4 ms·

> Even among the most common demographics for developers (American, male, white, skewing young and middle-class background), we are absolutely abysmal at this..

> Even among the most common demographics for developers (American, male, white, skewing young and middle-class background), we are absolutely abysmal at this.. How does nationality, gender, race, age, and income level have _anything_ to do with this at all?

ubernostrum 11y ago
People tend, consciously or not, to recruit most heavily from among people like themselves (for lots of reasons which aren't necessarily bad: a lot of referrals are based on knowing someone, for example, and a lot of peoples' social circles/contacts tend to be pretty homogeneous to begin with). In other words, even on the easiest default approach (recruiting from people similar to ourselves), we suck. God help us as we try to recruit from people dissimilar to ourselves.
- blizkreeg 11y ago
  IMHO you are subconsciously profiling if that is what you're doing in your hiring i.e., making assumptions about people's skills/talent based on any of those attributes.
  - URSpider94 11y ago
    That's exactly what you are doing, and there is copious data out there to say that we all do it. The generally accepted term is "unconscious bias." I saw a summary of a study recently in which people were asked to rate top character indicators of success for male and female candidates for a job, things like "aggressive," "nurturing," "outspoken," "mediator." Not surprisingly, the adjective sets for male and female candidates were substantially different.
  - URSpider94 11y ago
    Cite here: http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/Women_Take_Care_Men_Take_Charge_Stereotyping_of_U.S._Business_Leaders_Exposed.pdf http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/Women_Take_Care_Men_Tak...
frostburg 11y ago
Most examination / testing procedures rely more or less overtly on various cultural assumptions to obtain comparable and acceptably accurate results. In the western world these assumptions are generally those shared by white, somewhat affluent people (I recall reading an interesting explanation from David Foster Wallace to his students on the necessity of being able to use "correct" - i.e. not ethnic dialects - English).
Terr_ 11y ago
He's emphasizing how determining whether a candidate is good or not is hideously inaccurate and frustrating for everyone involved... Even without barriers of language, ethnicity, culture, age, or discrimination-of-same.

ubernostrum 11y ago

People tend, consciously or not, to recruit most heavily from among people like themselves (for lots of reasons which aren't necessarily bad: a lot of referrals are based on knowing someone, for example, and a lot of peoples' social circles/contacts tend to be pretty homogeneous to begin with). In other words, even on the easiest default approach (recruiting from people similar to ourselves), we suck. God help us as we try to recruit from people dissimilar to ourselves.

blizkreeg 11y ago
IMHO you are subconsciously profiling if that is what you're doing in your hiring i.e., making assumptions about people's skills/talent based on any of those attributes.
- URSpider94 11y ago
  That's exactly what you are doing, and there is copious data out there to say that we all do it. The generally accepted term is "unconscious bias." I saw a summary of a study recently in which people were asked to rate top character indicators of success for male and female candidates for a job, things like "aggressive," "nurturing," "outspoken," "mediator." Not surprisingly, the adjective sets for male and female candidates were substantially different.
- URSpider94 11y ago
  Cite here: http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/Women_Take_Care_Men_Take_Charge_Stereotyping_of_U.S._Business_Leaders_Exposed.pdf http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/Women_Take_Care_Men_Tak...

frostburg 11y ago

Most examination / testing procedures rely more or less overtly on various cultural assumptions to obtain comparable and acceptably accurate results. In the western world these assumptions are generally those shared by white, somewhat affluent people (I recall reading an interesting explanation from David Foster Wallace to his students on the necessity of being able to use "correct" - i.e. not ethnic dialects - English).

Terr_ 11y ago

He's emphasizing how determining whether a candidate is good or not is hideously inaccurate and frustrating for everyone involved... Even without barriers of language, ethnicity, culture, age, or discrimination-of-same.