3 years ago I applied thousand jobs across EU and finally landed a job in the Netherlands for an analytics role in a technology company (±1 billion revenue).
However I couldn’t help but to notice that I got so many interviews from German companies that never progressed from the first interview. They immediately said I wasn’t a good fit and didn’t bother to send a business case study.
I read that sometimes recruiters interview people just to add numbers on their KPI goals and one of them is to ensure they at least interview people of color. Is this actually a thing?
While I am glad in my current state I always wondered what went wrong with my interviews
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An interview KPI doesn’t make any sense. The metric has to be in the actual hiring to make any sense at all.
It could have simply been they went with either 1) someone who was already an EU citizen or authorized to work in the EU, 2) someone they thought was more qualified.
Yes. The company I work for has one.
I don’t know but I experienced the same thing at all the German institutes I applied to. I got one interview and after that, no news, nothing.
My interviews also had a person on the committee who wasn’t specialized in the field but was there to ensure that the questions I was being asked weren’t discriminatory. That’s what I was told, anyway.
As a Product Designer that has now given up to be an entrepreneur to get myself abroad, I had a LOT of interviews with companies in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark.
I am a black guy in my early 40s, but everyone thinks I am in my late 20s or early 30s. So I don’t think age discrimination is hitting me yet.
Statistically, if women are involved I go far, and this even goes back to my first jobs in California, and my whole career in Japan. Once a man is involved, again statistically, I know my interview run is done. Like clockwork.
Being on topic, I guess on paper I look good with experience and accomplishments, but once there is a video interview, and a guy is interviewing me, I can see it in their face when my camera comes on, the change. One was so brutally obvious, it hurt, and it was a small company in Sweden doing an education app, and I also worked on an app as a lead that was released in most of Asia with a massive brand. After having such good interviews and communication leading up to that, post interview it was like we never talked, and their site and app used almost all of the points I brought up during my presentation… 6 interviews for naught.
I have been in the hiring process or adjacent to it, and have seen and heard massive discrimination by people in charge who absolutely shouldn’t have say. It isn’t always race based, but sometimes it is. Sometimes it is literally down to a hobby the person doesn’t like that the person has that doesn’t affect the job in any way.
Isn’t it extremely stupid to have a diversity quota? Shouldn’t you just hire the best you can get for the money? Sorry for hijacking op.
The point is that “the best you can get” is, in practice, someone you know/someone who looks like you/someone who thinks like you.
Endless studies based on presenting identical resumes with “identifying” characteristics (gendered names; HBCU attendees) show that this bias is real. If you have two identical people with race or gender as the only difference the white guy will be considered more qualified, get the job, and get more money to do it.
See Rooney Rule: https://operations.nfl.com/inside-football-ops/inclusion/the-rooney-rule/ as an example of this.
The company I work for has one regarding women in senior leadership positions. We are traditionally male dominated and since our business is very international, diversity of ethnicity has never been an issue - we just don’t have enough female leaders. There are targets in hiring, promotions and the percentage of female leaders. I work in the Netherlands.
This does not make sense. In the EU and under the GDPR you cannot really collect the data about ethnicity or race for the purpose of recruitment. If anyone would factor it in to decide whether to employ someone or not that would be a huge breach of the privacy rules. No serious company would risk that.
No, but it can be something as simple as EU vs non-EU, which is what OP is?