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I think you are missing her point. She isn't saying that all passionate people are affluent white males. My interpretation is that passion in a swe job descript
by kahnjw 9y ago
I think you are missing her point. She isn't saying that all passionate people are affluent white males. My interpretation is that passion in a swe job description is code for affluent white male. I think she has a point, individuals who have time for passion projects, self study, or other endeavors are privileged. Many of them are white, male, and affluent.
- icebraining 9y agoI think the problem is that she falls in the same error as the companies she's criticizing - she conflates passion with external signals like "spending a lot of time on personal projects". At first she uses quotes around "passionate", which seems to distinguish the two, but then she fully conflates them. Inevitably, she will rile up those of us who were passioned about tech despite not having the means to dedicate ourselves to it. Which is a shame, because her point that filtering candidates based on their dedication of personal time to tech is discriminatory is valid.
- michaelt 9y agoshe conflates passion with external signals like "spending a lot of time on personal projects" Job interviewers fear being mislead by people telling them what they want to hear, so they will often look for provable actions and demonstrable knowledge, rather than claims. If someone tells me they're passionate about embedded electronics, I'll ask what they've worked with - arduino? raspberry pi? esp8266? atmel? pic? mbed? - and what they've done with it. If they haven't used any of them, or they've barely used them, are they really passionate?
- icebraining 9y agoSure, but that's where her criticism is valid - there are many reasons why a person might not be able to fulfill their passion, and some groups are disproportionately affected by that filter.