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Hi everyone! I am hired as an Analyst - Data Science, and my joining date is 29th July. What can I expect from the role? Also will I have to go to office everyday? American Express
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It really seems to depend on who you interview with. While I only had 200 interviews (and not a representative sample), I found I had FAR better success (in terms of progress through the hiring pipeline and eventually getting an offer) if the hiring team was mostly, or entirely, white. When the hiring team included Indians or Asians (particularly) then it went much worse. I think there’s a desire, in tech at least, to hire “diverse” candidates AND folks naturally want to hire more of people who look like them (tribal behavior). In any case, it was miserable as a white dude to find another job in tech. Even with a “fantastic” resume and excellent skills/experience (according to recruiters I spoke to).
To Harold Schultz: all hiring is discrimination. The criteria of that discrimination determines whether it is based on equitable factors or racism, bigotry or clannish ideology. Are you related to Howard Schultz?
The sad truth is that bias is going to exist, whether intentional or not. However it’s not going to make that decision 100% across the board.
In my own experiences interviewing and hiring, I’ve brought in a very diverse group of individuals. Male, female, white, black, Hispanic/latino, Indian, eastern Asian, straight, gay, etc. I’m a white male. My preference is to bring in the best candidate, from a technical standpoint and as a person. I also long recognized that I can have bias just like anyone else. And when I make these decisions about candidates, I make sure and ask myself if my own bias influenced my position.
I’m also proud to say that is rarely the case. But my own very close friend group is very diverse. Which is why I’ve often rolled my eyes when my employer pushes us into training for diversity. If you don’t have diversity outside of the workplace, all of the training in the world is going to be limited. I mean people have to start somewhere I suppose.
While I’m for the general concept of DEI, I’ve seen too much of it focused on the wrong things and being detrimental. Focus on calling out, examining, and eliminate or minimizing bias in the hiring process and beyond, ensuring that your candidate pool has diversity represented as best as it can, and keeping minimal amounts of “quotas” probably is more helpful. Then doing a meta analysis of all of the teams and their make up and POTENTIALLY identify issues afterwards.
Because at the end of the day, a white male manager is only hiring a team of white males because of his bias is just as bad as an Indian male manager only hiring a team of Indian males because of his bias is just as bad.
Remember, these are my opinions and prerogatives. Only thoughts for the real world.
But, I do want to mention a funny aside of this. My wife is a hiring manager. Her boss is quietly homophobic, transphobic, probably a little racist, and definitely a wee bit misogynistic (though not completely). He’s a white guy, who would generally have almost everyone being white guys working in his org.
Her team is the absolute most diverse in the whole company, and one of the best performing. She hires good candidates, but if you meet a criteria that her boss doesn’t like, it’s extra kudos. Granted, she’s not going to take an unqualified candidate just because of that, but between 2 equally capable candidates that may be the tie breaker.
Her worst performers? The ones he interviews and selects if she can’t for whatever reason (PTO for instance). Which all have been white guys.
I honestly would love to see more of this in the world.
Imagine being a Latina woman… More days than not, I ask myself why I stay in this industry…
Unintentionally bias I think plays a huge role in this. It is being biased to favor diversity just for the sake of that. Seemed like this year though everyone around me had a hard time, which highlights these kinds of things. Tech is not what it used to be and I’m not sure it will be back anytime soon.
I definitely agree with this. I don't think people man to have biases but it is something that we all inadvertently have. These types of things really do depend on who you interview with.
I am an international student from India, currently in Ireland, having recently graduated. As an Indian, I have experienced bias from recruiters of my own country of origin, while my interactions with white Irish recruiters have generally been positive. To outsiders, it might appear that Indians or Asians prefer candidates who look like them, but the reality is that Asia is incredibly diverse. In the Indian context, for example, a recruitment team with South Indians is more likely to favor candidates of South Indian origin, especially when hiring foreigners. Similarly, recruiters from a Maharashtrian (Marathi) background might lean toward Marathi candidates. While it may seem surprising to others that Indians display bias against other Indians in foreign countries, this phenomenon is partly due to India’s large and globally dispersed diaspora—you can find Indian communities almost anywhere in the world today.