Comment by readthenotes1
2 months ago
"This is the sort of DEI effort that gives the rest a bad name."
I'd be interested to read about a DEI effort that gives the rest a good name.
2 months ago
"This is the sort of DEI effort that gives the rest a bad name."
I'd be interested to read about a DEI effort that gives the rest a good name.
You expand your pipeline into places where you were not previously looking. Go recruit at a historically black college, or a Women Who Code convention. You don’t need to lower standards.
The talent is out there. If you’re not even looking in the right places, that’s the first place to start.
For those that did, good.
They didn't seem to have good publicists...
Another example is to make your recruiting contextual. How would you rate two candidate - one that grew up dirt poor and when to the worst public schools but gets 90% on your test, vs one that went to the best private schools and got 95%?
You can also do things to remove stereotypes about your industry - "I'm not going to work in industry X because it's all posh people."
The "Women in Engineering" group where I worked was instrumental in retaining multiple good engineers who would've definitely left otherwise after some gendered issues (asked out by coworkers, asked whether they were an engineer in meetings, etc). I was a mentor for early career engineers and I had a woman talking about leaving but the woman in engineering group at work helped her immensely and she's a top performer.
Systems affect different people differently (which is blindingly obvious but bears repeating) so if you want a meritocracy based on actual ability you need to do your best to nurture all people with ability, which isn't a one size fits all approach. I knew multiple people who absolutely kicked ass that benefitted from targeted programs (and from their success we've all benefited from these programs), there's just also a lot of dumb shit out there for DEI, too.
this is what at the core of DEI. Correct!
Far too many people believe in the myth of pure meritocracy. Instead, what most people really see as meritocracy is actually just something reinforces built-in un-meritocratic advantages.
For real meritocracy, the best approach is to nurture all people with ability, not just device some "test" of meritocracy and demand that fidelity to that test result is the answer.
Require diversity in the interview pool, not when making hiring decisions.
e.g. in a male majority profession, for every two male applicants selected to interview, select at least one female applicant. But once the candidate pool is established, pick the best available candidate for the job.
How long does the checklist need to be? Can I check three boxes if I an interview a gay black jew or do I only get one?
As the article itself describes, programs that expose kids to fields they might otherwise not have a chance to interact with. A field trip for kids that focuses on creating more people in the future who are interested in the field from more diverse background.
Blind auditions in orchestras, efforts to get women into sciences are all great examples.