If jobs were screened entirely by competency and personality/fit, with interviews/resumes somehow conveying those aspects of a candidate without any other identifying information revealed about the applicants (no school, age, sex, name, ethnicity, etc), how different would the end result of hiring be? That would make for an interesting study in a variety of industries and fields, if one hasn't been done already.
If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
61–70 of 496 posts
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#62Might be off track, Is there anyone who used interviewing.io and landed a job? How was the experience using interviewing.io? I tried signing up some 2 years ago, it said they are in a private beta and they have been there ever since.
Shoot me an email, and I'll gladly get you an account. aline@interviewing.io
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#63This article treats "CS graduates" as interchangeable cogs, where the only variables are race, parents' income, and where they grew up. The reality is that particular tech companies have very specific needs around the kind of training someone has. CS curricula vary widely in terms of technologies and depths covered, and applicability to real world problems. A company like Apple has litte use for someone who has only…
I'm pretty sure that there is almost no difference in terms of talent between someone who graduated from MIT vs someone who graduated from any other decent university around the world. They share more or less the same curriculum. The main difference is that MIT has more reputable professors and the children have richer parents.
Reputable professors are not necessarily the best teachers... Especially at the undergrad level.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#64This article treats "CS graduates" as interchangeable cogs, where the only variables are race, parents' income, and where they grew up. The reality is that particular tech companies have very specific needs around the kind of training someone has. CS curricula vary widely in terms of technologies and depths covered, and applicability to real world problems. A company like Apple has litte use for someone who has only…
A good CS education teaches common core concepts, and more importantly how to learn and adapt to new frameworks/environments quickly.
Apple just doesn't want to deal with 2-4 months of ramp-up when they can have someone with expertise in a specific subject. Wealthy institutions see that, and teach certain frameworks as part of their graduates' education. Why else would you see core courses in languages like Objective C?
Any graduate can learn it fairly quickly, but a common theme among employers these days is that they will invest nothing in employees.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#65When I was at Google, I was asked if I wanted to make a recruiting trip to my alma mater. I was excited until I found out they were talking about my grad school where I got my MS, and not UB, a large state school where I got my BS. I told them I'd be happy to take a trip to recruit at UB. I got mostly crickets back from that reply. However, I ended up getting signed up for a series where they had a panel of a few HR…
> They just don't understand that some people like me, who can get into the (mostly private) elite schools choose to go to a "long tail" school for a variety of reasons (financial, family obligations, etc).
Agreed--I was accepted everywhere I applied save one and I ended up going to the University of Maine. I've never hurt for work and I paid off my student loans by the age of 25. Google sniffs around now (aside: recruiters, even if it's Google maybe you shouldn't assume I want to talk to you and tell me to sign up for a phone call to talk to your sainted ass?) and I have no interest, but the first time I interviewed, when a guy at Google gave me noticeable shade for my filthy state school degree? They could've made a decent bit of money off of me and now that door is likely closed.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#66What if I don't care about "diversity" as measured by the number of "underrepresented" minorities, and instead care about the fiduciary responsibility I have to maximize value for stock holders?
If that's the case you really should concentrate on hiring under-represented folks for your CRUD ... excuse me... SaaS company: they tend to be cheaper.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#67When I was at Google, I was asked if I wanted to make a recruiting trip to my alma mater. I was excited until I found out they were talking about my grad school where I got my MS, and not UB, a large state school where I got my BS. I told them I'd be happy to take a trip to recruit at UB. I got mostly crickets back from that reply. However, I ended up getting signed up for a series where they had a panel of a few HR…
We had an alum make a recruiting trip for Google to our large, not particularly well ranked state school when I was in my last year there.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#68This article treats "CS graduates" as interchangeable cogs, where the only variables are race, parents' income, and where they grew up. The reality is that particular tech companies have very specific needs around the kind of training someone has. CS curricula vary widely in terms of technologies and depths covered, and applicability to real world problems. A company like Apple has litte use for someone who has only…
lol If you are "someone who has only ever worked on IT-focused Java development" that apparently we don't want at Apple, my email is in my profile.
FYI, it isn't. If you are referring to the "email" field, that isn't public.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#69This is true not just for engineering hires. I recently experienced this with more evolved roles such as PM and PMMs.
Diversity and inclusion biases go beyond educational background. I have noticed the big tech firms (experienced this with a social network giant) are more biased to hire from a big consulting firm like McKinsey or Bain.
Despite having the requisite experience & education for the role, I got the boilerplate response without even talking to anyone. Some sleuthing revealed this big tech firm tends to recruit heavily from McKinsey. Most people at the role had this trajectory BA at Ivy League --> 2 yrs work exp --> MBA (Top 10) ---> Big Consulting ---> Big tech.
This seems to bode well who could afford either an ivy league education and an expensive MBA. Leaves little room for folks with street experience. On the other side, maybe it calls for long-term gorilla marketing tactics to really sell your personal brand.
Re: If you care about diversity, don't just hire from the same five schools
#70When I was at Google, I was asked if I wanted to make a recruiting trip to my alma mater. I was excited until I found out they were talking about my grad school where I got my MS, and not UB, a large state school where I got my BS. I told them I'd be happy to take a trip to recruit at UB. I got mostly crickets back from that reply. However, I ended up getting signed up for a series where they had a panel of a few HR…
> They just don't understand that some people like me, who can get into the (mostly private) elite schools choose to go to a "long tail" school for a variety of reasons (financial, family obligations, etc). Agreed--I was accepted everywhere I applied save one and I ended up going to the University of Maine. I've never hurt for work and I paid off my student loans by the age of 25. Google sniffs around now (aside: rec…
I ended up at a no-name school because I got a terrible financial aid package at an elite school that I'd applied to early decision. So bailed and went to a state school for almost free.