Intel Sets New Bar for Diversity Reporting

Mr Milquetoast said:
Intel are instead hiring people to meet their self-set gender and race quotas.
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Actually they are not. If you actually look at what they are doing in these initiatives, nowhere are they telling people to hire based on quotas vs merit.

The initiatives are meant to broadly encourage a more diverse population to enter the field, and to apply for their jobs.
 
maverikv said:
Do you know how many people apply for every job that gets posted?Its absolutely insane. You're telling me there are no qualified candidates?
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Do I have to repeat myself in every single post now? There may be a qualified candidate, but how if there are 10 more qualified white applicants for every minority applicant, is there not a pretty big chance that one of those is more qualified?
 
xIronCrossx said:
Do I have to repeat myself in every single post now? There may be a qualified candidate, but how if there are 10 more qualified white applicants for every minority applicant, is there not a pretty big chance that one of those is more qualified?
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That's why these initiatives about getting more diverse applicants. The notion that they are hiring less qualified candidates in order to meet quotas is pure hysteria.
 
xIronCrossx said:
Do I have to repeat myself in every single post now? There may be a qualified candidate, but how if there are 10 more qualified white applicants for every minority applicant, is there not a pretty big chance that one of those is more qualified?
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And if this were only about hiring then you might be right ... Intel's diversity program (if you read the materials on their site) covers many areas and not just hiring:

Retention - this is probably a big weakness with a lot of companies (especially Intel) ... I burned out at Intel after 14 years and was ready to leave ... they had a woman supervisor in one of the overseas plants who quit after 3 days ... providing better mentoring to diversity candidates (especially women) can help a company build and maintain a diverse workforce

Pipeline - as folks are noting, there are already lots of Caucasian male candidates so there is no need to encourage them ... offering scholarships to women and minorities can provide a wider pool of candidates to choose from and a more competitive hiring process ... having one good candidate is good for the employee (not the company) ... having ten good candidates is better for the company (so you won't be forced to overpay for the employee)

Business investment - they are investing in minority and women owned businesses, helping to encourage their success ... most of these companies have lots of spare income to invest and this type of investment is good for them and the countries they are investing in

Women gamers - with the PC market struggling it is advantageous for Intel to bring as many people into the PC market as possible ... women gamers have been kind of a niche but they represent 50% of the population ... getting more of them invested in PCs and gaming is good for Intel's long term health as a company
 
xIronCrossx said:
Do I have to repeat myself in every single post now? There may be a qualified candidate, but how if there are 10 more qualified white applicants for every minority applicant, is there not a pretty big chance that one of those is more qualified?
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Is there?
 
xIronCrossx said:
Do I have to repeat myself in every single post now? There may be a qualified candidate, but how if there are 10 more qualified white applicants for every minority applicant, is there not a pretty big chance that one of those is more qualified?
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Come again? Huh? could you repeat that in all caps?
 
Mr Milquetoast said:
This isn't equality. In an equal system people are hired based purely on their ability and the best person gets the job. Intel are instead hiring people to meet their self-set gender and race quotas. Hiring people based on their sex is sexist and hiring people based on their race is racist.

Intel's social engineering programme is like something a fascist dictatorship would do. You must meet the gender and ethnicity requirements set by the dictator or you will not be permitted to work! It's terrifying that this is happening in our society and even more terrifying that such a programme would actually be considered to be a positive thing.

The western world is royally fucked.
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Damn, I'm not sure this could've been said any better, honestly.
 
Intel might be "setting a new bar for diversity reporting" but [H] members are setting a new bar in racially-charged anger in relationship to discussing diversity. It kinda proves the point that a lot of people are still utterly and completely unable to see past skin color or cultural background to find the awesome, squishy human on the inside. Lots of people posting in this thread ought to be ashamed of themselves for a variety of reasons including an unwillingness to see the point of view of another person and an inability to exercise any kind of emotional control.
 
