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Collecting Transcripts

Anonymous - November 14, 2018
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I work for a DOD contractor in which we primarily hire software engineers. Every summer, we hire a new cohort of new graduates to join our company. Before we make individual offers to these recent graduates, we collect their academic transcripts for review. Currently, only HR (and occasionally the hiring manager) have access to the transcripts. We are generally looking for GPA’s above 3.0 and that the students did well in their engineering classes. However, our interviewers are requesting to see the transcripts in advance of the interview, and in addition to the resume. In other words, when sending our interviewers a calendar item for the interview, the interviewers would receive the candidate’s resume and transcript. For candidate privacy, do you see any issue with the interviewers (a broader scope than HR) having access to the transcripts? My concern is that information on the transcript will create a bias in the interviews. I am also concerned that if a candidate is not able to send his/her transcript, we are not conducting all interviews equally. If it is permissible to allow interviewers to access the transcripts, should HR inform the candidate that their transcripts may be sent to the interview team? Thank you. 

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