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A comment on Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test (2016). Parent comment

Re:Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test (2016) by RightMillennial on Friday April 27, 2018 @12:10AM (#16938400)
In standard American English, masculine is the default gender when the subject is unknown. So using "him" is proper. Using "them" as a singular pronoun is jarring to the ears.
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Re:Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test (2016) by grzm on Friday April 27, 2018 @12:16AM (#16938419)
Third-person singular they has a long tradition in English. It may not be as familiar to you, but it's nothing new.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

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Re:Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test (2016) by danpalmer on Friday April 27, 2018 @08:24AM (#16940246)
I was not aware of this, I've mostly heard "they"/"them". I take "he" to be an awareness or assumption of the gender, and find it quite uncomfortable to hear with regards to an industry with such a strong gender imbalance.
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Re:Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test (2016) by geekbird on Friday April 27, 2018 @08:58PM (#16945563)
No. It's actually a fading usage. The current pronouns when not assuming gender are they/them.
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