What is our role in advocating for minority candidates/opportunities? Whose responsibility is it? How are corporate initiatives supported in practice?
Personal opinion as a gay man: *you*, as a mid or entry level employee, don’t need to do anything. If they’re the best and most qualified candidate for the job, they will almost certainly get it. Consulting companies are generally progressive enough to make no distinction on personal characteristics. Can we do a better job soliciting applications from minorities? Yes, and we should. But beyond that... A mediocre candidate that happens to be the minority du jour shouldn’t get that job over someone with superior qualifications. Period.
Trust me, mediocre candidates who are minorities don’t get phone interviews let alone the job.
Yea tbh who cares
I wonder why firms don’t just try to match the census numbers. That is an easy fix imho.
First, I personally rail against forced diversity metrics. I however champion focusing on inclusivity (which honestly feels more like professionalism) and use that to enable diversity. But my biggest problem is the lack of candidates, qualified or not, from underrepresented groups. Of the couple dozen interviews I've lead in September, the vast majority were non diverse. I sourced 60+ candidates this summer, focusing on underrepresented groups, and we didn't get a good response rate. I'm beginning to think that our message about who we are and our culture comes off as not inclusive (based on feedback from folks we did and didn't hire)... Hence my focus on inclusivity vs diversity.