Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

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I've been in software for ~10yrs now and can only count the number of engineers I've met who weren't white or Asian (Indians included) on one hand. And that doesn't say anything about anyone's particular ability to be engineers. It's just less likely to happen via the available applicants. Although I have noticed a spike in women, that doesn't seem to be the issue here.

It seems to me the Dept of Labor is trying to solve a problem at the hiring level that exists at a much higher level, beyond the scope of any one company.

Additionally, in that context I'm not even convinced it's a problem in itself that needs solving via state intervention. Unless there is some abstract benefit to diversity of the people behind the code in software development that I'm not seeing. Other than the fact engineers make better money than other industries and it's in demand - but that should be a sufficient incentive by itself.

State intervention depends on the cause(s). Direct intervention against the employer like this would make sense if there was deliberate discrimination in violation of the law.

I agree the state should be acting at a much higher level to solve these problems. This could take the form of education incentives to get a more diverse workforce or do something about income inequality that prevents some demographics from pursuing certain career paths.

I agree with this comment. I don't think the DOL would act unless it had information that goes beyond just over representation of certain races in the company's labor force.

Anecdotally, a friend who was interviewing with Oracle was given a lowball offer by a Oracle recruiter of the same ethnicity and told that it was "a very good offer for a person like you". At the time I believed it was just a rogue interviewer, but it sounds like this may have been more widespread.

I don't doubt your friends perception but as a white male if someone said "a person like you" to me in reference to an offer I would think they were referencing my education or work experience, not my gender or race. That may be privilege talking, I honestly don't know. Maybe I'm just naive.

I do agree, and this is what makes the Palantir case makes sense.

If I see a large software company located in an area where a lot of Asians reside and there aren't many Asians there? Then something funny is going on.

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