My PhD dissertation was about rater bias during resume reviews. There is a robust line of research which shows that resumes submitted to active job posts that are identical but for stereotypical names (e.g., Brad Smith vs. Tyrone Smith) will have significantly different call back rates with a preference towards White sounding names. This has been seen with gender and, to a far lesser extent, religion (e.g., Brad Smith vs. David Goldstein).

Also, there is research, though not as robust to what has been observed above, which suggests that the level or prestige of the job also plays a role. For example, higher prestige job clearly favored White and Asian sounding names above Black or Hispanic names. This observation was reversed for low-level jobs (part-time, "dirty jobs") where preference was given to Black and Hispanic names.

It pains me to say, but there is little that an applicant can do about this. There is some wisdom to avoid putting your name at the top of the resume, so it is the first thing read, for those who are part of discriminated groups. If you are part of the majority group, or preferred group, include your name at the top.

To be clear, the findings mentioned here are from USA samples. These findings may not function like this in other countries. Still, I would assert that the resume reviewer makes assumptions about candidates based on names regardless of country/culture, but the specific effects may differ country to country.

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Edwin, why are you posting this on Wednesday?!
I am going out of town for the next few days, so I figured it was better to post it earlier rather than later.