Thanks Christina,

The bias you're talking about is a major hazard in tech jobs, where there
are too often broad, unexamined prejudices about what kinds of people are
technically skilled.

There's plenty of writing out there about the problems with hiring for
personality or "culture fit".  I recommend this blog post by Shanley Kane:
https://medium.com/about-work/e8ab06c3b75f#0ebf

At the very least, if you're going to hire for personality traits, you need
to do some very serious thinking about whether and why you think those
traits will actually make the person more effective at their job.  Do the
reasons amount to prejudice?  Are they exploitative in some other way?

- Tom


On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 11:04 AM, Salazar, Christina <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> While I really do agree - you can train skills, but you can't train
> personality (well, unless you're a parent, but that's another story), I
> also think on both sides of the table, we need to be aware that there will
> always be a bias.
>
> "If we let personability—some indefinable, prerational intuition,
> magnified by the Fundamental Attribution Error—bias the hiring process
> today, then all we will have done is replace the old-boy network, where you
> hired your nephew, with the new-boy network, where you hire whoever
> impressed you most when you shook his hand. Social progress, unless we’re
> careful, can merely be the means by which we replace the obviously
> arbitrary with the not so obviously arbitrary."
> http://gladwell.com/the-new-boy-network/
>
> (I read this as some small consolation for all the interviews that I've
> been on for jobs that I was turned down for.)
>
> (PS despite the use of the word "boy" I don't necessarily think Gladwell's
> referring to a GENDER bias... or is he?)
>
> Christina Salazar
> [log in to unmask]
> Systems Librarian
> California State University Channel Islands
> ________________________________________
> From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Roy
> Tennant [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 10:26 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Job Interview : A Libcoder's Helpful Advices
>
> On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 10:07 AM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]
> >wrote:
>
> > Hiring someone is the most important/expensive thing that organizations
> do.
> >
>
> I couldn't agree more[1]. And that's why I advocate that organizations hire
> based on personality traits, not experience. I realize that justifications
> must be given in terms of the candidate's qualifications vis. a vis. the
> position description, but if you aren't paying attention to personality
> traits then you are missing the boat.
> Roy
>
> [1] http://roytennant.com/column/?fetch=data/101.xml
>