RE: Sell-by date rant (was Re: Rates)

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Porrello, Leonard wrote:
 
> Really? "Hire for diversity"? I'd feel a lot more secure working for a
> company that hired for ability (regardless of age or race).

Absolutely! Besides, the company Elaine was praising "trends older." So, maybe it discriminates against young people? :-) 

Or maybe it discriminates in favor of the needed experience. Or maybe the skills it seeks are less attractive to young people, so the applicant pool contains fewer of them. 

The point is that a good and successful company wants the best people it can get for the work to be done within the constraints it faces. It shouldn't be focused on whether each of several fairly arbitrary buckets are equally filled. 

At my office, I'm probably close to twice the age of most of my coworkers. But the age range is considerable, and I'm not the only one who qualifies for senior discounts. I've seen geezer geeks hired over much younger applicants, and I've seen quite young candidates win out over people in the prime of their careers. In each case, it was because the selected applicant was more impressive and a better fit for the job, not because he or she fit a certain demographic. 

Diversity is a corporate value here, and there's quite a bit of it. But I believe we've achieved it by giving _fair consideration_ to people in every demographic and then choosing the best candidate for each job.  
 

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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