Disney – DEI requires a history of privilege
I decided it was time for a change so I applied for some lead software engineering roles at Disney. Today I had a phone screening that lasted about 10 minutes. The second the recruiter asked about my highest form of education and I responded that I am a drop out, I could hear the hesitation in her voice so I asked if that was a deal breaker. Of course it was, but based on the years of experience they can see if I still map to the role.
Unfortunately after she did the math my 16 years of experience with no degree only qualifies for a junior engineering role across all of Disney Engineering. To even qualify for a senior role, I needed 17 years of experience, and the lead role i applied for requires 19 years of experience to even move forward. And the junior role started at a minimum 15 years.
After hearing this and realizing I had no shot at a role at Disney I decided to poke at their hiring requirements and learn more. The recruiter informed me that the way HR maps no degree applicants was to help foster Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within their workforce.
This stunned me because the role I applied for without a degree asked for only 7 years of experience. So the way they are fostering inclusion is that if you don't have a degree you have to have almost 3x the years of on the job experience? How is that DEI?
Here is the JD for the job (posting not in the url field on purpose): https://disney.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/disneycareer/job/Lead-Software-Engineer_10057295-2