HR didn't have a direct say in hiring. But they did control the recruiters and the recruiters decided who got a phone interview, who got a second chance at the phone interview, and which phone interviews would proceed on-sites. We (engineers) controlled the final decisions but they controlled the funnel.

And yeah it was really awkward seeing HR trying to deny the existence of these practices. You could see publicly accessible Dropbox Paper docs titled "diversity hiring tips" and it'd link to census days on female and URM names, spreadsheets of ethnic fraternities and sororities, and so forth. Recruiter bonus policies, which included a diversity bonus for each diverse hire was also publicly accessible. When we did campus recruiting recruiters told us (the alumni engineers) to mark candidates resumes with a star for women or URM, two stars for women + URM, and "ND" for asian males - "Negative Diversity".

The idea that this was a secret was a joke - and the polls proved it. The reality was probably that for liability reasons HR didn't want us talking about this openly. So this talk about how it was offensive was probably more about instilling a chilling effect.

That was my biggest gripe. They talk about how offensive and hurtful it is to say we offer more or less opportunity based on race and gender. But they have no qualms actually doing those things.

> When we did campus recruiting recruiters told us (the alumni engineers) to mark candidates resumes with a star for women or URM, two stars for women + URM, and "ND" for asian males - "Negative Diversity".

Here in America that's completely illegal.

> The reality was probably that for liability reasons HR didn't want us talking about this openly.

That's a very polite way of saying they knew what they were doing was illegal and they didn't want to get caught.

> Recruiter bonus policies, which included a diversity bonus for each diverse hire was also publicly accessible.

So at the end of the year, there was absolutely no incentive for HR to pressure someone into hiring a lesser but diverse candidate to reach their quotas and cash that bonus. Totally unbiased.

It's probably 'secret' because it's illegal in the U.S. since race and gender are protected traits.

"and "ND" for asian males - "Negative Diversity"."

Wow, that just feels kind of offensive, and like a big lawsuit waiting to happen.