In hiring, part of the issue is that the person doing the hiring believes (often mistakenly) that they can inspire hard work, but talent is innate. Kind of like

In hiring, part of the issue is that the person doing the hiring believes (often mistakenly) that they can inspire hard work, but talent is innate. Kind of like "you can't train height" in sports. Contrary to what some other commenters have immodestly said, interview processes are frequently designed around this assumption and select for talent/potential/whatever. Besides the more obvious problem with this, it tends to perpetuate disparity as the appearance of talent is often more closely tied to circumstance (and sheer luck) more than to actual talent.