Comment by paulhauggis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulhauggis | Hacker News Reader

"Or, get this — I was also told my experience made me overqualified for the position and they were afraid I’d get bored."

This happened to me and most my friends. We are all different races. Were you applying for a low-level job (IE: trying to get anything)? You probably would have used it as a stepping-stone for a better job and the employer didn't want to spend resources training you.

"The formula was largely the same. Most I didn’t hear back from at all. With a few, I had an in-person or Skype interview with the team."

Once again, completely normal.

"Yeah, a company in Utah is doing more for diversity than many in Silicon Valley — get over your biases of where you believe real change is championed."

The truth is that you just don't have any real-world work experience.

"One of the ways my company encourages diversity is by providing fair pay and benefits for all; which includes reimbursement for relocation, the opportunity to work remotely, a generous family leave policy, and flexible scheduling for personal needs"

Now you are just sounding entitled. You aren't entitled to any of those things and there are plenty of people in Silicon Valley that are qualified and willing to take the job (which is why you had trouble). If you want to compete with them, you will need to move there.

I know lots of different people that made the move and found jobs. You can too.

This article has nothing to do with 'diversity' or 'race'. It's just plain silly.

Often one is not 100% certain they are being discriminated against or for the reason. Rarely do people publicly admit their biases, particularly in a professional setting. In some cases people can't actually recognize the bias in their decisions.

Black people in America are often taught that they will experience racism, there's a ton of history to back up that assertion, and they have most likely experienced some event that confirmed this teaching. Given that context, racism often seems like a plausible explanation when not meeting some subjective criteria and it's hard to rule out.

As a black person you can't completely rely upon the experiences of white people (or other races) for guidance. It's not unusual for black person to mimic the actions of others and have a completely different experience.

I often hear the phrase "cultural fit", particularly in Silicon Valley and cringe. It feels like a new way to express prejudice and cronyism.

culture fit is a phrase that means what the person saying it means, and without knowing that, you can't infer much. I've seen it mean anything from

- read those stupid pickup artist books, hit on chicks in the marina after work, and hire a shitty designer because she has big tits and you think you'll have a better chance at sleeping with her if you work with her (there's many reasons I didn't last long here)

- are you down with tuesday night strip club

- are you fucking obnoxious to be around for 40 hours a week? (There are people in the world for whom the answer to this question is a strong yes.)

- do you have your shit together enough that you'll fit in a more mature team with relatively low supervision, lots of work getting done, and who really want to work from 9-5 unless there's an actual emergency?

In case it isn't clear -- the majority of places I've worked would (thankfully!) consider putting tuesday night strip club on the calendar a firing offense.

I reject the racial explanation too. I had the same problem as a white male. I went to a small private school in the Midwest; I had no full-time related work experience at the time (despite part-time jobs and internships throughout college); and I applied without an address in Silicon Valley. I sent out a hundred or so job apps, didn't hear back from most, got one or two flyouts. Eventually found a position outside of Silicon Valley.

That said, this isn't intended to be mean. I'm not sure how people would judge my achievements if my skin color were different. I think it would be difficult to tell whether a perceived mistreatment is racially motivated, or just a normal occurrence given the circumstances.

"Now you are just sounding entitled. You aren't entitled to any of those things and there are plenty of people in Silicon Valley that are qualified and willing to take the job (which is why you had trouble)."

If the company truly values diversity, it will remove barriers that disproportionately affect minority groups. The author is just pointing out that a company cannot claim to value diversity while simultaneously making it nearly impossible for a minority to work there.

This also applies to the perks that companies offer. Consider a free cafeteria. How could a parent possibly take advantage of free dinner at work? All of these policies and perks that are targeted at a specific demographic make the workforce less diverse.

"If you want to compete with them, you will need to move there."

I'd like to know how someone with no resources could just move to Silicon Valley as if they were walking across the street. Silicon Valley is expensive. Saving up for a ticket and a few months' rent in Silicon Valley would take years for many people. Companies that are insensitive to this fact will end up with a workforce disproportionately containing children of wealthy, connected people.

The issues the author faces are mostly due to statistical discrimination of various forms[1]. In particular, information about candidates is expensive and employers don't want to make bad hires. A candidate who comes from a group that has more variance in ability or a lower average ability is more expensive to evaluate because the company needs more information about the individual to narrow their risk to an acceptable level. If the company is only willing to expend a certain amount of effort evaluating candidates, those without the information boost of coming from a well-known low-risk group will be rejected as too risky.

Not that it's a company's moral duty to shoulder the costs of making hiring decisions solely on the basis of ability, but if a company claims to value diversity it is lying unless it shoulders at least some of those costs.

[1] See "Theories of Statistical Discrimination and Affirmative Action: A Survey" section 2.2.1 at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~hfang/publication/moro/final.pdf

Reply on news.ycombinator.com