You are onto something and if you haven’t tried to get a job lately you might not fully understand what OP is getting at here.
I have similar worries. I used to get more recruiting inbound and I can compare to equivalent colleagues of mine, the amount of inbound interest they get.
Long story short: Women and minority candidates get way more interest than I do despite similar qualifications and background. That is deeply troubling.
In theory I should get way more based on my “qualifications and experience,” in practice it is not the case.
You have to be aware there is a sweet spot for recruiters and I am definitely not in it, whatever it is, anymore.
Hint: Don’t be a white male with a family over 35 in most expensive geographies in North America.
Have even heard my friends who are CEOs of startups explicitly state “women are cheaper.” They we’re not joking.
USA hiring is rapidly becoming as attractive as hiring employees in France, I fear. I believe a lot of “smart money” have actively retooled their hiring strategy post covid.
They don’t want Europe, they don’t want USA. They don’t want to see expensive cities and they don’t want to pay for expensive city rental and housing inflation.
Corporations now seem to really like to recruit women for most roles in my category. And senior executives seem to prefer people who won’t “compete” with them. Increasingly they seem to want to avoid paying for the “benefit” of hiring USA citizens.
Recently saw a screen shot of the “team” of a major USA VC firm. 20% old white male original founders, 70% women and 10% white male junior hires. Hate to say it but this stratification is becoming quite common. It will be great for women, minorities and immigrants. Good for them.
This is a major problem for people like myself if trend continues. America is about to see itself lose its competitiveness horrifically. Quite honestly: I will have to move out of USA to compete and be able to somewhat raise family.
If you aren’t paying attention, and you are older and “more qualified” you should be extremely careful in coming years imo.
Unfortunately there is also such a thing as being “too talented.” If you are too smart, you represent a threat to management and your organization.
Have seen this myself. The place to be in this job market is remote, under the age of 25 and somewhere in the middle of the talent curve, on the pathologically ass kissing and optimistic side.
Remote work makes outsourcing much more attractive. I believe right now that on the inside, most VC portfolios are encouraging their startups to go for remote talent in less expensive locations.
I recently went through a loop, for example, and was offered a package that would have been attractive years ago.
Something has become broken with the American job market in a way that will disadvantage native workers.
All the press about resignations and hiring shortages is imo masking this. The reality on the ground doesn’t look good.
Politicians are going to be in for a very rude awakening if I am right.