"High-class" Interests on Your Resume Help Get You Interviews Forum

[elendinel]

BTW the people who did that study LOVE LOVE LOVE that they are getting picked up in the Atlantic and would sell two nuts or a single ovary to get the publicity they are now. As if something like journal subscription sales is getting in the way of accurately portraying those studies

I mean sure, the authors don't care if the journal gets any money. The journal sure does, though; of course they would mind the Atlantic copy-pasting the contents of the study, regardless of whether or not the study is getting publicity.


I guess as a segue (and for the purposes of discussion): what interests are "high-class" and which ones aren't? It never would occurred to me that teaching different kinds of students would signal a class affiliation, for example, but maybe I'm just naive about that.

[A. Nony Mouse]

For OCI, a classmate listed Game of Thrones under hobbies. He had several in-depth conversations with screeners about the show. One screener spent the entire interview talking about it. GOT = "High-class" interest? After all, HBO is subscription based.

Lol look at this chump paying to watch tv

HBO being subscription-based =/= paying to watch HBO. (Also who cares?)

I guess my joking manner did not come through the screen. I should've ended with "/s" or "..." for clarity.

Oh, I got it - just didn't get that across. Sorry.

[Blackfish]

.

[rcharter1978]

Is traveling considered a "high-class" interest? I ended up talking about that during OCI for like 80% of all interviews for at least 50% of the interview time.

I think it depends on where you travel.

Travel to Europe = classy
Travel to Newark, New Jersey = not so classy

[unlicensedpotato]

Unfortunate that perceived "high-class interests" receive more interview. But one should tailor his or her interests to make them sound interesting/not freakish.

I think this is more accurate. Listing "country music" as one of two or three personal interests when applying to NY V10s isn't bad because it's "low class," it's bad because few people there are likely to share it and/or it seems weird.

[1styearlateral]

Travel to Newark, New Jersey = not so classy

Shots fired (literally).

[rcharter1978]

Travel to Newark, New Jersey = not so classy

Shots fired (literally).

[BaiAilian2013]

Unfortunate that perceived "high-class interests" receive more interview. But one should tailor his or her interests to make them sound interesting/not freakish.

I think this is more accurate. Listing "country music" as one of two or three personal interests when applying to NY V10s isn't bad because it's "low class," it's bad because few people there are likely to share it and/or it seems weird.

I think you're being a little too kind there. I suspect that "low class" is precisely the descriptor a lot of NYC V9 types would use regarding country music.

[Mr. Archer]

Country music probably would be considered "low class" or unintelligent at some firms. At others, it would probably catch someone's eye and be a shared interest. I don't know why track and field sports would be seen as less privileged, at least not automatically. The decathlon is a track and field sport, and I've always considered it to be one of the classiest Olympic sports.

The example about mentoring law students vs. first generation college students and example about an athletic award vs. an athletic award for those on financial aid don't make sense to me where privilege is concerned. Both of the mentoring ones could be done by someone with or without privilege. Mentoring law students could be construed as being somewhat better since its within the context of the "legal field"? I don't see the award one as about privilege. I would look more favorably on the general athletic award because it's from a larger group of athletes, not just ones on financial aid. Both are good, but one accomplishment was achieved through bigger competition. Maybe there's something I'm missing about those examples.

I think the interview with attorneys who did hiring at "some" of the places that were sent fake resumes is more informative (not sure why they wouldn't only interview attorneys from those firms). It better shows how the attorneys categorized people based on gender/privilege combinations. It also shows the practical side of reviewing interests. The attorney who pointed out a resume' with sailing connected it to the firm's maritime practice and how the interest would help the applicant fit-in at the firm. It's not the strongest reason to hire, but it's a positive factor.

None of my resume' interests were relevant to jobs, but I got asked about them in multiple internship interviews and the interview for my current job. So people definitely look at some point. At the initial quick glance for auto-rejects, interests wouldn't matter.

[Voyager]

I have been a hiring authority for years.

I find the article laughably absurd... or the various places I have worked are super outliers.

I don't care about your interests section beyond it being an ice breaker in the interview.

That's it.

We're running a BUSINESS here... not a social club.

Absurd.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I'm sure the people who picked resumes with white-sounding names over resumes with black-sounding names felt the same way, though. No one's arguing this is a conscious process.

[onionz]

I have been a hiring authority for years.

I find the article laughably absurd... or the various places I have worked are super outliers.

I don't care about your interests section beyond it being an ice breaker in the interview.

That's it.

We're running a BUSINESS here... not a social club.

Absurd.

I think the article's point is that it's more of an implicit bias. Of course no one says "I won't hire someone who does [low class thing here.]" It's just that it's harder for it to be an icebreaker or to identify with those candidates. It wouldn't surprise me at all if at margin over a large number these sorts of things end up making differences at the margins. Not as big as a number of other factors that might also be "low" or "high" class correlated (such as connections inside the firm etc) but still, some.

