I've been trying hard to avoid this conclusion for a while. I'm an engineering manager, white, male. The last time I was on the job market was almost a decade ago. At the time, while I wasn't looking for management roles, I had a strong resume and was able to get almost any interview I wanted. (Of course, passing those interviews was a different matter, but my resume definitely passed initial screens easily.)
Today my resume should by all measures be much stronger, yet for months now I haven't gotten a single interview anywhere (with one exception, Google, but they didn't offer me a management loop so I didn't pursue it). Luckily I wasn't laid off so I don't need a new job. I started this search mostly out of curiosity initially and wasn't that serious about it. I was shocked at some of the companies rejecting my resume and continued the search just to see how much the pattern would continue. Could I really be getting rejected just at the resume screening phase repeatedly with years of experience managing managers, launching multimillion dollar products, a great education, published papers, patents, conference presentations, etc.?
Even the company where I work at has recently launched a new D&I program. Our executive leadership is generally very focused on business success so this is not something they were willing to do until they apparently felt a lot of pressure from the current social climate. I do not believe they are going to actually act on it in any really disruptive or destructive way (indeed, their business sense is part of why we had zero layoffs while other companies in the space have laid off hundreds or thousands or just went bankrupt). However, it's clear that a lot of companies throughout the industry are essentially going all-in on D&I right now. I can no longer ignore the possible conclusion that I cannot get hired for any kind of management role anymore simply because I'm a white guy.
To all the white men in the technology industry here, be wary. Your job prospects may be disappearing from underneath you rapidly right now, especially the higher up in management you are. If you're entry level the situation may not be as bad. Having white men in management right now is considered "shameful," so there's increasingly no way you'll be considered unless you have one hell of a slam dunk background.
This is a market opportunity for a based entrepreneur. All the smart, non-woke engineers would gravitate to a startup with a non-woke culture and eventually their innovation would surpass the competition that is full of diversity hires and quota fillers.
Can't be a smart, non-woke engineer if you can't be a an engineer.
You're not wrong in essence, but then real life enters the picture. You responded to someone who already has established work experience and money. Try telling that to a young guy desperately in need of a job...RIGHT NOW.
Yeah, I would hope so. But then you have start up costs, need business loans...which would all be fine, but what do you suspect you'd find if you looked at the demographic statistics in those areas.
Again, you're not wrong in an ideal sense, but that does nothing to change the reality on the ground.
It's not impossible to fix, but it requires facing the true issues here, not trying to ignore them.
Not saying this can happen fast or is helps anyone today, just saying that there is an opportunity here. I know a lot of software engineers who feel trapped in jobs where they have to shut up and hide who they are.
Not solved. Ok...going to do that in a day? tomorrow? Next week?
The subject of this post isn't a problem that start yesterday or just this year...where were you 10-12+ years ago when I was dealing with this very problem?
To quote Trump in the SOTU address this year "Over the past year, 75% of new jobs in America went to women."
That is an actual quote. Apparently there not a lot of:
going on...is there?
It’s a bad situation, but we can’t just give up. Manufacturing is also in a shitty situation but there are plenty of companies fighting hard to bring it back.
This part of the lefts warfare on America. They’re not just defunding police, their defunding white Americans.
This. I’m a white guy in tech and my company is starting to veer into SJW insanity. I’m not leaving yet but I’m slowly building side hustle indy contracting gigs so I can make the full switch sometime in the future. Corporate culture is lost, frankly.
That requires money, does it not?
So then address this actual quote from Trump in this years SOTU address:
"Over the past year 75% of new jobs in this country went to women"
In order for what you said to even have a chance we desperately need to address what Trump said above.
Change your name to "Kunta Ng!gago Washington X". Problem solved.
Claiming gender fluidity works too.
This is common place in California for sure, they are trying both consciously and unconsciously to push white propel in the corner and leave the tasty bits of the pie for all the work progressives.
Step 1: look at resume Step 2: google name and/or check linked-in profile Step 3: find picture Step 4: if "white male," throw resume in trash
If the above steps don't work, extrapolate from education background, home address, other clues, and just guess. If guess is "white male," throw resume in trash . . .
all applications require a linkedin profile these days
Do the reverse of what cnn does: darken the pixels on your LinkedIn profile so you look mulatto at the least
I set up a Linkedin several years ago because someone told me as a professional I should have one, but I never got around to putting a profile picture on it. I often get employers reaching out to me on there, but never thought anything of it because electrical engineering is a good field for jobs. I am white but have a first name that sounds black and if you Google it black athletes will come up.
The name alone would really give it away in my case, and with my name, email, personal website, LinkedIn, GitHub, etc., it would be pretty easy to confirm if the name wasn't evidence enough.
It sucks, but White men need to do what White men do best historically. Invent and create. Don't let company's internal politics get you down, just don't play ball. The old will stop innovating while getting bogged down with infighting while we have the opportunity to create something better. Fuck the haters, stay strong and hold your head up high.
Check out unwoke.hr to see if there are any companies hiring in your field. Also try ZipRecruiter. They use an algorithm to match resumes with open positions based on keywords.
Also, take your picture off of LinkedIn (change it to a pet or pleasant outdoor scene) and make other social networks private so a recruiter can't look you up to see your picture.
See how many interviews you get and report back. I'd be interested to hear what happens if you try any of these things.
For credentials, I spent six years in the staffing industry and now work directly with HR departments selling other services.
a.k.a. white privilege.
you need to 'identify' as a transracial black lesbian with tourettes after which you will be a shoe in
If Big Mike qualifies as a woman, Talcum X qualifies as black, and Cum-allah Harris qualifies as a human, it's not hard.
White females are ok though, because they jump at the opportunity for black men to impregnate them now. It's only white males they are going after.
Might also consider that with the Rona a lot of companies aren't expanding, so new management positions aren't going to be as frequently needed as previously
What is amazing is they hire incompetent people because of a checkbox and those people just sit in the way of actual progress because they aren't smart enough to understand, develop nor implement a solution.
It is across the board.
Then they hire expensive consultants whose job is accrue billable hours, not solve the problem. It is ridiculous.
This is why I'm hoping to start a business that exits the Tech industry entirely.
I don't want to abandon it but I alone can't save it. I have neither the time, talent, or resources required.
If you have a picture of yourself on LinkedIn, remove it. A lot of companies especially the bigger ones have only wanted women and minorities for years. They just can't find any of them that are decently qualified. If you can at least get an interview you can have a chance. You just have to blow them away compared to a minority not lying on their resume too badly to get hired.
This could legitimately be an issue with your resume. Most workplaces use an automated filtering program to weed through resumes. The structure and keywords you use could be eliminating you from the pool.
Revamp your LinkedIn account... thats where people in your position get roles these days. They'll come to you. Trust me
Any advice on how I should tweak my LinkedIn profile?