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I was interviewing a candidate last year for a software engineering position. Interview was fine and he was capable. I decided to find him on Twitter. He said

I was interviewing a candidate last year for a software engineering position. Interview was fine and he was capable. I decided to find him on Twitter. He said immigration was ruining the country, and that there are too many Indians / Chinese in the Bay Area. About half of my organization either have an H1B visa or a green card. Am I a McCarthyist for rejecting him outright without hesitation?

umeshunni 6y ago
Would you have done the same if he said there were too many White people in the Bay Area?
- some-guy 6y ago
  Yes, because they explicitly called out race / national origin. You cannot say "there are too many (X) in the Bay Area". Period, I will not hire you.
koheripbal 6y ago
If someone says racist things online, that's plenty reason not to hire them into a diverse environment. ...but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about people being punished for daring to disagree with the progressive agenda.
- achileas 6y ago
  Where was Bari punished? She should have been fired for her terrible piece based entirely on a known fake Twitter account.
infamouscow 6y ago
Progress happens when people go outside of their comfort zone to explore new thoughts, but it sounds like you'd prefer to write-off the candidate instead of taking the opportunity to change their mind.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
chroma 6y ago
A while ago I interviewed a candidate for a software engineering position. He seemed quite capable. I decided to find him on Twitter. His feed was full of things like, "All Cops Are Bastards", many images of the hammer & sickle, and generally hating on white people. He even retweeted an illustration of the White House burning with a hammer & sickle flag being raised in front of it along with the caption "my 2020 goals". Actually... I lied. The person I described is Steve Klabnik. Despite throwing around extremely offensive imagery and calling for violence against members of certain professions and races, that guy can get a job anywhere he wants. Meanwhile if someone simply says, "all lives matter" or makes an OK sign, they risk getting fired. The double standard could not be more obvious.
- TechBro8615 6y ago
  FWIW, I would not hire this person. I personally lean right, but I will not hire anyone who posts their political opinions publicly, whether left or right. IMO it shows poor judgement and that you will likely be an unproductive employee, concerned instead about things that have little effect on your life at work.
iateanapple 6y ago
> Am I a McCarthyist for rejecting him outright without hesitation? Yes. Why can’t he have an opposing view from you on immigration? I was on a visa and could still see the h1b program was being abused. We often have less than ideal experiences with other cultural groups. That’s normal. Is your work culture toxic because of your visa holders? Would you refuse to hire feminist women because you had a mostly male team?
- some-guy 6y ago
  McCarthy was a senator in high levels of government. When I consider who I'm employing to be around the people around me, I expect them to be judged on their merits of the job, not their country of origin or visa status. You can criticize H1B programs and their abuse, but saying there are too many Chinese and Indians explicitly and rejecting them for that is not "McCarthyism".
  - iateanapple 6y ago
    > I expect them to be judged on their merits of the job, not their country of origin or visa status. So do I and so do the vast majority of people who want less immigration. > and rejecting them for that is not "McCarthyism". To be fair to the parent - it would be if you tried to make sure they weren’t hired anywhere. You were making a biased and snap judgement about a candidate - but that happens a lot in the interview process - same as if you rejected an African American candidate because you didn’t think they would fit in. What would you do if one of your existing employees was found to have that kind of twitter account?
    - some-guy 6y ago
      As I said: they _literally_ said, "There are too many Chinese and Indians" in the Bay Area. That's a no go. That is not the same as having subjective internal biases about an African American candidate.
      - iateanapple 6y ago

umeshunni 6y ago

Would you have done the same if he said there were too many White people in the Bay Area?

some-guy 6y ago
Yes, because they explicitly called out race / national origin. You cannot say "there are too many (X) in the Bay Area". Period, I will not hire you.

koheripbal 6y ago

If someone says racist things online, that's plenty reason not to hire them into a diverse environment. ...but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about people being punished for daring to disagree with the progressive agenda.

achileas 6y ago
Where was Bari punished? She should have been fired for her terrible piece based entirely on a known fake Twitter account.

infamouscow 6y ago

Progress happens when people go outside of their comfort zone to explore new thoughts, but it sounds like you'd prefer to write-off the candidate instead of taking the opportunity to change their mind.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

chroma 6y ago

A while ago I interviewed a candidate for a software engineering position. He seemed quite capable. I decided to find him on Twitter. His feed was full of things like, "All Cops Are Bastards", many images of the hammer & sickle, and generally hating on white people. He even retweeted an illustration of the White House burning with a hammer & sickle flag being raised in front of it along with the caption "my 2020 goals". Actually... I lied. The person I described is Steve Klabnik. Despite throwing around extremely offensive imagery and calling for violence against members of certain professions and races, that guy can get a job anywhere he wants. Meanwhile if someone simply says, "all lives matter" or makes an OK sign, they risk getting fired. The double standard could not be more obvious.

TechBro8615 6y ago
FWIW, I would not hire this person. I personally lean right, but I will not hire anyone who posts their political opinions publicly, whether left or right. IMO it shows poor judgement and that you will likely be an unproductive employee, concerned instead about things that have little effect on your life at work.

iateanapple 6y ago

> Am I a McCarthyist for rejecting him outright without hesitation? Yes. Why can’t he have an opposing view from you on immigration? I was on a visa and could still see the h1b program was being abused. We often have less than ideal experiences with other cultural groups. That’s normal. Is your work culture toxic because of your visa holders? Would you refuse to hire feminist women because you had a mostly male team?

some-guy 6y ago
McCarthy was a senator in high levels of government. When I consider who I'm employing to be around the people around me, I expect them to be judged on their merits of the job, not their country of origin or visa status. You can criticize H1B programs and their abuse, but saying there are too many Chinese and Indians explicitly and rejecting them for that is not "McCarthyism".
- iateanapple 6y ago
  > I expect them to be judged on their merits of the job, not their country of origin or visa status. So do I and so do the vast majority of people who want less immigration. > and rejecting them for that is not "McCarthyism". To be fair to the parent - it would be if you tried to make sure they weren’t hired anywhere. You were making a biased and snap judgement about a candidate - but that happens a lot in the interview process - same as if you rejected an African American candidate because you didn’t think they would fit in. What would you do if one of your existing employees was found to have that kind of twitter account?
  - some-guy 6y ago
    As I said: they _literally_ said, "There are too many Chinese and Indians" in the Bay Area. That's a no go. That is not the same as having subjective internal biases about an African American candidate.
    - iateanapple 6y ago