3 ms·

Well the proportion of blacks in the US population is 13%, so even Apple should be hiring twice as many to have a proportional representation.

by woah 10y ago

Bartweiss 10y ago
But that's not the number to look at for an article like this. The whole idea of pipeline problems is that you lose proportionality a little at a time, from early education to full time careers. Ideally, you'd check the proportions starting from something like mathematical success or career intent in high school. Then you move on to college majors, graduation rates, and applicant pools. This is really important, because otherwise you end up focusing energy on non-leaky parts of the pipeline and achieving nothing. This article focuses on interviewing, but the segment on black colleges and office siting is crucial. Ensuring unbiased interviews doesn't stop you from drawing interview candidates from disproportionately white colleges. Holding local code-ins won't save you from having offices in overwhelmingly white cities. "Lowering the bar", which companies are (according to this) hugely concerned about, still wouldn't solve the problem. If you're studying the mismatch between 13% of the population and 1% of your workforce, the numbers you want are the ones that show where things went wrong.
thesimpsons1022 10y ago
I gaurantee you out of the people who can code or have cs degrees, blacks make up a much smaller percentage. You can't blame Apple for the deep societal issues we have that leads the average black person to be more likely to end up in prison than college
- Sacho 10y ago
  According to the numbers Dare sourced in replies in the thread, blacks have significantly higher CS college graduates per capita than whites/hispanics, and about on par with Asians. The number of blacks within just those who have CS college degrees is ~10%.
  - fwadfka 10y ago
    That number is misleading, because that data uses a "Computer sciences" category which likely lumps in "Information" degrees. The number I see in 2015 is ~2.5% (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868)

Well the proportion of blacks in the US population is 13%, so even Apple should be hiring twice as many to have a proportional representation.

by woah 10y ago

Well the proportion of blacks in the US population is 13%, so even Apple should be hiring twice as many to have a proportional representation.

Bartweiss 10y ago

But that's not the number to look at for an article like this. The whole idea of pipeline problems is that you lose proportionality a little at a time, from early education to full time careers. Ideally, you'd check the proportions starting from something like mathematical success or career intent in high school. Then you move on to college majors, graduation rates, and applicant pools. This is really important, because otherwise you end up focusing energy on non-leaky parts of the pipeline and achieving nothing. This article focuses on interviewing, but the segment on black colleges and office siting is crucial. Ensuring unbiased interviews doesn't stop you from drawing interview candidates from disproportionately white colleges. Holding local code-ins won't save you from having offices in overwhelmingly white cities. "Lowering the bar", which companies are (according to this) hugely concerned about, still wouldn't solve the problem. If you're studying the mismatch between 13% of the population and 1% of your workforce, the numbers you want are the ones that show where things went wrong.

thesimpsons1022 10y ago

I gaurantee you out of the people who can code or have cs degrees, blacks make up a much smaller percentage. You can't blame Apple for the deep societal issues we have that leads the average black person to be more likely to end up in prison than college

Sacho 10y ago
According to the numbers Dare sourced in replies in the thread, blacks have significantly higher CS college graduates per capita than whites/hispanics, and about on par with Asians. The number of blacks within just those who have CS college degrees is ~10%.
- fwadfka 10y ago
  That number is misleading, because that data uses a "Computer sciences" category which likely lumps in "Information" degrees. The number I see in 2015 is ~2.5% (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868)