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My take on this is that discrimination is a natural and expected form
of human behavior, and while we can legislate against the most
egregious forms and complain bitterly about the others, we can't
really do anything much to stop people from discriminating. All we
can do is try to remove as many irritants as possible when we
interview so as to avoid pushing the "who invited this joker?"
button, and recognize that sometimes the results of an interview come
more from luck than from our actual merit.
I've frequently read of studies (but not seen the actual published
science) that claim the results of most interviews are decided within
the first five minutes, often as a result of purely subjective
factors such as the cut of someone's suit--or their skin color. I can
certainly provide personal anecdotal evidence from interviews in
which I knew immediately from the interviewer's face (clearly not a
poker player) that I wasn't getting the job, and that I was going to
waste the next half hour or more trying not to burn any bridges. I
can also provide anecdotal evidence of getting a job based on my
presentation even when the interviewer was clearly not impressed by
me at the start. (There was that one time I had to borrow Dad's suit
for a key but entirely unexpected interview, and hadn't trimmed hair
or beard in far too many months... <g>)
I'm not sure there's much we can do about this other than grit our
teeth and do our best. An occasional lawsuit does tend to keep
interviewers honest, but few of us have the resources to try this.
In terms of age discrimination, I can certainly understand the desire
to discriminate, even if I hate the logic: An experienced older
communicator is going to ask for more money than a younger person
with less experience, and if you don't understand the value of
experience, why would you hire the more expensive person to achieve
exactly the same result? Now that I freelance, I've gotten quite good
at selling myself on the basis that yes, I'm more expensive, but
here's some evidence (productivity and the kinds of errors I catch
during editing) that you'll actually pay less for my services than if
you hire someone cheaper. Even won a few contracts on this basis. But
it's never an easy sell.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
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