What are 'personal details' on a CV?

[Maria53]

Sounds like a silly question but the recruiter has asked to leave out personal details on CV and cover letter as they prefer to hire anonymously.

So does this mean to not even include my name? Not sure how I will sign off the cover letter in that case, quite awkward

When I’ve been sent anonymised CVs, they’ve excluded the candidate’s name, educational establishments, and previous employers’ names - so just qualifications, and roles/responsibilities and how long they were in each job.

Yes it means no name. Otherwise there is scope for discrimination- there are several studies showing clearly that the same letter with a male/female name score differently and the same with surnames which might indicate white or BAME ethnicity. Just say I look forward to discussing my application with you at interview. The reviewer won’t care so no it isn’t awkward. Also if your email is Susan.McThingummie at gmail.com don’t include that either. The point is to look at the application with as little info to bias decision making as possible. Good luck!

The strange this is that following this request, you click on the apply now button and it takes you to a form asking for first and last name! Makes no sense.

Name, date of birth, address?

@Justbetweenus
How does it work when you remove previous employers?!
If someone is ‘head of marketing’, it’s going to make a huge difference if they were at Google vs a 2-man outfit, even if the day to day was similar

I removed my name but left my job details. I never include DOB or address.

It is sent now, so it's our there either way! Thanks for the help.

@GappyValley I agree that employer name is informative, and I find it a little unhelpful for the reason you say. But I appreciate what they’re trying to do.

... that said, I’d generally expect the description of previous roles to say managed a team of x or oversaw a budget of y etc.

[quote Justbetweenus]@GappyValley I agree that employer name is informative, and I find it a little unhelpful for the reason you say. But I appreciate what they’re trying to do.[/quote]
Surely if you know the employer name is going to be removed you describe the company. So 'Director of UK Marketing for global media company' or 'Director of Marketing for local retailer'?

But what if you’re civil service or armed forces? You can’t really not reveal that employer....

“Nuclear Submarine Engineer, local Defence Ministry”?
“Prime Minister, exEU country?”

@titchy

But ‘team leader in housing department within London council’ could mean my borough which is absolutely outstanding, or it could mean the neighbouring one which is in special measures

It feels like it wastes a lot of interview time to get someone in only to find they’ve been somewhere with a reputation for being awful..!

@GappyValley you should never include DOB on a CV, no need for it

So the recruitment agency standard form is one thing but the employer hiring will only be sent the CV you write. So leave off name, DOB, marital status etc. Stick to just qualifications and experience.

It means leave out name, email address, address (if you put it on there) and phone numbers. Your DOB and marital status shouldn't be on your CV anyway.

Some employers/companies want you to go further and leave out what schools and universities you went to as the names can give away what social class you are likely to be.

[quote GappyValley]@titchy

But ‘team leader in housing department within London council’ could mean my borough which is absolutely outstanding, or it could mean the neighbouring one which is in special measures

It feels like it wastes a lot of interview time to get someone in only to find they’ve been somewhere with a reputation for being awful..![/quote]
Would that mean their performance was awful though?

[quote GappyValley]@titchy

But ‘team leader in housing department within London council’ could mean my borough which is absolutely outstanding, or it could mean the neighbouring one which is in special measures

It feels like it wastes a lot of interview time to get someone in only to find they’ve been somewhere with a reputation for being awful..![/quote]
Then it would be a good thing! In my soctor we have a LOT of bias around previous employer, which is unfair - there are plenty of shit people in good companies and vice versa.

@titchy

It is hugely relevant if someone was the head of a catastrophically underperforming team, vs head of a team which was winning plaudits for its work. You really don't think that would be relevant to someone's competence?!

The career path someone has taken, including the companies they've chosen to work for, is very telling me to. I would be able to tell as much from this information as I could get from an hour interview.

Unless you are interviewing very junior people for very junior roles, I don't see how any competent hiring decisions can be made without knowing where people have previously worked

The career path someone has taken, including the companies they've chosen to work for, is very telling me to. I would be able to tell as much from this information as I could get from an hour interview.

It is precisely this attitude my sector is actively trying to move away from. We had old-school heads of teams recruiting in this way and having really poor outcomes, as they basically held very biased views.