10899: Resumes for Selection: Ubiquitous in Use but Little Evidence of Criterion Validity (session 25793)

Resume assessments are widely used in personnel selection, yet surprisingly little is known about the content and criterion-related validity of the assessments. We conducted this three-study effort to begin to address this issue. In Study 1, we related recruiter ratings of job applicant resumes with job performance and turnover in two samples. The two samples include recruiter ratings of 40 U.S. nurse applicants and 204 China sales applicants, and their job performance and turnover. We found converging results in both samples such that resume assessments were associated with low point estimates of validity (e.g., .04 to .07), and these estimates were not significantly related to job performance or turnover. In Study 2, we explored potential reasons for the poor validity of resume ratings by conducting a content analysis of applicant resumes. Results revealed that resumes include not only potentially job-relevant information such as education and experience, but also considerable job-irrelevant information such as sex, age, and political affiliation as well as little information indicating the quality of experience or past performance. In Study 3, we found that structuring resume assessments did not result in criterion-related validity. Overall, these results raise serious concerns about the validity of this longstanding selection procedure.

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