In ‘blind hiring,’ interview reigns

Six in 10 job seekers and recruiters agreed in a survey Wednesday that so-called blind hiring would put more weight on the interview.

The survey, conducted by the website Job Korea, found that 65.4 percent of prospective hires and human resources managers believed blind hiring would change the way interviews are conducted, with 64.6 percent of respondents saying their importance would go up with the practice.

Blind hiring refers to a recruitment process where employers cannot see a candidate’s photo, school, GPA, family status, hometown or certain skill certifications, elements which have traditionally appeared in Korean resumes.

Among HR managers in the survey who had already implemented blind hiring, around 93 percent of them said they had made adjustments to the job interview step.

Six out of 10 HR managers said the number of applicants who passed the initial document screening process would increase after blind hiring is implemented, meaning more candidates will move onto the interview.

Although job seekers and recruiters were generally on the same page that the interview would become more important, their answers differed slightly on how it would change.

Among job seekers, 55.5 percent said they expected job interview questions to be harder than before, but only 26.1 percent of recruiters that had implemented blind hiring said this was the case.

Around 30 percent of recruiters said they made questions easier to let candidates advance to the next round, where job-related skills are vetted.

The top two changes from blind hiring cited by HR managers include more questions related to a candidate’s personality and character and more questions regarding one’s skills, knowledge and field experience as they relate to the position.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]