Gender and Race Preferences in Hiring at Silicon Valley Tech Firms [pdf]

If you mean "irrevocably determined with a 100% certainty" maybe...

But you know, most people who think their name doesn't give away their race, are a certain race...

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Funny that this is really such an uncomfortable truth for some people here... I'm a black guy with a Ghanaian name, so I laughed out loud reading the comment.

It's not like black people aren't allowed to have "euro-centric" names, but, surprise surprise, Caucasians represent a large majority of people with those names

Likewise there are names that almost no Caucasians have (like mine)

If someone is reading your resume intent on being biased, a name like "Austin Walters" is going to appear as... a white guy.

There black guys named Austin Walters but they're also not conducting a census... if someone really wants to discriminate against you based on race, your name is plenty to go on.

https://www.mynamestats.com/First-Names/A/AU/AUSTIN/chart-di...

https://www.mynamestats.com/Last-Names/W/WA/WALTERS/chart-di...

Again, they're not conducting a science study, an 80% chance is plenty for the kind of person trying to discriminate...

Likewise, someone who reads my name, which uses consonants in a way that English doesn't usually ( causing people to mispronounce my very simple last name even when reading it verbatim) will instantly assume I'm black.

It's something I accept as a person with a very black name, it tells you the main audience of HN is this is really such a revelation for some of you lol

Ultimately though, nearly all actual selection processes are are subjective or ilegible... depending on how you see these things. How an interviewer feels about you intuitively matters a lot, maybe the most. Actual tests of skill are usually intuitive as well. An interviewer tries to gauge your skills, but it's rarely designed to be an objective test of skill. If it is an objective test of skill, it's rarely the primary decision driver.

Blind auditions enforce a certain kind of objectivity. But, I think we can read into the fact that musicians "audition" while employees "interview." You perform an audition.

Blind auditions would be a radical change to hiring/selection. The big advantages/disadvantages of the approach are like those of standardised testing. They measure the easily measurable, and bury everything else.

It seems financial is a similar boat: Wells Fargo recently claimed a “limited talent pool" but got criticized by AOC for lacking "talent to recruit Black workers".

Obviously society, including industry, could do more to get kids into school. But right now, in the resume pile, what should employers be doing, and why is "not enough X talent" not a good defense?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/23/wells-far...

I fully imagine there is bias towards Asians within SV but it'd be heavily weighted towards recent arrivals who either have uncertain visa status or aren't yet at native speaking English proficiency surely? Whereas you'd have to imagine the vast majority of black applicants meet both of those requirements with ease.