This post, like most posts on this site is about my personal experiences. But before we go there, I want to make a few points.
- I am a fan of DEI.
- DEI has been called discriminatory. It’s been called that by those that discriminate.
- This is not to say DEI is not without problems.
- This is not to say everyone who argues against DEI is discriminatory or acting in bad faith.
- I find it shocking the number of organizations who bent the knee and spun 180 degrees on DEI.
In 1988 I was a fresh CS Graduate who had a few things going for me. I was earnest, I worked hard, I could code really well, and I had a knack of knowing what problem to solve. I had some things that held me back. I graduated from a state school with modest grades, I was an extreme introvert, and I was overweight. With that, I could not find a job until late in the year when Bank of America hired me as part of an engineering entry level employee program. In hindsight, it sure looked like what today we’d call DEI. They hired 50 people to take part in the program. It intentionally had a mix of backgrounds, including race, age, sex, work experience, and college degree. To get into the program, we all had to pass an aptitude test and then an onsite interview. It wasn’t easy. On my first day, I found myself in a group that included a couple CS majors, but also bank tellers, history majors, literature majors, and so on. There was a mix of the sexes, of orientations, of cultural backgrounds. 49 of the 50 made it through the three month training and we were placed in permanent positions and nearly all of us contributed significantly to the company. Bonds and connections were formed. I think of it as a model for a new hire program.
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