Hidden racism and bias in interviews
We all know that interviews are like a black box; you walk in, and walk out not knowing what exactly will happen. Through out my career, I’ve conducted 100’s of interviews ranging from horrible people that I have no idea how they got into the onsite loop who get hired, to amazingly talented people with great personalities and collaboration skills that get rejected. Even the author of crack the coding interview, confessed in her book about rejecting people - one guy had a sweaty hands and she didn’t like that (she should be sued to be honest). - one guy got rejected because he had a tongue piercing, and it sounded horrible when he spoke. I am sure she rejected 100’s of people just based on her conscious or unconscious bias (more of the latter). I feel sick when I see a great candidate getting rejected under the vale of “not being a cultural fit”, when it was purely a racism/bias from the interviewer. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to proof such a case in the court of law. I’ve seen it happen a lot to great people, getting rejected at great companies, after having a marvelous round of interviews (myself and some other interviewers get so surprised when we hear of the rejection). I honestly feel that the interview process needs to be transformed completely, literally. Interviewers should be challenged when the reject/accept a candidate and proof their case, interviews should be videotaped and shares with HR and candidates (after signing an NDA not to share it publicly). Hiring managers have absolute power to reject someone, and i’ve seen it happen A LOT!, just to hire someone from their country who is a mediocre, or just to get their friend through. It is more corrupt than you guys can ever imagine. Talent is talent, whether it’s white, african, asian, etc.
Nothing wrong with bias in interviews. If u don’t want to work with someone u should have the right to reject them.
That’s fucked up, what if you are a fucked up, nearly socially autistic and accept only people like you, should the whole company be like you? I’m not attacking you, i’m just giving an example...
I used to think like that btw. Unless the candidate is rude, doesn’t listen to feedback, arrogant, etc., you liking him/her as a person should never be a reason to reject them.
That’s what I was saying in the article, candidates with great technical background, amazing skills, and great communication and collaboration
Plenty of people can be smart but weird or arrogant or simply someone you don't want to work with everyday.
Yes yes yes. Have never been a victim of it myself (I hope), but that’s one reason there is such a lack of diversity in some companies.
Tech skills alone are not enough. You need to fit the culture. You’re underestimating the value of the culture
Talent or Coding skills are barely 50% of a successful interview
Calling bs on this one. How would you know the interviewer wrote 'he doesn't look smart' in his feedback? I doubt he or the recruiter would tell you. Moreover, even if this really would have been the actual reason for you being rejected, it would have never made it onto the feedback form. So please, go invent a different story.
How do you know what they wrote in their feedback forms ?
Racism and unfair treatment has been happening for hundreds of years. People suck. They have to have an advantage in order to compete. Just the way things are. My only gripes are not being more transparent to candidates about things like this. If you don't want a certain group of people working in your business, just be honest and say it. Don't promote diversity and lies like pipeline shortage when you know you wouldn't hire if there was a surplus. Pretty simple to me. But, even something like honesty is rare these days. People are shit for the most part.
It doesn’t work like that. As an owner you don’t care for the race of your employers, but you can’t control every employees action. A particular hiring manager may be a racist, and it’s not easy to correct their behavior. I’m sure you own a piece of many firms through stock market, but how much control you have over the employees? Almost none
This is hilarious, the most racist interviewer I had was over at Dropbox Seattle office....
Cultural fit is a huge deal. If someones personality isnt a fit for a team, that is a bigger problem than skills. You can train skills, you cant change personality.
"Fitting" in mutual. If the person in the office is an axxhxle, none of the good candidates can be a "good fit".
Sounds like you need a detox. Stop interviewing for a while.