As a 'white' father of 3 who has been unemployed for the past few years I can tell you that this paper is sole crushing. Its a monument to how backwards common perception is to reality. Its a declaration from academia to never stop finding ways at punishing (me, my wife and 3 daughters) for my sin of being born white/male/pre1990. From what I have seen, people like me are under-represented in most office environments. Next time you are in an office (in NA at least), look around. Who are the black suited MBAs in charge not hiring? Even the abstract of the paper leads me to believe the the universe is a simulation because why else would it want to destroy opportunities for me and my family and simultaneously assuming, and tying to prove in a lab, that I am the modern Satan.
As a non-American this is so bizarre to me. You get people so full of concern for the hypothetical woman in banking making 100k a year who just can't get that promotion, or the hypothetical black Harvard graduate who gets rejected from tech jobs, while they only show disgust for the unemployed guy living in a trailer with his family and friends ODing dropping dead like flies, simply because of the color of his skin.
I'm curious where you're from, because this trend seems to be occurring all over the western world (for example they yellow-vest protests in France, etc.)
That's because you probably value independence and critical thinking. You are probably teaching your kids to focus on personal growth, learn from the work environment, look for opportunities, be competitive and keep increasing their own bargaining power. At least, that's what I'm teaching mine.
Except, this makes you a threat to the corporations. They don't want you. They want to have someone replaceable, who will fulfill their corporate duties at the minimum possible rate. Who will never challenge their superior, and will be thankful for the opportunity to join the ranks, rather than thinking on how to go independent.
It’s very profitable to pitch “neo-natal” progeny of recent immigration (>1965) with those with European ancestries which carry natural inter-generational momentum. Trying to find an “equalizing” rainbow trail is a violent red herring, yet has perpetual support because it’s sympathizing.
You’re not alone. Many of us feel the same way. This system will always hate us, we have to start supporting each other. Give it time. We’re going to make it friend.
White men especially in America tend to pathologically see the world through an individualistic lens and ignore their identity. Things will change as more and more of us start to become conscious of the identity for which the system hates us.
All the systems you mentioned have more far more white men than the US as a whole, so are you arguing that white men hate themselves?
US: 60% white[1]; 49% male[1]; ~31% white & male[2]
Media: 75% white[3]; 50% white & male
Academia: 40% white & male[4]
College Professors: 53% white & male[5]
House: 73% white[5]
Senate: 89% white[5]
All elected offices in the US in 2014: 65% white & male[2]
President: 100% white & male
I'm too lazy to keep going, but I feel like I've made my point. Neither white people nor white men are underrepresented in any position of power or wealth. So how can it be that these systems (that people in their demographic control) are against them?
First you made a logical leap. Simply because these institutions may be nominally majority white does not preclude the ability for them to biased against whites. I never claimed these institutions were minority white, only that they were biased against whites, so you also attacked a straw man.
You also did not address the widespread corporate training material adopted from Robin D’Angelo. If the system were biased towards whites, why would it train its employees to shun their white identity? Would you consider a system whose corporations asked their employees to “be less black” biased against black people?
What percentage of Biden’s cabinet do you consider white?
>pathologically see the world through an individualistic lens and ignore their identity.
Pathologically? That's the healthy and correct way to see the world. Seeing through a lens filtered by 'identity' (you obviously mean race and gender) is flawed.
Victims of racism and gender bias... which include both whites and blacks, men and women... need to avoid becoming sexist and racist in response. It'll drag us all down.
> we have to start supporting each other. Give it time. We’re going to make it friend.
This won't happen. In my opinion they are too 'principled' to support each other. Supporting each other has the connotations of a union or a mob. 'White' men, who in my opinion is statistically among the most capable category are collectively their own enemies, by bending backward to accommodate the 'minority' even when individuals from these 'minorities' are incompetent.
it's a bit much to extrapolate from a single study in one area. even just reading the conclusion the authors share a few possible limitations of the study even within the field of startup investment
A Personal Configuration Manager. An OS 'WP killer' that pushes web designs (apps/blogs/etc) via ssh to target servers. Allows for an independent way of managing your web assets and designing beautiful web sites for your self or others.
I used to work for IBM and really there is no advantage. The few sales efforts I was involved in were shady af. Buying manger got something. Lets just leave it at that.
