Ask HN: What do BIPOC and/or non-male employees look for at potential employers
Curious if there are things BIPOC and/or non-males look for at potential employers to help them gauge how equitable they are?
16 comments
A job offer. Seriously.
More verbosely, if no one's willing to hire BIPOC or women in the first place, then how can one ever expect to find experienced BIPOC/women devs in the candidate pool? And while that experience Catch-22 is generalizable to White/male/Asian devs, the lack of diversity in tech spaces speaks for itself in terms of implicit hiring bias. I, myself, have had spotty employment, absurdly hostile bosses and coworkers who have forced me out of otherwise technically interesting jobs, and have been unemployed since the pandemic started. After such a rocky start, I'm not sure that I will be able to secure another job in this field. (And sorry for the bitter tone here, but repeatedly getting my work evaluated on the basis of who I am, and how it must therefore be wrong, rather than on the content of the work itself gets very frustrating very quickly.)
More verbosely, if no one's willing to hire BIPOC or women in the first place, then how can one ever expect to find experienced BIPOC/women devs in the candidate pool? And while that experience Catch-22 is generalizable to White/male/Asian devs, the lack of diversity in tech spaces speaks for itself in terms of implicit hiring bias. I, myself, have had spotty employment, absurdly hostile bosses and coworkers who have forced me out of otherwise technically interesting jobs, and have been unemployed since the pandemic started. After such a rocky start, I'm not sure that I will be able to secure another job in this field. (And sorry for the bitter tone here, but repeatedly getting my work evaluated on the basis of who I am, and how it must therefore be wrong, rather than on the content of the work itself gets very frustrating very quickly.)
Are you sure the lack of diversity is all hiring bias? I also noticed a lack of diversity in undergrad and in some demographics for graduate school. It would make sense that if the requisite degree programs are lacking the diversity, then the candidate pool and workforce will be lacking too.
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I look to find my "Power Rangers" team.
When I enter the room I expect to see all colors, genders, moods and fashion of people on the room.
Then I Shout and we all transform in a big Robot and crush bugs and conquer defect land.
If that fails..
As a latino having tacos nearby is good too or Coke with real sugar.
When I enter the room I expect to see all colors, genders, moods and fashion of people on the room.
Then I Shout and we all transform in a big Robot and crush bugs and conquer defect land.
If that fails..
As a latino having tacos nearby is good too or Coke with real sugar.
This is an overwhelmingly male space and the culture here skews heavily "White upper class American male" in spite of being highly multicultural and international in membership. You aren't likely to get much in the way of good answers here because it doesn't feel like a very welcoming space for the types of people you are hoping to get answers from.
If you really want to know, there are some good things happening on Twitter in discussing such things, if you can find it.
If you really want to know, there are some good things happening on Twitter in discussing such things, if you can find it.
I appreciate the thoughtful and honest response. I've seen some great discussion on Twitter. Hopefully HN picks up on some of these discussions and can become a more welcoming space for dialogue from those with different backgrounds and perspectives
HN has its good points. This is just not the best place to try to get this kind of information, for a variety of reasons.
I wasn't actually trying to be negative. Just informative.
I wasn't actually trying to be negative. Just informative.
Bipoc?
I am getting fatigued by all of these new acronyms and pronouns, and I consider myself socially left-leaning.
People who aren't whites or asians.
The POC in BIPOC includes Asians, even if in the context of the tech industry East and South Asians aren't underrepresented groups.
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