[onionz]

I'm sure the people who picked resumes with white-sounding names over resumes with black-sounding names felt the same way, though. No one's arguing this is a conscious process.

Exactly.

[A. Nony Mouse]

And to be clear, I don't mean to throw a ton of weight behind the study because I don't know enough about it. But I don't think it's implausible.

[Voyager]

And to be clear, I don't mean to throw a ton of weight behind the study because I don't know enough about it. But I don't think it's implausible.

Those other places must have truly absurd interviewing criteria for a name or "interests" to impact perception of performance.

But I suppose most interviewers don't bother to develop a disciplined screening process that provides some objective results.

Did you solve the business math problem?
Did you get to the categories of solutions I have?
Did you organize the problem correctly?

For a law firm interview, why not pose a legal issue for discussion?

The less structured and thought through the questions are, the more room there is for bias.

[elendinel]

And to be clear, I don't mean to throw a ton of weight behind the study because I don't know enough about it. But I don't think it's implausible.

Those other places must have truly absurd interviewing criteria for a name or "interests" to impact perception of performance.

But I suppose most interviewers don't bother to develop a disciplined screening process that provides some objective results.

Did you solve the business math problem?
Did you get to the categories of solutions I have?
Did you organize the problem correctly?

For a law firm interview, why not pose a legal issue for discussion?

The less structured and thought through the questions are, the more room there is for bias.

Huh? I thought this is all before someone actually comes in for the interview (i.e., the resume screening process). None of this is possible to do at that stage.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Yeah, this is only about who gets an interview to begin with, so has nothing to do with discussing a legal issue in the interview. There's a fairly famous study where the researchers sent out identical resumes with just the names changed. People with "white" names got called for interviews at a significantly higher rate than those with "black" names. It's not implausible to me that interests could have a similar unconscious effect - after all, back in the day people used to put things like marital status and kids and religion (and sometimes headshots) on resumes, and the whole point of removing that stuff is to eliminate bias.

(Admittedly I don't think biglaw hiring is especially scientific so it's perfectly subject to the criticisms you're making - but that's kind of the whole point of the article.)

[PeanutsNJam]

For OCI, a classmate listed Game of Thrones under hobbies. He had several in-depth conversations with screeners about the show. One screener spent the entire interview talking about it. GOT = "High-class" interest? After all, HBO is subscription based.

Lol look at this chump paying to watch tv

HBO being subscription-based =/= paying to watch HBO. (Also who cares?)

I guess my joking manner did not come through the screen. I should've ended with "/s" or "..." for clarity.

Oh, I got it - just didn't get that across. Sorry.

I was also just joking with minn fwiw

[Voyager]

Yeah, this is only about who gets an interview to begin with, so has nothing to do with discussing a legal issue in the interview. There's a fairly famous study where the researchers sent out identical resumes with just the names changed. People with "white" names got called for interviews at a significantly higher rate than those with "black" names. It's not implausible to me that interests could have a similar unconscious effect - after all, back in the day people used to put things like marital status and kids and religion (and sometimes headshots) on resumes, and the whole point of removing that stuff is to eliminate bias.

(Admittedly I don't think biglaw hiring is especially scientific so it's perfectly subject to the criticisms you're making - but that's kind of the whole point of the article.)

Heh. My mistake, friends. Apologies all around.

[bearsfan23]

I would auto-ding someone who listed Country music as an interest.

That stuff is objectively awful

[MKC]

I would auto-ding someone who listed Country music as an interest.

That stuff is objectively awful

I would autoding someone who was bleeding during the interview from morning sex.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I would auto-ding someone who listed Country music as an interest.

That stuff is objectively awful

Welcome to the legal profession, everyone.

[Offline]

I'm guessing T-50 as opposed to T14 or T20?

They were just trying to eliminate the influence of Ivy league schools on the results. It makes sense if you're trying to see how much impact being born rich has on your chances for getting an interview, since people at those schools would skew the shit out of the results.

On a side note, I put sailing and scuba diving on my resume for interests. LOL if those fuckers thought I was rich for drinking beer on my rednecked-out boat.

Were you wearing sperrys tho?

Walmart sandals and shades dude. My sailboat has fishing pole mounts on it and a homemade fiberglass cooler I built into it. I wouldn't even know where to buy Sperry's.

^ this guy is cool. O.o

[Offline]

My interviewer's wife played professional sports. I played the same sport in college. That was discussed. Offered.

[Borhas]

I'm guessing T-50 as opposed to T14 or T20?

They were just trying to eliminate the influence of Ivy league schools on the results. It makes sense if you're trying to see how much impact being born rich has on your chances for getting an interview, since people at those schools would skew the shit out of the results.

On a side note, I put sailing and scuba diving on my resume for interests. LOL if those fuckers thought I was rich for drinking beer on my rednecked-out boat.

everybody figured out that by sailing and scuba you meant noodling for catfish in a back water swamp