kbrickley said:
CS may be the exception then ... if you only have a BS in EE, ME, etc you are going to be competing with tons of unemployed folks with years (sometimes decades) of experience ... when I left Intel in the early 2000's they were generally screening out most BS candidates (unless there were no MS candidates applying or unless they were hiring outside the USA for foreign locations ... in the Philippines a BS might get you a technician or operator position at best) ... without the MS it was also harder to get promoted ... in the design groups it was impossible to get in with less than an MS and about 75% (or more) were PhD's

Another reason companies prefer MS and PhD candidates is they won't need to pay for their education ... employees with only a bachelors degree often expect their employers to reimburse them for the tuition to get an advanced degree (good for the employee but very bad for the employer)
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I have no doubt that there are design teams around here that still might just quickly ignore BS candidates, but there are certainly teams on the design side today that hire BS candidates.
 
danmoody said:
http://www.hardocp.com/news/2015/06/18/intels_layoff_letter_to_employees/#.VcuZNvlVhBc:(
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Your point being :confused: ... that Intel could continue to employ dead weight employees if they were not investing in diversity owned businesses ... every company has dead weight (including Intel) ... layoffs help them reduce some of the dead weight so the company can remain healthy and grow (or survive until the market improves) ... Intel probably had some folks associated with older products and technologies that they didn't need or an excessive number of employees supporting a flagging PC business ...

I went through a number of layoffs when I worked for Intel and I almost never saw top notch employees leaving as part of a layoff ... Intel used to have a competitive rank and rating process so they knew which quartile or cloud you were in, based on your performance against your peers ... there were occasions where entire regions experienced layoffs due to business shifting to other regions but usually the layoffs just trimmed off the fat and the lower performing employees ;)
 
The problem is talent in this industry isn't diverse. There was 1 chick and 1 black guy in my entire engineering undergrad class of a thousand asian/indian/white men. Neither of which finished in the front of the pack.
 
yomike007 said:
The problem is talent in this industry isn't diverse. There was 1 chick and 1 black guy in my entire engineering undergrad class of a thousand asian/indian/white men. Neither of which finished in the front of the pack.
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In my programming class there were 4 women, and one of them happened to be everyone's friend because of her "boisterous personality" ;);).
 
kbrickley said:
Pipeline - as folks are noting, there are already lots of Caucasian male candidates so there is no need to encourage them ... offering scholarships to women and minorities can provide a wider pool of candidates to choose from and a more competitive hiring process ... having one good candidate is good for the employee (not the company) ... having ten good candidates is better for the company (so you won't be forced to overpay for the employee)
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Cinemasins voice: That's racist!
 
xIronCrossx said:
Cinemasins voice: That's racist!
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Why ... if there is a dearth of candidates that is not good for business ... if there are few highly qualified candidates that is also bad for business since it forces you into a bidding war (which is VERY VERY bad) ... there is nothing wrong with business encouraging participation from groups they would like to see better represented but are not available ... people's main objection to diversity hiring is that it somehow involves hiring deficient candidates (which I don't think is true) ... encouraging STEM programs in selected schools and awarding STEM scholarships and internships to desirable candidates is a good way to insure that a company gets the employees they want with the skills they want (for companies willing and able to play the long game) ... Caucasian students already have plenty of educational opportunities (as the links provided earlier indicate) and as people keep noting with their 10:1 statistics, so there is no need to encourage that group (they clearly are already sufficiently encouraged) ... women and certain minorities are under represented in the STEM fields compared to their overall distribution in the population so there is nothing wrong with providing them incentives that raise that level of participation in the STEM fields
 
Giving people benefits based on their skin color/sex is racist/sexist. Doesn't matter how you put it, giving someone an opportunity that someone of another sex/skin color does not get is the definition of racism/sexism.

The only motivation should be the chance at getting a well paying job and being set for life, throwing money at a problem almost never works. If you do want to throw money at it, make it conditional. If you don't keep good grades/graduate on time you have to pay everything back.
 
xIronCrossx said:
Giving people benefits based on their skin color/sex is racist/sexist. Doesn't matter how you put it, giving someone an opportunity that someone of another sex/skin color does not get is the definition of racism/sexism.

