean’s search, I have seen where two experienced and successful Deans were overlooked in favor of applicants who had little to no formal leadership experience. This surprised me, because I believe people who have not served in a leadership position really do not understand the role and responsibilities of the position. I believe they are judging applicants primarily based on their faculty accomplishments and/or other unconscious biases rather than demonstrated leadership experience and achievements. If true, this points to the need for search committees to be trained on how to review applicant documents and for applicants to learn how best to portray themselves in their submission materials.

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???????????Another unconscious bias involves your academic pedigree. In other words, where did you get your academic degrees and where have you worked? It is common for search committees to make all sorts of assumptions based on where you got your degree or where you have worked. Whether these assumptions are valid, it is debatable. Personally, I believe whenever you make assumptions without evidence, it is likely to disadvantage people unfairly.

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???????????What can be done? I believe one answer is to understand what your unconscious biases are and to recognize we all have them. Last year, I participated in an unconscious bias training session and found out I had an unconscious bias due to a lack of experience with an issue. Instead of learning more about this issue, I just made some assumptions and they were unfounded. I recognize this is not an easy process (i.e., admit you have an unconscious bias). I highly recommend unconscious bias training for search committees, especially if done by a skilled trainer.