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Comment by prchaudhari_007 | Hacker News Reader

What do you mean by not too Indian?

Don't stink up the dining areas with your Indian food and then eat it with your hands whilst only hanging out with your Indian coworkers speaking in whatever Indian dialect you're speaking. That or wearing 7 gold rings and chains or have some weird image on your desktop of an 8 limbed elephant Goddess you venerate. Don't say "Yes" while bobbing your head left-to-right, that means the opposite to Westeners. Don't say things like "I will revert back" or "Please do the need for" in emails, it makes no sense. Don't have the kind of accent that people ask you to rather "send them an email" because they can't actually figure out what you're trying to say over a phone call because your Indian accent is too strong.

These are things I've heard other white dudes complain about at work.

Was there really no way to answer that without your own editorialization? Maybe without picking off a stereotype list? I'm pretty glad I don't where ever you work, because the "other white dudes" at your place sound dreadful, and I imagine you get along pretty well with them.

I don't know? I'm trying to be frank here. You can't really dance around these issues. I know this because I've sat in many hiring sessions and interviewed many people. By the time you've shook someone's hand and they've uttered their name it's already 50% made up in people's mind if they're gonna hire this person or not. Welcome to the shit show.

I'm just giving a heads up for some poor dudes that wanna "play the game" and make a good career. Or what is worse is the poor guys that post on HN about "I've been to 50 interviews, everyone thinks my resume is great but I'm not landing any jobs". The fit or fuck off attitude is still very much alive in the corporate world.

I could write a similar list for the typical white geek that dresses like Rainman or has autistic body language and wonders why he's not getting hired.

We make decisions about people within the first second of meeting them. Read here: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-many-secon...

There is no way around this. Everyone does it.

You could be aware that you do that and counteract it in any way? For example I saw this and my reflex interpretation was that you were extremely dumb, but instead of just saying that I thought maybe they just haven't thought about using their conscious mind to affect their behavior.

Why? I provided an argument with a source. Also, I wasn't saying that those feelings were immutable; I was just stating the fact that we make somewhat-lasting impressions very quickly on first glance, and those impressions can take time to change.

You don't have to change your feelings you just need to be aware of them and change your behavior. The moment we become aware of our cognitive biases is the moment we gain the capacity to work against them. It's great that you identified a cognitive bias, but it's not enough to be aware of bias, you need to correct for it. This way your behavior lines up with how you see yourself, and who you want to be. You can correct for a bias you presently have, even if you haven't overcome it. For example I might be biased to say yes to every question, but equipped with this knowledge I can use my conscious mind to correct for this bias, even though I still have it!

As you behave against the bias this will slowly work to correct the biased expectations, because you will have new experience that contradicts previous assumptions.

"Cultural fit" is sometimes a code word for outright racism.

And even when it isn't, it means they're looking for somebody who they can get along with easily. Which means they're looking for somebody who could easily become friends with them.

And making friends with white guys is a lot easier if you're a "banana": yellow on the outside but white on the inside: if you like the same things the white guys do, if you have the same opinions that the white guys have, if you behave the same way they do, et cetera.

One thing I've noticed about tech companies is that they like to brag about how diverse they are.

"John over there is a ballroom dancer, Jack doesn't drink beer, Talia is a black girl, Jim dresses funny, ..."

So if you have one thing that distinguishes you from the other guys at work, that's actually a good thing. If the group is a bunch of hard drinkers that talk about sports all the time, it's possible to not drink or not care about sports as long as you don't make a big deal about it.

But if you have two things different, then you don't fit in. You're an Indian, you've already used your "difference card", so to fit in you have to be a hard-drinking sports lover or whatever the company culture is.

Don't look too much of a native from wherever you are if your average peer does not share your traits.

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