A French Résumé

My boss asked me to tag along on an interview last week, which reminded me of how strange French résumés are.

First of all, the word résumé literally means "summary" in French, but they don't use that word here, they use curriculum vitae, or CV.

All of the CVs I've seen follow a pretty standard (i.e. boring) format, with the addition of some extra stuff we don't use in the politically correct US. For example, the French (actually, it might be all Europeans) put photos on the top of their CVs. I think it's a bit unfair, because first impressions mean a lot, and if the interviewer doesn't like the way your photo looks, maybe you're too ugly or too pretty or too short, judgment is passed before you've even had a chance to prove yourself in an interview.

Equally dangerous, they also list their age. Not only their age, but their precise birthdate. What does it matter if their birthday is April 30? I know it is illegal to ask a candidate's age in the States, so seeing it on a CV always startles me. And then I have to get over the inevitable shock that the candidate is so much younger than me. It's unnerving.

My female colleage tells me that it's important to list ones' age because companies want to know if women are a flight risk, or of baby-bearing age. She told me this with a hint of pride in her voice because she's too young for such prejudices and I, of course, am not.

Anyway, the average CV usually lists the candidate's nationality, as well. To me, this just leaves one wide open for another round of prejudices. And the French seem to embrace any excuse to dislike someone. So maybe this French practice of adding personal information on a CV is a kind of unspoken way of saying "Let us reject you if you're ugly/30/Lebanese/whatever before you even get here and waste our time with an interview ."