Atomize people until they don't belong to any group except to be judged and then fight over scraps in the dung heap. Overall, the greatest enemies of the average person and the planet tend to be just a few thousand of very, very rich people and the million/s who enable them. Old or young, middle-class/poor or homeless, black/white or purple; the people must bring their power together because they don't have enough on their own. It's the only way anything can change. And borrowing ideas from JFK: misery, poverty, corruption and injustice are like pressure in a boiler, that if the safety valve of reforms are blocked, it will find a way to explode violently.
I'm 54. Have been in sw dev for 40 years. I have kept my skills (aws api / node.js / css / html5 / etc) up to the point were I am over qualified for many of the positions (laid off 3 years back from IBM) I apply for. Before I updated my LinkedIn profile pic I received many interview invites. Now I get none. Recently I started looking at the people that these sw dev companies _actually_ hire. They ask for 3/5/10 years experience but I found that in almost every case (95%) the devs they hired were under 25, straight out of collage with 0 experience. Last year I applied for 300 positions, now I don't even bother looking to dev work anymore. I have 3 kids at home and we are close to bankruptcy. Let me be very clear here: The _only_ thing that matters in gaining employment in sw dev (in my city at least) is your age. Edit: Also should mention that I often offered (have no choice) to work for much less $ then what junior would be making.
I'm a middle age female software developer and also found similar experience when I was in the job market recently. The software development positions generally are below 2 years, under 5 years and the senior position at 6-8 years. What do you do if you have 20 years of software development experience?
Recently worked for a (bad) silicon valley YC company, and was shocked to learn that 6-8 years of experience is considered senior these days. Not enough experience at that point to really be senior, but I think there's such a desperate need for developers that they have to do that.
To be clear, I've certainly met people in their 20s that have senior-level ability, but they are by far the exception.
I agree with you that the "senior" title is passed out too easily, but as someone who is 46 this has been the case throughout my entire career, I don't think it is a new problem.
In fact, the 6-8 years of experience you quote is far higher than I would have guessed if you asked me when the average company (incorrectly) starts handing out "senior" titles.
I definitely agree - more precisely, I meant that "6-8 years" is the time by which nearly all people have attained "senior" designation, even if they aren't that good. However, it used to be (in the places I worked, at least) that a person wasn't senior until at least 10 years of experience.
> What do you do if you have 20 years of software development experience?
Move to a market where your skills are in high demand and focus on middle/business and back end development. Or better yet, embedded systems development.
I've been at this for 25 years and IMO, the further down the call stack you go the more your cumulative years of experience are an asset.
This doesn't mean you can stop learning new tech, it just means the trends in those lower layers seem to be more sustained and of a longer duration.
That is the route I am now going. Until my last breath I'm going to build a sw company and hire 100's of people. Like all companies I'll have a page on my site that says how moral and inclusive we are except that we won't be hypocrites like most (all?) other sw companies. This is my delusional dream.
I've always liked the idea of a consulting firm that specialized in hiring old people. I wonder if there's enough work to keep something like that fed if one were to specialize in 'obsolete' tech and market at a national level.
Heck, to the right client, that one i860 or C80 programmer might be worth gold. Either that, or just do a highly competent job at embedded programming generally.
I had a very similar problem and ended up in the streets. The solution was to join a bootcamp, cut things from the resume and get a junior job. From here, you can leverage new connections to get a better job or a promotion.
Joining a bootcamp makes it look like you are new to the field and will settle for an entry-level salary. This is a very extreme solution, but might help you solve this problem for several years.
I feel bad for saying this, but my advice is to dye your hair, join a gym and take some years of your Facebook profile.
Try to save some money to buy a car to do Uber, start a small IT consulting firm or get a job teaching. Most people will advice mild patches but they dont know what it's like to run out of money. I feel your pain.
"I'm 54. Have been in sw dev for 40 years.....Last year I applied for 300 positions,..."
Being somewhat older than you, but bored, I think about taking up the oar again. My problem doubles down on yours in that my background is all in products with an expensive hardware component or workstation software, neither appears to be a growth industry.
Aside from the inevitable well-meaning advice to become some sort of 'project manager', etc. I wonder if it makes any sense to hit the .gov job markets at all.
My last few years at IBM were as a project manager at big corp. Besides the outright corruption, the new problems were that I was now competing against 6'4" 22yo MBAs fresh out of modeling school. They taught me how to analyse the underside of a bus real quick.
