Should a company simplify technical interviews just to increase diversity in workplace? [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

One of my best friend is a senior software developer and she was asked by her boss to ask easier technical interview questions (e.g. avoid recursion based problems) when interviewing women, black or LGBT people and other minorities in order to increase the chances of getting the job and promote diversity in workplace.

Is this a common approach and, more important, is it legal to ask something like that? Have you ever seen this kind of behaviour in your workplace?

EDIT: My friend lives in Santa Monica, USA

manpreet 2 years ago

Diversity in the workplace is always a good thing. But this approach is not the best way to go about it.

Your friend is making an assumption that the candidates definitely won't be able to answer the questions based purely on their ehnicity/sexuality. This is clearly bogus.

Ask the same questions to all candidates. The candidate has to be good enough technically to do the job first of all. After that, personality/diversity/wage demands etc can all be considered in picking the candidate best suited for the company.

In practice, it's clear that there is a lack of diversity in certain industries. Women in software development for example. My answer states that all candidates should be technically good enough and then it's up to the employer to choose the best.

It's important that any candidate has a minimum level of technical ability for the job. Hiring someone who clearly isn't good enough for diversity reasons will have a negative effect amongst the workforce.

Gender and racial inequality still exist sadly(Look at Uber's recent issues). If a company has identified that in the past it has not necessarily adhered to the above and wants to make changes to provide equality, then that is a good thing. I agree "positive discrimination" is not good in itself. I have said that every candidate goes through the same process then a decision should be made.

Everyone should take the same test, as that's fair to all candidates. If the employer is willing to accept a lower score for other reasons, that's up to them. The test is there to serve a valuable purpose to ensure that all candidates are likely to be able to do the job. Hiring someone who can't do the job won't do the company or the employee any good. If you hire someone who is clearly out of their depth, they may leave, or resentment among colleagues would rise and outweigh the positives of diversity imo.