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Everybody's hiring practices are pretty broken. As a white male engineer, I've never really had any success even getting an interview with ordinary tech compan

by warcher 10y ago

Everybody's hiring practices are pretty broken. As a white male engineer, I've never really had any success even getting an interview with ordinary tech companies out of engineering school. Had to start my own. Going ok, has been for many years now, which leads me to think all those guys throwing my resume in the trash may have some false negatives in their system somewhere. I think there are objective benefits to fixing some of the weird culture in tech, including but not limited to (at least) doubling the available talent pool. And the objective truth that having more ideas and more viewpoints makes for much more effective teams. I'm not so stupid as to think there aren't costs associated with bringing populations that aren't well represented in. There's gonna be catchup. You're going to have to develop talent. It is going to take a while. Engineering and entrepreneurship is absolutely a hard job, and most folks aren't cut out for it, not really. So widening the net is going to take work. And bigger, more established companies are probably better equipped to shoulder more of that investment, but smaller, hungrier companies can ALSO afford to take risks on talent that has potential, but isn't a 100% safe bet.

warcher 10y ago
I'll say as somebody low enough on the food chain to need to work harder at hiring, but high enough that I do make those decisions, I actively seek out folks outside the usual boxes. I look real hard for people that aren't guaranteed first-round draft picks, and who may be overlooked by the system. There are tons of great hires who aren't getting any love, you just have to know what you're really looking for, do the work, and trust your instincts. I've seen a lot of sloppy, lazy, highly risk-averse work in hiring and talent development over the years. Everybody's trying to not look stupid, not to win.
redthrowaway 10y ago
>And the objective truth that having more ideas and more viewpoints makes for much more effective teams. This seems to be an article of faith among the diversophiles, and it seems to me to require a lot more supporting evidence than is typically proffered. First, the notion that a diversity of anatomical characteristics leads to a diversity of thought seems specious. College campuses are wonderfully diverse in ethnicity and gender and sexuality, but strikingly uniform in belief systems. Whereas the American Founding Fathers were all straight white male aristocrats, and yet had vast and meaningful ideological differences. If diversity of thought is what you seek, why optimize for the dubious proxy of race and sex? Why not just seek out candidates with vastly different belief systems to your own? Hire conservatives and progressives and liberals and socialists and libertarians. Second, the notion that diversity of belief systems leads to success in engineering endeavours also strikes me as needing far more support than its proponents provide. Nazi Germany had a brutally enforced ideological homogeneity, and yet produced a rocketry program that was decades ahead of anyone else. Japan has a very rigid corporate culture, and yet has a well-earned reputation for engineering excellence. And the most successful companies in Silicon Valley have a very clear and well defined corporate identity, vision, and mission to the point where jokes are made about the odd ways their employees all think alike. It would seem that ideological unity and cohesion is actually more correlated with engineering success than diversity of thought. Again, this is all from the perspective of an outsider. I don't live in Silicon Valley (or even the United States) and I don't identify with the vast majority of its residents or companies. My critiques are made from the perspective of a disinterested observer at 10,000 ft.
- warcher 10y ago
  I hate to go Godwin on you, but the Nazis also expelled a great number of jewish scientists that turned around and developed the atomic bomb for the US. So you have the V2 rocket on one hand and the atomic bomb on the other. I think your anecdote is decisively on the side of diversity.
- warcher 10y ago
  We sell a lot of stuff to women. It's nice to have a couple in the shop someplace.

by warcher 10y ago

warcher 10y ago

I'll say as somebody low enough on the food chain to need to work harder at hiring, but high enough that I do make those decisions, I actively seek out folks outside the usual boxes. I look real hard for people that aren't guaranteed first-round draft picks, and who may be overlooked by the system. There are tons of great hires who aren't getting any love, you just have to know what you're really looking for, do the work, and trust your instincts. I've seen a lot of sloppy, lazy, highly risk-averse work in hiring and talent development over the years. Everybody's trying to not look stupid, not to win.

redthrowaway 10y ago

>And the objective truth that having more ideas and more viewpoints makes for much more effective teams. This seems to be an article of faith among the diversophiles, and it seems to me to require a lot more supporting evidence than is typically proffered. First, the notion that a diversity of anatomical characteristics leads to a diversity of thought seems specious. College campuses are wonderfully diverse in ethnicity and gender and sexuality, but strikingly uniform in belief systems. Whereas the American Founding Fathers were all straight white male aristocrats, and yet had vast and meaningful ideological differences. If diversity of thought is what you seek, why optimize for the dubious proxy of race and sex? Why not just seek out candidates with vastly different belief systems to your own? Hire conservatives and progressives and liberals and socialists and libertarians. Second, the notion that diversity of belief systems leads to success in engineering endeavours also strikes me as needing far more support than its proponents provide. Nazi Germany had a brutally enforced ideological homogeneity, and yet produced a rocketry program that was decades ahead of anyone else. Japan has a very rigid corporate culture, and yet has a well-earned reputation for engineering excellence. And the most successful companies in Silicon Valley have a very clear and well defined corporate identity, vision, and mission to the point where jokes are made about the odd ways their employees all think alike. It would seem that ideological unity and cohesion is actually more correlated with engineering success than diversity of thought. Again, this is all from the perspective of an outsider. I don't live in Silicon Valley (or even the United States) and I don't identify with the vast majority of its residents or companies. My critiques are made from the perspective of a disinterested observer at 10,000 ft.

warcher 10y ago
I hate to go Godwin on you, but the Nazis also expelled a great number of jewish scientists that turned around and developed the atomic bomb for the US. So you have the V2 rocket on one hand and the atomic bomb on the other. I think your anecdote is decisively on the side of diversity.
warcher 10y ago
We sell a lot of stuff to women. It's nice to have a couple in the shop someplace.