Here’s a story many people of color will resonate with.
Part 1) Unbiased Observations
I interviewed at Stubhub and was told that I aced all of their technical rounds (according to my recruiter, I crushed all their rounds). To give an example, I finished their coding round in 35 out of the allotted 60 minutes.
After that I had two more rounds where I discussed a project and my experience. My recruiter told me I crushed those rounds as well.
I then had my final round, a cultural fit interview for an engineering position conducted by a product manager, who interviews everyone who comes into the company, and can overrule anyone else opinion on you.
According to the product manager, I failed this round. He told my recruiter that I was rejected because he did not like my reason for becoming an engineer. I told the product manager that I was inspired by people who were close to me and because of that, I became a software engineer.
(What’s directly above were the reasons provided to my recruiter. Not much else to say to that but what..?)
My recruiter told me that he had never seen a situation as bizarre as this one. That he thought the product manager was just making up fake reasons to reject me, and that he had never heard such bizarre reasons for rejecting someone in his entire career. He then cut all ties with Stubhub.
Part 2: My Opinion On The Events that Unfolded
I am not sure why I was rejected. I do not buy the reason provided. But I do know that culture fit is often used as an excuse to reject candidates of color.
Here’s an article that may be of some use:
Here’s the truth: Many people become things because people close to them were those things or pushed them to become those things. For example, Michael Jackson was pushed to become a musician by his father. Does this discredit his body of work? In the same way, does me being inspired by people close to me to become a software engineer discredit how I crushed all your rounds of interviews?
Part 3 Conclusion:
The cultural fit interview is simple. As a person of color with a socioeconomically disadvantaged background, I probably do not fit into the culture of those who were raised with lots of money and different ethnic backgrounds. But that’s just me pointing out the inherent problematic nature of the cultural fit interview.
Sorry for the poor quality writing, I wrote this in 30 minutes, and I’m just tired.