The only motivation should be the chance at getting a well paying job and being set for life, throwing money at a problem almost never works. If you do want to throw money at it, make it conditional. If you don't keep good grades/graduate on time you have to pay everything back.
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We'll just have to agree to disagree on this ... this is company initiated activity (not government mandated) ... I agree that using government money to do this would be unreasonable ... however, I believe corporations should be allowed to spend their money the way THEY and THEIR shareholders see fit ... if Intel perceives a benefit in awarding minority or gender specific scholarships then that should be their right ... if people don't like it they can vote against it in the next shareholder meeting (but diversity programs tend to be popular with most shareholders)

As to conditions it depends on what the law allows ... personally I would favor that company scholarships require mandatory employment (including any training that a company reimburses you for or pays for) ... unfortunately most countries have made this illegal ... bottom line is I support any activity that is good for a company (Intel seems to think this is so I support it)
 
xIronCrossx said:
Giving people benefits based on their skin color/sex is racist/sexist. Doesn't matter how you put it, giving someone an opportunity that someone of another sex/skin color does not get is the definition of racism/sexism.
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Absolutely right, which is why it's so ironic to see so many complaints that minorities and women are starting to get some of the benefits, opportunities and jobs that were previously only available to white men.
 
evilsofa said:
Absolutely right, which is why it's so ironic to see so many complaints that minorities and women are starting to get some of the benefits, opportunities and jobs that were previously only available to white men.
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Perfect. :)

What you really need to understand is it's only racism when I *don't* benefit. lol
 
kbrickley said:
We'll just have to agree to disagree on this ... this is company initiated activity (not government mandated) ... I agree that using government money to do this would be unreasonable ... however, I believe corporations should be allowed to spend their money the way THEY and THEIR shareholders see fit ... if Intel perceives a benefit in awarding minority or gender specific scholarships then that should be their right ... if people don't like it they can vote against it in the next shareholder meeting (but diversity programs tend to be popular with most shareholders)

As to conditions it depends on what the law allows ... personally I would favor that company scholarships require mandatory employment (including any training that a company reimburses you for or pays for) ... unfortunately most countries have made this illegal ... bottom line is I support any activity that is good for a company (Intel seems to think this is so I support it)
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Intel is dripping in cash. They can double their engineering staff and not double their engineering output and keep on trucking. The PR points and SJ points could be worth it to them.

When times become tough and profits are hard to make their hiring will go back to what is predominant now elsewhere. Performance based. Heaven forbid!!!
 
jpm100 said:
When times become tough and profits are hard to make their hiring will go back to what is predominant now elsewhere. Performance based. Heaven forbid!!!
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Their hiring remains performance based. These programs don't affect decisions on who gets hired.
 
jpm100 said:
Intel is dripping in cash. They can double their engineering staff and not double their engineering output and keep on trucking. The PR points and SJ points could be worth it to them.

When times become tough and profits are hard to make their hiring will go back to what is predominant now elsewhere. Performance based. Heaven forbid!!!
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And why do you think that it wouldn't be performance based now ... when I left Intel they used a combination of behavioral and technical interviewing ... you needed to successfully navigate both to get through the interview process successfully ... if you didn't have the cultural skills they needed (Intel is a global company so that figured into interviewing a lot). the tolerance skills (tolerance for ambiguity, tolerance to change, tolerance to stress, etc) then you were not desirable, and the technical skills (degrees, usually advanced, and actual technical knowledge) then you would not get the job ... they might be willing to mentor a diversity candidate or a high profile candidate (one of my coworkers who was hired as part of the Leaders for Manufacturing program had monthly lunches with the CEO at the time, Barrett) but they would not let any employee slide against performance deliverables (Intel was a very goal oriented company)

Intel will not bring in candidates that are unable to succeed, regardless of their diversity status, that would be helpful to neither the employee, the hiring group, or the company ... Intel viewed their employees as assets (most of the time) and didn't like to have employees wash out prematurely ... Intel was an extremely high stress job when I was there (long hours, tight deliverables, and little tolerance for failure ... I was once put on corrective action by a manager one month before the deliverable was due because he was worried I might miss the date and felt a shotgun to the head would motivate me to hit the schedule) ... I wouldn't worry that Intel is slacking off by supporting this initiative ;)
 
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