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Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

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Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#221

Post by Slansitartop »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #176
latencyloser wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too rejected a job at Google after feeling like they just wanted to pigeon-hole me, so to speak. But, as a former Microsoft employee as well, it's not all sunshine there either. While experiences tend to vary, there I was crammed in a small, loud room with too many other people who I'd argue were more complacent than content. Similarly, I've had colleagues at Facebook describe it more as "exhausting" than high ener…

I do feel like Google and co are riding on their reputation a lot - one they built up some years ago with promises of e.g. three meals a day and high pay and only hiring the best and such. I got one recruitment mail which basically said something to the degree of "hi I'm from Google, please apply here". Not convincing.

Don't forget the 20% time, which is long dead. That was the one thing that really made them seem unique to me.

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#222

Post by kerng »

jsmeaton wrote: post #3
2aa07e2 wrote: post #2

> In April of 2017, Google’s Technology Staffing Management team was instructed by Alogna to immediately cancel all Level 3 (0-5 years experience) software engineering interviews with every single applicant who was not either female, Black, or Hispanic and to purge entirely any applications by non-diverse employees from the hiring pipeline. Plaintiff refused to comply with this request. Good for him. Google is now exc…

It sounds like it was one manager. Is that all you need to blacklist an entire company?

Where there is smoke, there might be fire. Its not unlikeley related to KPIs set by high managment (given the news around Google in the past). And further down the food chain managers want to look good and do these things.

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#223

Post by throwaway1957 »

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

I was once asked to do recruiting at a university. They told me to only collect the resumes of Females, Blacks, and Hispanics. And that they would not consider any other genders/races for the positions. This was for the BOLD program: https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/bold.html.

Talking around with my co-workers, we found Google has multiple programs like this. Another is a program to hire only LGBTQ people for entry MBA positions.

Still afraid to speak up within Google as I fear my job would be at risk.

Google claims its a meritocracy. It used to be a meritocracy , but in the past few years thats no longer the case. We've become a Microsoft.

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#224

Post by ashelmire »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #174
masterleep wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would be one thing to set quotas that favor a group, it's another to exclude any group at all. Both of those are illegal.

Affirmative action is definitely not illegal, regardless of whether it should or shouldn’t be.

Affirmative action literally means the opposite of what you think it means. It means that there will be efforts taken to ensure no discrimination in hiring on the basis of race, sex, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11246 etc

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#225

Post by craftyguy »

beisner wrote: post #111
projectramo wrote: post #18

> In April of 2017, Google’s Technology Staffing Management team was instructed by Alogna to immediately cancel all Level 3 (0-5 years experience) software engineering interviews with every single applicant who was not either female, Black, or Hispanic and to purge entirely any applications by non-diverse employees from the hiring pipeline. If this were remotely true, we wouldn't see any white men hired in a junior le…

As a white man hired at L3 last year, I can confirm this.

Maybe they couldn't find any 'diverse' candidates to hire and had to settle with you.

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#226

Post by grey-sunshine »

jptoor wrote: post #133
RandomCSGeek wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two ways to nullify a problem. 1. Solve it 2. Create another problem in equal magnitude and opposite direction. Unfortunately, most countries/organisations seem to prefer second one, because it's easier and shows effect earlier, although over long period of time, it's going to be the worse one.

> although over long period of time, it's going to be the worse one. Why do you believe that? Are there specific examples you're thinking of? How do you know it's too far?

Gee... Putting incompetent people in important roles... What could go wrong!!!

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#227

Post by HelloNurse »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #171
gpm wrote: post #87

People should check out the actual complaint [0]. It includes a lot of things the article doesn't including: A screenshot of an email from Allison Alogna to "Team" stating > Please continue with L3 candidates in process and only accept new L3 candidates that are from historically unrepresented groups. Another stating in part > And we should only consider L3s from our underrepresented groups. It also tells us that thi…

Another interesting thing there is that it's only L3's, which (it seems) are juniors / new people; you could argue that that too is discriminatory and it enables the "white male" stereotype to remain in leading positions while the "grunt work" is done by underrepresented groups.

Apart from the difference between not hiring aspirants and driving away old employees, the metrics of diversity are probably based on pure head count, not on having quotas on important roles (which would also be unlikely to be satisfiable).

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#229

Post by ocdtrekkie »

tomp wrote: post #130
lettergram wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but that user has been on HN since 2011 - not many posts though

Old social media accounts are available for sale exactly because they look more legitimate. (I'm just pointing a general fact, not that the user in question is a shill.) I read an article describing the fenomenon, I can't find it now but there's plenty of interesting results if you search Google.

phenomenon*: Couldn't help myself.

I'd be surprised if people were selling HN accounts for this purpose, it's much easier to reach a larger audience, and have more impact, on a general social media site than HN. I wouldn't suspect the practice is likely to happen here.

Re: Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts

#230

Post by pizza234 »

thorwawayforg wrote: post #170
xxcode wrote: post #85

I work at Google. It is the most unpleasant place to work, largely because work evaluation is almost 80% politics (might be 100%). I am a senior engineer. You get stuck here because the pay you better than elsewhere, but I think it is a very bad and very sad place to work. My stomach curdles every morning before going to work and I wonder if it is worth it. Many of my peers talk in the same vein. Please consider not…

Can you tell me more about this? I have interviewed at google 2 times now. The first interview I bombed -- and I knew it. It was my first interview in near 10 years. The second interview I thought I aced. There was not a single answer I could not answer expect one about obscure hardware that nobody uses any more -- which I think was a test on how I handle not knowing something -- I ended up learning something neat. T…

Based on an article that went on HN a few days ago:

https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/

it seems luck (as in being the right person on the right project) plays a large factor (not the only factor, of course).

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