Nick Corcodilos started headhunting in Silicon Valley in 1979, and has answered over 30,000 questions from the Ask The Headhunter community over the past decade.

In this special Making Sense edition of Ask The Headhunter, Nick shares insider advice and contrarian methods about winning and keeping the right job, on one condition: that you, dear Making Sense reader, send Nick your questions about your personal challenges with job hunting, interviewing, networking, resumes, job boards, or salary negotiations. No guarantees — just a promise to do his best to offer useful advice.

Question: A friend of mine who is African American and about to send a resume to a prospective employer asked if it is okay to include the fact that she is an active member of certain African-American groups at her college. She thinks that she may be excluded from an interview if she includes this. I know that would be illegal, but I assume it does happen. Any thoughts on whether to include this information or not?

Nick Corcodilos: I’ve got a simple approach to companies that I suspect are bigoted: I want to know now, not later. You’re right, racial discrimination is illegal, but there are companies that discriminate anyway.

Early in my career as a headhunter, I submitted an outstanding quality assurance engineer to a client in Silicon Valley. In those days, I’d let HR screen-interview candidates first. (I soon ended that practice — either the hiring manager would screen, or there would be no interview.) The HR manager called me and said, “He’s very talented, but, well, I’ll be frank with you. His mannerisms are rather effeminate. That just won’t go over well with the rest of the guys on the team. I know you understand.”

Many years later, the HR manager at a new client company rejected an excellent female candidate even before the interview. He explained that the boss’s strict religion prohibited him from accepting anything from the hands of a female, so the boss would never approve the candidate — or any female candidate. “I’m sure you understand.”

In both cases, I learned something important about my clients, then I fired them.

“You’ll have to live with them, so you might as well find out early whether employers are worth living with.”

Suppose your friend leaves her affiliations off the resume and gets an interview with a company that discriminates against African-Americans. What then? She finds out they’re bigoted, but it’s later in the process, after she has invested time and effort to get a job at a company that isn’t going to give her a fair shake. Don’t waste time with bigots — unless you’re prepared to try to change them, or to sue them. Taking legal action is your friend’s prerogative, but few people want to take on social causes when what they need is a job. (That’s another ethical issue that I won’t get into here.)

If she wants to find a good job at a good company, I suggest that your friend should be herself before, during, and after the interview process. You’ll have to live with them, so you might as well find out early whether employers are worth living with.

(Some will argue that your friend’s affiliations don’t belong on a resume. While I agree that any information that’s not germane to the job is unnecessary, and might even be prejudicial, I also believe that for a new college grad it’s different. It can be beneficial to share “outside” interests and projects. A new grad may not have a lot of experience for an employer to go on, so additional data points about breadth of interests and motivation might actually influence the decision to schedule an interview. So it’s really up to the job seeker.)

By the way, I believe this approach is valid in the case of any kind of potential discrimination— racial, age, disability, cultural, or just the kind you encounter when you’re dealing with jerks.

I’ll leave you with two tips on how you might handle related issues. (The third tip, as I mentioned above, is to sue them.)

First, what if your interviews go well and they make you an offer, but something about “the company attitude” doesn’t seem quite right? Is the company snowing you? Are they closet bigots? Look carefully, because It’s the People, Stupid. Choose an employer carefully.

Second, is there any way to influence a bigot? Sure. Address the bigot’s wallet. I’ve found that even the biggest jerks will put aside their prejudices if you can show them how you’re going to help make more money for their business. They will separate business interests from their personal attitudes. (See “How to win a job by doing the job.”) Whether you want to take this tack is up to you. “The Basics” will give you some ideas about how to approach it.

Please tell your friend that if she’s got to hide who she is to get an interview, the employer may not be worth working for. Don’t waste time with jerks.

Nick Corcodilos invites Making Sense readers to subscribe to his free weekly Ask The Headhunter© Newsletter. His in-depth “how to” PDF books are available on his website: “How to Work With Headhunters…and how to make headhunters work for you,” “How Can I Change Careers?”, “Keep Your Salary Under Wraps” and “Fearless Job Hunting.”

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