The train has left. 5 nudges for more diversity when recruiting

I want to share a personal story. At some point in my career, I decided I wanted to be a consultant. It seemed to me at that point that consultants have a really diverse, interesting, high-paced job. A great fit for an ambitious generalist like me who rather gets bored from too few tasks than stressed from multitasking.

I have applied to a number of jobs and eagerly waited for the interviews and opportunities to show my true self. Time went by, but they did not come. I decided to reach out to my network and ask for a personal referral. This strategy seemed to be better: I quickly got an interview. Unfortunately, I quickly realized this was just a polite gesture, just because somebody asked personally and they did not want to say „no“. The conversation turned like this:

„You know, we typically hire people directly out of university“, said the interviewer.

I expected that this would be followed up by a question „So, how can you stand out of the crowd of energetic new graduates?“ or „What can you bring that the graduates do not offer?“. That was not the case.

„In fact, we have an internal rule to not hire anybody above 32”, continued the interviewer.

I was 32 at that moment. So, technically 32+.

“We have had some not-so-good experience with hiring older individuals. They have a hard time fitting in. They had a lot to unlearn. The best consultants come directly out of school. Later than that – the train has left…”, explained the interviewer.

Needless to say, I was not offered that job. However, I did start working as a consultant: in the internal consultancy unit of a large corporation. It ended up being a perfect job – exactly what I was looking for. However, the experience of ageism at the age of 32 left a scar.

While I was definitely hurt at that point, looking retrospectively, it was also a good lesson. I had a first-hand experience of what it feels like and thus became much more aware of age-related – and other -biases. I have even made a pact with myself to be different: create another train, which is always there for a person with the right mindset, even if they decide to jump on board at a different point than the average passenger.

What exactly do I do?

1. Every time I recruit people now, I remind myself of what it feels like being treated like a standard package: where nobody cares what you, as an individual, can offer, but has already placed you in a certain box just because of your age, gender, ethnicity, etc.
2. When selecting candidates for the first interview, I select many, but for a shorter chat. I have noticed, that if I have to select 5 or fewer, I choose the ones that are the most similar to my own pre-imagined ideal. That is why I choose double as many, but include some unusual candidates, with a bit more different experience, education, etc. Some of these “added for the sake of diversity” candidates end up being the best ones. Honestly.
3. Before even starting the recruitment process, I create a matrix on what is the most important for the job. In this way, I force myself to look specifically for those exact things, not choose the most likable candidate (which from the evolutionary perspective are the ones most similar to myself).
4. When rejecting a candidate, I force myself to list the exact reasons. I do not need to tell them to anybody else besides myself. It must be a very honest and open exercise. Some of those reasons might be valid: e.g. when recruiting the scrum master the candidate does not know what agile ceremonies are and why they are needed. In other cases, the reasons have more to do with me than with the candidate. For example, I caught myself refusing a candidate because he looked like the person from my high school who was a bully. Not a very good reason – thus back to the candidate pile.
5. I call every single candidate I had an interview with and give personal feedback. It is not an easy task – never fun to say NO to a person, who might be crazy good, just not the best fit this time. Since I select many candidates for the first round, that means a high number of Nos. Nevertheless, it is worth it. In this way, I am forced to have good, valid reasons not to choose them, since I have to state them when giving the feedback. It forces doing step no. 4 in the right and honest way.