There seems to be a trend in Silicon Valley - some companies are hijacked under the pressure of workplace diversity. In order to compensate the minorities, companies consciously or unconsciously lower the hiring bar for them. Recently I've seen and heard a lot of female candidates get hired much easier than males - female candidates have easier coding tests, or they are less criticized for the same quality of works. I'm neither a feminist nor anti-feminist. I stand for having the same standard for all kinds. And I hope ppl should be brave and sharp enough to step in when they realize reverse discrimination happens.
You've seen and heard how? From whom? Sounds like perception bias if you're convinced 'females' have ANYTHING easier in the tech industry.
I mean this is an hilarious and offensive conspiracy theory.
Well , are females consistently having lower hiring bars? I conduct interviewers in the order of hundreds, the male-female ratio of interviewees is about 4:1. I could remember more females been made a hire decision than male, among my interviewees. I do consciously lower the standards for female candidates, asking easier questions, providing generous hints without mentioning them in the feedback, and score them higher. I could tell from the feedbacks that many co wotkers do as I do. The decision makers also favor them in the meeting.
tell me about it. Stupid media like TechCrunch who issues meaningless "not diverse enough" articles every week.
IMO this just fine. I think after years of discrimination in all areas of life I am fine if under represented groups get a little extra. How does it feel now the shoe is on the other foot? I say this as a white male who realizes how easy we all have it compared to other groups.
Guilty by association?
Did you grow up on food stamps? Did you grow up in a rural area where although most were white there was only a 67% graduation rate? I did. Until you've walked in everyone's shoes don't assume every white person had the same privileges as you.
Also if you don't think it is "fair" I have news for you. Nothing in life is fair. Try working as a female in most industries and then talk to us about what is fair.
so is the answer lowering the bar to get more?
If the bar is white or Asian from top tier schools asking the same questions they were trained to answer then I think the bar needs to be changed. If you do any research on this you see that bias exists and interviews are not a great predictor of success.
I fail female candidates as much as I fail male candidates. I'll be more willing to give hints during interview but that doesn't change the feedback I give.
OP, let me paraphrase your post: "I'm all right, Jack" I know this is difficult but step back and examine what you wrote, specifically about "the bar". Bear with me for a moment and imagine an alternate universe where "the bar" is not some absolute metric that is a natural property of the universe but is instead a social construct defined by an entrenched population that uses the bar to preserve their power. Now imagine that this alternate universe is actually our universe.
This is wrong, nobody cares about preserving their power. It isn't even a thought. You might be right about bias, but it's for completely different reasons.
"One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in."
Here we go again. It's honestly starting to be a tired conversation. Oh well... *michaeljacksonpopcorn.gif*
IMO we need to encourage more females to code, give them free seminars, go to schools and colleges and conferences educate them and cultivate an interest towards computer science. Companies and govt set aside funds for that. But not lower the bar in an interview, that infact is descriminating females. Its telling them that you can not be as smart as a male, so i am giving you easier test. This is a congitive thing not a physical thing like giving up your seats to veterans and pregnant women in trains. that totally makes sense because their body needs rest. Whats stopping a female brain from learning computer science? Nothing.
We need to encourage more Americans to code. Not just women. Do you know what kids think about working at places like Microsoft? That it's nerdy. People think working in tech is nerdy, boring, way to hard work way to much math... Etc.
yeah, it's sexist to lower the car because you're saying they can't reach the current bar.
It could be perception as well. How do you know this for a fact?
Let's say there're 90 male coders and 10 female coders in the industry, and the final result is 5 male and 5 female coders get hire. It's happening a lot in some companies now. I guess the real solution to address diversity issue is to let there be 90 female coders, instead of hiring 5 female coders out of 10.
I was directly told by a MSFT recruiter that they are more interested in diversity hires.