U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

Post by stretchwithme » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 1:02 AM UTC

onmatest wrote: post #78

guelo wrote: post #12

Here's the actual government complaint, the allegations are listed in sections 10 and 11, https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/newsroom/newsrelease... My concerns, 1) why is the qualified candidate pool, whatever that is, so overwhelmingly Asian, 73-85%? Isn't the candidate selection process biased towards Asians? 2) The complaint is concerned about the use of employee referrals. Studies have shown that building t…

I would guess for the second part that the government prohibits it because it could result in unequal opportunities for job seekers based on race. While referrals are more acceptable in non-government-sponsored companies, government-sponsored companies are held to higher standards because that is where taxpayer dollars are directly headed. If the applicant pool was overwhelming black and Palantir hired more white peo…

Post by danieltillett » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 1:10 AM UTC

mildbow wrote: post #110

danieltillett wrote: post #87

Doesn’t this result just tell us that Palantir’s recruitment funnel is broken. If your funnel is attracting 73% Asians then fix the funnel at the top, not the bottom.

It tells us something might be broken. Could be their applicant pool, and/or could be the way implicit biases creep in. The way you word it, however, says the problem is that they are "attracting 73% of Asians". If you want to work in the 21st century, get used to working with people who don't have your same exact background.

Post by chii » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 1:17 AM UTC

dabockster wrote: post #127

api wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen American university CS grads wash out on FizzBuzz level questions at alarming levels as well so this is not exclusively a phenomenon with these backgrounds. How in the world are people making it through schools (with a MS!) without actually.... uhh.... you know.... knowing the subject at all ?

> How in the world are people making it through schools (with a MS!) without actually.... uhh.... you know.... knowing the subject at all? Recent undergraduate grad here. A lot of the algorithms I've seen on technical interviews were only covered once or twice in the curriculum. Basically, one such algorithm would come up in either the data structures or algorithms class, we would then work on it for the given assign…

Post by mildbow » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 1:26 AM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #153

mildbow wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It tells us something might be broken. Could be their applicant pool, and/or could be the way implicit biases creep in. The way you word it, however, says the problem is that they are "attracting 73% of Asians". If you want to work in the 21st century, get used to working with people who don't have your same exact background.

The problem is they are not attracting enough non-Asians at the top of the funnel - something about their criteria is either driving away others, or is too attractive to Asians. Unless you believe that talent is disproportionally concentrated in Asian candidates (which they obviously don’t given who they actually hire), then it is telling you that the funnel is broken. The funny thing is if they did hire 73% Asians t…

Post by pavel_lishin » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 1:32 AM UTC

chii wrote: post #155

dabockster wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How in the world are people making it through schools (with a MS!) without actually.... uhh.... you know.... knowing the subject at all? Recent undergraduate grad here. A lot of the algorithms I've seen on technical interviews were only covered once or twice in the curriculum. Basically, one such algorithm would come up in either the data structures or algorithms class, we would then work on it for the given assign…

I would expect that the project they work on to utilize the knowledge in the courses. With 4 projects a year at 4 years, there's got to be something learned!