Comedian Samantha Bee has a late-night talk show that starts this week. From a recent New York Times story on the show:
“The ‘Full Frontal’ producers used a blind submissions process to hire new writers, meaning they did not know the names or backgrounds of the people whose material they were reading.”
That’s a great way to hire writers.
The story goes on to say that showrunner Jo Miller created an “application packet” showing applicants how to format their submissions, so no one would be penalized for not knowing how to do that.
Miller also noted, in a recent NPR interview, that the Daily Show and all of its spinoffs have long used a blind submissions process, and also do a lot of outreach to encourage a wide variety of people to apply.
All three are great techniques to increase diversity in your hiring.