Ask HN: Is Microsoft in violation of the Supreme Court with these internships? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Microsoft in violation of the Supreme Court with these internships?

9 pointstestcaseuser6 comments

It doesn't explicitly put a racial requirement for this education / employment opportunity but it uses a proxy that is indistinguishable. Wouldn't this contradict the the overturning of affirmative action?

Technical Program Manager: Internship Opportunities for Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Redmond

Technical Program Manager: Internship Opportunities for National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Redmond

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Fuck Microsoft's diversity initiatives. I almost assuredly got put into an interview loop where a bunch of managers had to check a box to interview a diverse candidate. (I'm latino).

I didn't know it at the time but when I looked into it more, I realized 1. My recruiter was a DEI recruiter 2. The people interviewing me were the most unengaged, unprofessional interviewers I've encountered in my almost 20 year long career.

There were behavioral and technical interviews all in 45 minutes combined, and I got asked leetcode hards in two of the interviews, with only about 25 minutes to solve them.

One of the interviewers didn't even understand the question they were asking, was shocked I coded up actual working code, and confused on what I did. I ended up having to explain to them how they were wrong about some of their assumptions about question.

Fucking clowns. DEI recruiters suck. Two of the managers I met were in my opinion technically incompetent. The only competent guy that interviewed me was kind of an asshole to ask a LC hard and expect a solution in 25 minutes (that I didn't get an optimal solution for).

Microsoft seems to be the biggest offender in tech to the point where Biden's Justice Department has warned them over discriminatory hiring practices.

https://www.axios.com/2020/10/06/labor-department-probes-mic...

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action for schools not for companies. Race discrimination for jobs quite possibly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 though.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seems to indicate it would illegal [1]

> It is unlawful to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race or color in regard to hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, job training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment. Title VII also prohibits employment decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions about abilities, traits, or the performance of individuals of certain racial groups

I would note that they may not actually be violating the law if those organizations allow other races into them. I skimmed their websites and didn't see anything that says only Hispanics and blacks can join. The Hispanic one even said they are inclusive so who knows? If other races are allowed to join those organizations I highly doubt it would be illegal.

It would be nice if these companies stopped being racist regardless of the legality.

[1] https://www.eeoc.gov/fact-sheet/facts-about-racecolor-discri...

I think internships qualify under educational opportunities as well as employment, so would be swept up under both. Other races may not be forbidden but as a practical matter I don't think the law would be fooled by that because as a practical matter the social sanctions of joining would make it implausible. Part of the affirmative action ruling was so clear on ruling out using proxy methods that substitute. It's depressingly forbidden to use another method to accomplish the same thing.

https://www.eeoc.gov/filing-charge-discrimination

Yeah they're wide open to charges plus they were under investigation earlier last year. https://www.axios.com/2020/10/06/labor-department-probes-mic...

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