The cognitive mechanism: anchoring
There's an effect in cognitive psychology called anchoring. The first piece of information you receive on a topic becomes the reference point for everything that follows. This isn't speculation - Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman documented the mechanism in their landmark research on heuristics and cognitive biases. Kahneman received the Nobel Prize for this work. Anchoring shows up in negotiations, in medical assessments, in pricing. And it shows up in recruiting.
You read the CV before the interview. You see: "junior manager, retail, 2016-2021." That's your anchor. You walk into the interview with that image in your head.
The candidate starts talking about a project they led - scaling a new sales channel, strategic decisions that aren't in the CV because they fell outside the formal scope of the role. Your brain unconsciously checks for alignment with the anchor: "does this fit a junior manager?" If it fits - you confirm. If it doesn't - you look for an explanation, rather than upgrading your assessment.
Reversed order: you listen first. You hear someone who thinks strategically, understands systems, knows the context. Only then do you open the CV. The CV verifies and supplements - it doesn't determine.
This isn't academic theory to be ignored. This is an observation from dozens of interviews - my own and those I accompanied as a coaching partner with hiring managers. The anchoring effect is real and has a real impact on hiring decisions.
Simply: if you want to see a person, not a document - don't give the document first place.
What this looks like in practice
First twenty minutes without the CV. Literally.
Opening questions that don't require a CV: "What are you working on right now?" "What brought you here?" "What matters to you in your work?" "Tell me about a project you're proud of - doesn't have to be the most recent."
No CV-based questions - because you haven't read it yet. Or you have, but you're pretending you haven't. That's harder than it sounds. The brain wants to go back to the document. "I see that in 2019 you..." Stop.
After twenty minutes you have a picture. Not complete - but yours. Uncontaminated by the document.
Now you take the CV. Verify. Look for discrepancies between what you heard and what you read. Ask about things that need clarification.
"I see a gap in 2021-2022. What were you doing then?" That question now has context. You already have a picture of this person - and their answer resonates differently than if you'd asked it cold, staring only at the document. Maybe the gap is "I left for family reasons." Maybe "I was building my own project." Maybe something else entirely. But now you know who you're asking.
The objections I hear most often
"But HR requires reviewing the CV beforehand." It does. Review it. Then walk into the interview and behave as if you hadn't. Put the document aside. Technically harder - because your brain knows the anchor. But possible, and worth trying.
"How do I assess technical competencies without the CV?" You ask directly. "What technologies do you know?" "Describe the hardest technical problem you faced in a project and how you solved it." The CV doesn't tell you this better than a candidate recalling it from memory.
"This takes too long." It doesn't take more time. First twenty minutes without the CV, then fifteen with the CV and follow-up questions. Same total as a standard interview - just distributed differently. And those first twenty minutes without an anchor often yield more useful information than the first twenty minutes with one.
"What if the candidate doesn't have the competencies listed on the CV?" Then you know it faster - because you saw them without the anchor that might have convinced you "maybe they fit after all."
Third part of the recruiting series. Earlier: how AI writes CVs and ATS reads them - and what that means for the whole system. And the company that responded to my application after 152 days - and what that number says about organizational culture.
Here - a concrete proposal to change one behavior. Not "abandon the CV." Change the order.
When did you last really listen to a candidate before seeing what they'd written about themselves?