When Bias Is In Your Favor
I read a great blog post the other day over at Biz Chicks Rule called “Pimped Out Politics: Is It OK If She Likes It”. I won’t summarize the article here because I’m hoping you’ll pop over and read it yourself – it was very interesting.
Reading Biz Chick’s post has got me thinking more about how you the interview candidate should handle a situation where you know you are getting a job offer because of the interviewers bias. Suppose you know they are offering you the job because you are black and somehow they plan to use your race to their advantage, maybe even overlooking other more qualified candidates. Or suppose you have been offered a job soley because you are a woman and that makes you just the right image they are trying to portray (cough cough McCain). Do you just say to heck with it and seize the opportunity or do you let your conscious do the decision making and pass? Well, that depends.
Ask yourself these questions.
- Is this a job I plan to stay in forever or just a stepping stone? If you are planning to stay in the job forever then I’d say pass. These types of bias usually come packaged with lots of prejudice that is not likely limited to the attribute in question. If they hired you simply because you are a woman, don’t be surprised if the company turns out to be a bunch of raging sexists. However, if it’s just a stepping stone to a better job then you may find it worth while.
- Am I the type to regret a decision where I felt I compromised my values? There is nothing worse than regret, so avoid it every chance you get.
- Will this job help advance my career? If this job will help you advance your career and you are thick skinned enough to deal with the ramifications, go for it. Why not capitalize on their stupidity.
Have you ever been offered a job based on your sex or race and know you were not the most qualified candidate? How did you handle it?
I am really intrigued by this posting in more than one way. Let’s address the pink elephant before going further. For all of us throwing a political comment in there ruined the opinion especially for those readers of yours that might be GOP followers.
Now addressing the story at hand about bias. Bias is all throughout the hiring world and is ever present in almost every hiring decision that is made for a position. Lets consider that most every manager will respond with the following answer if probed with this question?
What is more important Mr/Mrs hiring manager?
1. Skill set of the applicant
2. Or the ability to rub shoulders and work with them daily?
I ask this question all the time to the true answer of being able to work with someone all the time. Managers say that they would rather take a less qualified person than someone they feel they cannot relate to. Does not that lend itself to personal bias in every hiring decision?
To your point on sex and race. The legal responsibilities of the corporate culture in this company make it impossible to hire the best candidate each and every time. Race/sex, etc all come into play to meet standards that are pressed upon the economy due to complex circumstances.
There is a lot of questions that come up for me in your post Gina. But to respond to one of your questions – Let me say this – If I have been hired because of race or gender in my past corporate career or not, I am not sure. I always believe I am the best candidate for the job. So if there were other things at play, I missed them.
As a professional, I only went to work for organizations that I believed I could truly bring something that would help the organization go to another level. So if there were biases, I missed them. I will ponder the other thoughts that come to mind and I will be back with additional comments. Thanks!
Darlene
Interview Guru
http://www.interviewchatter.com
Hi Darlene – thanks for weighing in on this. You raise a good point that I had not even addressed. Does the average person even know that this may be happening? I tend to be hyper-sensitive to bias but I wonder if I’m the minority in that respect.
Hi Jason – thanks for your response. Let me explain my GOP reference. Regardless of the Republican intention (to recruit the most qualified VP candidate), the way in which they went about it left Americans not much choice but to think that she was chosen mainly because she is a female and there were lots of Hilary voters female candidate-less and hurt by it. I’m not suggesting that Palin is not qualified or that she would’nt do a great job. But, before this, she was basically unknown. To avoid all this predictable speculation, the GOP should have had her name in the public “hat” prior to the day of the announcement. Does that makes sense? As many people have said, this issue has never come up with Hilary because we have known her and expected her to run for office for years. I do believe that it’s the party’s responsibility to know their voter pool and act accordingly or expect and deal with the negative responses to their actions.
ps I think Palin is an awesome speaker and I’m really looking forward to the VP debates.