7 ms·

Here is my own experience of getting hired into a startup. The day I got hired the manager took the team out to lunch and I asked them how each one got hired. S

Here is my own experience of getting hired into a startup. The day I got hired the manager took the team out to lunch and I asked them how each one got hired. So results: White male - Room mate of employee White male - Room mate of employee White male - Knew early employee from college in Switzerland White female - Recruited off of LinkedIn Indian American - Recruited off of LinkedIn Immigrant Indian American - Recruited off of LinkedIn. There is a lot of favoritism that goes on in industry as well. However, it is so large that it can accommodate both merit-based and network based hiring. Hiring is a total crap shoot anyway and this is not to say that just because someone comes recommended by someone else they are automatically bad. They just look better in comparison because mentally we automatically lower the hiring bar as this person comes "recommended" from a known source.

jimmychoozyx 3y ago
[flagged]
sriram_sun 3y ago
There is another dynamic that helps the recommended hire succeed in the workplace environment. They initially get help navigating the workplace. This is extremely important for career development. For e.g. If you know what to look for in a code base that might make a difference between a commit on day one versus messing around the code base for a week and trying to be really careful.
poszlem 3y ago
I am struggling to see what you are trying to say here, especially since you use somewhat arbitrary way to group people by race and sex. Can you clarify? Is the founder white? Does he/did he live in a majority white country (you mentioned a college in Switzerland, a country which is most likely 90% white)? If so, why is that weird and why does that matter? Unless you think that "white men" are fungible, using this category makes no sense.
- wccrawford 3y ago
  My impression was that they think they've discovered nepotism, but what they've actually discovered is networking.
  - poszlem 3y ago
    I'm a bit perplexed by the notion that it's somehow a problem when the founder hires his friends and former colleagues when starting a company with just 6 employees.
    - sriram_sun 3y ago
      Noone within the team was a founder.
  - sriram_sun 3y ago
    The "room mate" network is pretty exclusionary and self selecting.
    - mcpackieh 3y ago
      Networking inherently excludes anybody that isn't in the relevant network, what are you expecting?
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    It's a razor thin line and we can't really tell unless the roommates were horribly unqualified for the job. But I'd probably hire in a similar way for a startup. Not because of nepotism, but because I know the kinds of peope I want to hire are massively productive and good at their respective fields, I'd be honored if they could do that work under me. (note: no real plan to do this and half my friends aren't in my specific domain regardless).
  - kaitai 3y ago
    For heaven's sake, think a little. This is an empirical discussion of hiring heuristics that result in a certain system. It's not just networking (generally used to refer to development of professional connections, though yes people use it to refer to smoking weed together or engaging in the same sport) and the poster didn't say nepotism either. It is certainly favoritism (hiring people you already know and like without necessarily casting a wider net) and it's clear that there are structural effects from it that develop on gender and race lines (you're in the men's hockey team together, you're in a fraternity or sorority, you're in an ethnic club). What sriram_sun said is entirely factual, and a lot of us get left out of the networks for various reasons. That's also just factual. The fact that folks here are all "oh you're just jealous, you're calling it nepotism" -- nah, it's just facts, and there is no need to get emotional about it. There is nothing inherently wrong about hiring people you know -- like any move in a game, it has knock-on effects. If you'd like to help broaden networks, just do it. And for those who feel defensive about it, consider the phrase "hit dogs holler".
robinbobbin 3y ago
> There is a lot of favoritism that goes on in industry as well. There sure is, but I don't think your example is evidence for that. People just like to hire based on recommendations and through friends. Several times now I've been interested in some startup, and when I looked at their team page, they were all from the same group: either all Indian, or all russian speakers, or something else. I bet most startups are like this, just that some cases are more apparent than others.
laeri 3y ago
If you are going to build a team you will probably select for people you know and trust first, so choosing from people in your network is a natural way of doing this. This is literally called 'networking'. If it isn't a startup this can become a problem as the hiring process should be more open for everyone otherwise you won't be able to get a job anywhere without knowing someone from there first.

jimmychoozyx 3y ago

[flagged]

sriram_sun 3y ago

There is another dynamic that helps the recommended hire succeed in the workplace environment. They initially get help navigating the workplace. This is extremely important for career development. For e.g. If you know what to look for in a code base that might make a difference between a commit on day one versus messing around the code base for a week and trying to be really careful.

poszlem 3y ago

I am struggling to see what you are trying to say here, especially since you use somewhat arbitrary way to group people by race and sex. Can you clarify? Is the founder white? Does he/did he live in a majority white country (you mentioned a college in Switzerland, a country which is most likely 90% white)? If so, why is that weird and why does that matter? Unless you think that "white men" are fungible, using this category makes no sense.

wccrawford 3y ago
My impression was that they think they've discovered nepotism, but what they've actually discovered is networking.
- poszlem 3y ago
  I'm a bit perplexed by the notion that it's somehow a problem when the founder hires his friends and former colleagues when starting a company with just 6 employees.
  - sriram_sun 3y ago
    Noone within the team was a founder.
- sriram_sun 3y ago
  The "room mate" network is pretty exclusionary and self selecting.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    Networking inherently excludes anybody that isn't in the relevant network, what are you expecting?
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  It's a razor thin line and we can't really tell unless the roommates were horribly unqualified for the job. But I'd probably hire in a similar way for a startup. Not because of nepotism, but because I know the kinds of peope I want to hire are massively productive and good at their respective fields, I'd be honored if they could do that work under me. (note: no real plan to do this and half my friends aren't in my specific domain regardless).
- kaitai 3y ago
  For heaven's sake, think a little. This is an empirical discussion of hiring heuristics that result in a certain system. It's not just networking (generally used to refer to development of professional connections, though yes people use it to refer to smoking weed together or engaging in the same sport) and the poster didn't say nepotism either. It is certainly favoritism (hiring people you already know and like without necessarily casting a wider net) and it's clear that there are structural effects from it that develop on gender and race lines (you're in the men's hockey team together, you're in a fraternity or sorority, you're in an ethnic club). What sriram_sun said is entirely factual, and a lot of us get left out of the networks for various reasons. That's also just factual. The fact that folks here are all "oh you're just jealous, you're calling it nepotism" -- nah, it's just facts, and there is no need to get emotional about it. There is nothing inherently wrong about hiring people you know -- like any move in a game, it has knock-on effects. If you'd like to help broaden networks, just do it. And for those who feel defensive about it, consider the phrase "hit dogs holler".

robinbobbin 3y ago

> There is a lot of favoritism that goes on in industry as well. There sure is, but I don't think your example is evidence for that. People just like to hire based on recommendations and through friends. Several times now I've been interested in some startup, and when I looked at their team page, they were all from the same group: either all Indian, or all russian speakers, or something else. I bet most startups are like this, just that some cases are more apparent than others.

laeri 3y ago

If you are going to build a team you will probably select for people you know and trust first, so choosing from people in your network is a natural way of doing this. This is literally called 'networking'. If it isn't a startup this can become a problem as the hiring process should be more open for everyone otherwise you won't be able to get a job anywhere without knowing someone from there first.