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Ahhh, got it, yes. I'm familiar with this practice[1] but for some reason it didn't jump out at me that this is what you were referring to. Unsolicited specula
by matheist 5y ago
Ahhh, got it, yes. I'm familiar with this practice[1] but for some reason it didn't jump out at me that this is what you were referring to.
Unsolicited speculation: I wonder if this is related to your hiring woes? I have vague memories of seeing research along the lines that marginalized groups are less likely to apply to positions that do things like "Want 10 years of Go experience". Of course not everyone already knows "the big secret" and maybe (some?) marginalized groups are less likely to know it.
I'm pretty sure I've seen lively debate on HN about this practice, as well, though I wouldn't know what keywords to search for. It's definitely not universal in the industry, or at least it's a continuum. An example I remember recently seeing of a posting on the lower end of the "requirements" spectrum is Mighty App[2], where the list of posted requirements is two items long. I think HN user 'tptacek has written about taking this even to the extreme of having no posted requirements, and doing all candidate qualification via a practical exercise.
Of course if you go that route then you might make the screening phase more difficult. You'd also have to convince Recruiting/HR to go along with it.
[1] After a month at my first job in the industry (I came from academia) I idly checked out the job listing for the position I was then holding, since I hadn't come in through a job listing but rather through a recruiter. There were something like eight "requirements", and I held exactly one of them (a PhD).
[2] https://www.notion.so/Mighty-is-hiring-945d3168d3e34a37883ca4d823ed734f https://www.notion.so/Mighty-is-hiring-945d3168d3e34a37883ca...
- Jemaclus 5y agoIt's possible! I think our job descriptions are pretty reasonable, actually, so I don't think that's the problem. If anything, I'd say our compensation probably isn't as competitive as we'd like, and the kinds of folks we're talking about are in high enough demand that we just aren't putting enough dollars behind the push to get them... Not a whole lot I personally can do about that, but I do my best. The Mighty listing and tptacek's thoughts are interesting ideas, but part of the process is the screening phase which, as you said, is more difficult if there are no barriers. But they seems to be fairly successful, so maybe it's working out!
- ranma4703 5y agothese sorts of job descriptions are a well know barrier to entry for women and minorities, correcting them is like DEI 101