131–140 of 157 posts
After a contractor decided on a radical life change and moved to a different country, leaving us without anyone with his skill set, my old manager used to joke that he should only hire people who have a mortgage, because they'll never leave on their own. Funny as a joke, but a bit chilling when it's given as real advice.
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> [...] most of the people who apply don't have kids. how do you know if you don't ask?
Not for nothing, but for a hiring manager, asking this question is a firing offense. So is age, marital status, religion, or even any question about place of residence apart from "are you capable of being on-site during core hours". From a lot of unfortunate experience: tech people suck at following these rules.
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It's also a selection bias-- $5000+5000n effectively rules out most people who are farther along in life.
No it doesn't. Further along also means financial resources or contacts that can make up the difference.
I have no idea how you could possibly say "No it doesn't".
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No it doesn't. Further along also means financial resources or contacts that can make up the difference.
Not everyone with a family to support has tons of money saved up so they can go without income for a year. Almost none do. I have no idea how you could possibly say "No it doesn't".
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Not everyone with a family to support has tons of money saved up so they can go without income for a year. Almost none do. I have no idea how you could possibly say "No it doesn't".
He said "rules out". No it doesn't. It was an over generalization.
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He said "rules out". No it doesn't. It was an over generalization.
Over generalization is when you generalize to a group larger than is applicable. This is the same group and a very accurate generalization on his part.
It is probably true that people with more fiduciary responsibilities have more to think about when taking the plunge, but that is a tautology. People with more responsibility have more responsibility.
My point is that even if you have a house, cars, kid(s), student loans, etc. you can do it. It just takes a bit of planning a maybe a little help from your friends & family.
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Not for nothing, but for a hiring manager, asking this question is a firing offense. So is age, marital status, religion, or even any question about place of residence apart from "are you capable of being on-site during core hours". From a lot of unfortunate experience: tech people suck at following these rules.
It's been noted in the past that Y Combinator in fact does ask for founders' ages. Presumably it can skirt the hiring laws because it is funding a company, not employing people.
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It's more unfortunate that a few bad apples in the past have made these laws necessary in the first place. Asking someone about their life is hardly a crime, but our governments seem to have no problem making it so. Score another point against a good employer / employee relationship.
How could it possibly be relevant to your hiring decision how old someone is, or what neighborhood they live in?
You could see what neighborhood someone lives in because that will also be typically included on a resume too. Why would you hire someone who can't even put their street address on their resume? Sure, a street address doesn't have much significance to /most/ hiring decisions, although if you knew a candidate would have a 100 mile commute each day, choosing someone who lived around the corner would make a lot of sense if the job required call-out or easy access to the office.
And so it goes. You'll see someone's race at interview. You can probably even figure out if someone's married (presence of a ring). It seems crazy to make it illegal to ask these questions. Instead, it should be law that it's optional for the candidate to ANSWER them.
"Why it doesn't make sense to discriminate against family people"
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It's been noted in the past that Y Combinator in fact does ask for founders' ages. Presumably it can skirt the hiring laws because it is funding a company, not employing people.
Why does YC ask for founders ages?