Workplace Diversity

Tip of the day: read the news every single day. It's an amazing habit to pick up because 1) you obtain knowledge (superfluous or not) from brilliant perspectives (acquiesce or not) you'd never expect, 2) at the very least you are challenged to react and THINK (and not simply accept) while reflecting your personal opinions, and 3) you'll never want to stop. My personal favorite is the NY Times online (especially the editorial section), and I connected to a recent article on workplace diversity since I've been researching and interviewing with countless employers to jump start my career (more about my career plans later...).

The promotion of workplace diversity is a prevalent characteristic--core value, even--for all of the companies I've researched, and these companies span from purely financial services to IT products to the medical industry. Diversity is commonly associated with variety in races, sex, nationalities, or essentially, superficial elements. Of course, hiring cannot be based on such traits (because it's illegal), but these characteristics are prima facie conduits to diversity because differences in race and cultures supposedly link to differences in how we approach and solve problems.

But here's the problem. A majority of these companies seek top talent from top-rated institutions. However, these business schools (my case) select college students through specific criterion, groom them through the same rigorous curriculum, and then produce a more or less standardized output of job seekers with the same analytical mindset and KSA's.

Interviews are tough. A 30 minute window to impress seems unfair and ineffective, especially when there's a host of psychological factors affecting the competence of the interviewer (but when supply outstrips demand so much..what can we do?) Aside from basic competence, most companies seek a specific personality or way of thinking that matches with the company (diversity?!). I think (or I'd like to think) there's an unfortunate instinct to pass preferential judgment (interviewers are humans too) that fails to separate the nuances in our personalities as an arbitrary fraternity recruitment process to "fit-in" versus an opportunity to leverage eccentricies for workplace diversity.