A humble alternative to technical interviews

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by newen on Monday February 18, 2019 @03:55PM (#19194355)

I would say you are a relatively rare case though. Most people I've seen primarity socialize with people of the same race. Not strictly, obviously, but in general. Like in tech circles in the Bay Area, you have the white, indian, east asian groups and they, in general, tend to hang out with the same races. And by this I mean most of the friend groups I see are typically mostly of one race.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by philwelch on Monday February 18, 2019 @04:47PM (#19194780)

It doesn't really matter who I socialize with--it matters who I've worked with and whose skills I can vouch for.

There is a tendency that this will lead the demographics of a field to pretty much stay the same over time. If you work in a field that is 90% men, only 10% of the people you have worked with are women, which means in the long run only 10% of people you'd end up referring would be women. This is definitely true in my case--the number of women whose technical skills I can vouch for went up considerably once I started working with more women.

That said, the Bay Area is weird and I've never lived there.

Also, admittedly, specifying "white males" was a misstep on ebiester's part. Whatever narrative there is about diversity in tech breaks down unless you stipulate that South and East Asians don't count as underrepresented minorities.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by Ancalagon on Monday February 18, 2019 @04:19PM (#19194552)

I guess you're getting downvoted because this is anecdotal evidence? But honestly this is my (admittedly anecdotal) experience as well.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by dleslie on Monday February 18, 2019 @04:27PM (#19194617)

Or perhaps those doing the voting simply don't share that experience?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by lkbm on Monday February 18, 2019 @04:51PM (#19194808)

Race is so strongly correlated among friends (in the US, anyway) that it's unbelievable that people won't have observed this.[0] Average demographics:

* White Americans: 91% of social network are white; 8% black.

* Black Americans: 83% of social network are black; 1% white.

[0] https://www.prri.org/research/poll-race-religion-politics-am...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by JoeAltmaier on Monday February 18, 2019 @04:55PM (#19194842)

Some of that is normal population percentages - expected with random friends. Self-reported 'black' citizens are around 1-in-10 across the US.

And in Silicon Valley its different - the mix of international people of high education and achievement make it a skewed sample.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by CydeWeys on Monday February 18, 2019 @05:01PM (#19194879)

The vast majority of programming jobs in the US are not in Silicon Valley, though. It's a lot more homogenous outside the major cosmopolitan cities.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by dleslie on Monday February 18, 2019 @05:44PM (#19195170)

Not everyone visiting HN is from the USA.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A humble alternative to technical interviews by Ancalagon on Monday February 18, 2019 @05:10PM (#19194936)

You're right I should have alluded to that as well. But my point was maybe it wasn't worthy of a downvote is all.

[ Parent | on HN ]