We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
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We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
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Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#2I want applicant-side voice modulation to mask my insecurity and non-native language skills.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#3I had a demo from Aline on this last week after seeing it on Twitter and reaching out. It was a really interesting experience - it masks the voice pitch but leaves the person's characteristic of speaking (is there a word for that?) intact.
You can also access the recordings after-the-fact to hear how you did. I think this is valuable for candidates who want to improve their interviewing skills.
FWIW, I heard it both ways - my voice as female and her voice as male. The pitch shifting was very convincing both ways.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#4So it masks gender by making everyone sound "like a dude" according to the videos. That's not masking gender. Make everyone sound like a robot and the blog post title will be more accurate.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#5Amazing how the author believes they have proved that there is 'no systematic bias' with This One Simple Trick!
Edit: sorry for the tone, but I just find this whole article bait. The headline is bait. The writer acknowledges the limitations of their study (basically that it doesn't prove much) but then makes a whole bunch of extrapolations anyway, and makes those guesses the meat of the article rather than investigating why their methods didn't work or how they could be improved or what would be required to produce conclusive evidence.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#6So it masks gender by making everyone sound "like a dude" according to the videos. That's not masking gender. Make everyone sound like a robot and the blog post title will be more accurate.
Yeah, I cringed when they said they thought of "giving all females a bane mask". How does that do anything? Anyone getting a person wearing a bane mask would automatically realize they were female.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#7So it masks gender by making everyone sound "like a dude" according to the videos. That's not masking gender. Make everyone sound like a robot and the blog post title will be more accurate.
The point of the experiment was for the interviewer to think the interviewer was a particular gender to see if they as it based on that impression. Making everyone sound like a robot does not accomplish that goal, so I don't see how it makes the title more accurate.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#8So it masks gender by making everyone sound "like a dude" according to the videos. That's not masking gender. Make everyone sound like a robot and the blog post title will be more accurate.
Yeah, I cringed when they said they thought of "giving all females a bane mask". How does that do anything? Anyone getting a person wearing a bane mask would automatically realize they were female.
Not if everyone wears the same "mask" regardless of gender.
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#9Amazing how the author believes they have proved that there is 'no systematic bias' with This One Simple Trick! Edit: sorry for the tone, but I just find this whole article bait. The headline is bait. The writer acknowledges the limitations of their study (basically that it doesn't prove much) but then makes a whole bunch of extrapolations anyway, and makes those guesses the meat of the article rather than investigat…
Yes, that's exactly what they say:
> On the subject of sample size, we have no delusions that this is the be-all and end-all of pronouncements on the subject of gender and interview performance.
But let's ignore science to fit our pre-existing biases!
Re: We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
#10> Contrary to what we expected (and probably contrary to what you expected as well!), masking gender had no effect on interview performance
The main issue with gender and hiring is unconscious bias on the interviewer's end, which voice modulation does make sense as a tool to avoid bias. Per the grading criteria, they are judging on skill, problem solving, and communication. I'm not sure how voice modulation would affect the interviewee in those three criteria, which makes the results of the experiment not surprising.