Brainstorming: cryptography-backed job applications?

[zeuner]

Job openings and subsequent job application processes are often rather opaque. Applicants might be discriminated. Applicants might not have a chance at all because the job has only been posted for appearance's sake while it was already clear who would get it. Applicants regularly have a hard time proving such a situation.

What do you think? Could cryptographic schemes help here? For example a blinding scheme that makes it possible to publicly assess some quantitative characteristics of the entirety of all the applicants without making public confidential applicant data?

[Ucy]

If you want a cryptographic solution that's simply based on merit, i would probably develop it such a way that applicants identity won't matter that much. Applicants can be completely anonymous, as long as their true identities have been verified by reputable ID Company that's in no way connected to the hiring Company. I don't need to know their identities which should be hidden to the interviewer for unbiased assessment of applicants qualifications or scoring them blindly without knowing any of them.   The results will create lots of surprises because interviewer won't likely be decieved by appearance or favour people who don't deserve the job.
I will blindly test the applicants(who could also be occasionally randomize during the tesing stage) to know who can solve list of complicated problems related to the fields they apply for . The best solutions get the job. Will also consider applicants reputations and past works.
I think i will use a scoring system that's is based on finding faults in applicants answers. And there will be list of rules on which the scoring will be based on. Those with less fault will be given the jobs.

[zeuner]

If you want a cryptographic solution that's simply based on merit, i would probably develop it such a way that applicants identity won't matter that much. Applicants can be completely anonymous, as long as their true identities have been verified by reputable ID Company that's in no way connected to the hiring Company. I don't need to know their identities which should be hidden to the interviewer for unbiased assessment of applicants qualifications or scoring them blindly without knowing any of them.   The results will create lots of surprises because interviewer won't likely be decieved by appearance or favour people who don't deserve the job.
I will blindly test the applicants(who could also be occasionally randomize during the tesing stage) to know who can solve list of complicated problems related to the fields they apply for . The best solutions get the job. Will also consider applicants reputations and past works.
I think i will use a scoring system that's is based on finding faults in applicants answers. And there will be list of rules on which the scoring will be based on. Those with less fault will be given the jobs.

Agreed, you absolutely want identity blinding to remove biases. Also, applicant assessment using tests is supposed to be bias-free.

I'm not sure about reputation and past work. This is something that needs to be handled since it is what human resource staff would expect. But how to avoid biases here? For example, if the applicant wants a job at company A, and has a past work reference from company B where there is some proximity between A and B, one could expect that there would be a higher chance of being chosen.

A way of blinding past work and reputation while keeping information relevant for determining the qualification would be great.

[Ucy]

If you want a cryptographic solution that's simply based on merit, i would probably develop it such a way that applicants identity won't matter that much. Applicants can be completely anonymous, as long as their true identities have been verified by reputable ID Company that's in no way connected to the hiring Company. I don't need to know their identities which should be hidden to the interviewer for unbiased assessment of applicants qualifications or scoring them blindly without knowing any of them.   The results will create lots of surprises because interviewer won't likely be decieved by appearance or favour people who don't deserve the job.
I will blindly test the applicants(who could also be occasionally randomize during the tesing stage) to know who can solve list of complicated problems related to the fields they apply for . The best solutions get the job. Will also consider applicants reputations and past works.
I think i will use a scoring system that's is based on finding faults in applicants answers. And there will be list of rules on which the scoring will be based on. Those with less fault will be given the jobs.

Agreed, you absolutely want identity blinding to remove biases. Also, applicant assessment using tests is supposed to be bias-free.

I'm not sure about reputation and past work. This is something that needs to be handled since it is what human resource staff would expect. But how to avoid biases here? For example, if the applicant wants a job at company A, and has a past work reference from company B where there is some proximity between A and B, one could expect that there would be a higher chance of being chosen.

A way of blinding past work and reputation while keeping information relevant for determining the qualification would be great.

I think reputation entails knowing how consistently honest a job seeker was in recent past (maybe past three years). I will assume all responsible employers would be looking for honest people to employ.

I will probably focus mostly on the position of responsibilities handled by the job seeker in the past and how honest he/she was in the position. I may even go through what he/she says in public to see how honest he/she is or was.
I think you could still mask certain words that could create the biases(esp identities of harmless things society/people are attached to) and also keep the job seekers anonymous

[Welsh]

Job openings are usually filled internally first, before they even go out to the public. Here in the UK I believe its law to actually post it regardless of whether it has already been filled internally. Using the Blockchain or other solutions might be interesting though, I've never really thought about it being involved in the application process. Personally, I'm not a massive fan of how applications work anyway, with companies now looking to diverse employees, there's probably going to be a lot of bias involved regardless of the way its implemented. Also, while you may come up with a solution that works quite well, convincing recruiters that they don't need access to the entirety of the persons background, skills, and personal details would be difficult, when they can right now legally ask for that.

[Ucy]

Job openings are usually filled internally first, before they even go out to the public. Here in the UK I believe its law to actually post it regardless of whether it has already been filled internally. Using the Blockchain or other solutions might be interesting though, I've never really thought about it being involved in the application process. Personally, I'm not a massive fan of how applications work anyway, with companies now looking to diverse employees, there's probably going to be a lot of bias involved regardless of the way its implemented. Also, while you may come up with a solution that works quite well, convincing recruiters that they don't need access to the entirety of the persons background, skills, and personal details would be difficult, when they can right now legally ask for that.

Interesting. I suspect something like the bolded happens here too. That's one of the things that really discouraged me from applying for jobs back then... Plus you hear shameful things like "you need to know someone to help you secure the job" or  "you need to pay certain amount to certain people" or "your parents or civil servants uncle could help".    I normally weigh some of this option and end up deciding to own or establish my own business back then. Besides I never really like working with people who don't deserve their jobs, no matter how much you pay. It should really be based on merit and the bais needs to be reduced as much as possible.

[zeuner]

Job openings are usually filled internally first, before they even go out to the public. Here in the UK I believe its law to actually post it regardless of whether it has already been filled internally.

Jobs being posted even though there is a person internally that will get the job with 99% chance anyway is a problem that does also occur outside the UK. This shows that legally enforcing a job posting does not help much. In fact, these situations were a major motivation for thinking about solving the problem using cryptography.

Using the Blockchain or other solutions might be interesting though, I've never really thought about it being involved in the application process. Personally, I'm not a massive fan of how applications work anyway, with companies now looking to diverse employees, there's probably going to be a lot of bias involved regardless of the way its implemented. Also, while you may come up with a solution that works quite well, convincing recruiters that they don't need access to the entirety of the persons background, skills, and personal details would be difficult, when they can right now legally ask for that.

In cases where there was a legal requirement to post the job offer in the first place, it may be possible to increase the pressure once there is a working system in place. No doubt that recruiters who want to fill the position internally would be opposed to a system that makes it harder for them to do so. Right now, they can always say "well, but this person matched our requirements so much better than all the other candidates", and it will be hard to prove that it was a subjective decision. But if recruiters who don't need that are able to prove that their decision process was fair using publicly verifiable blinded information, other recruiters might have it harder to defend their less transparent process.