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0 pointskqr5y ago0 comments

This is more of a problem with men than women, in my experience.

I've even toyed with the idea of compensating for this by having two sets of job ads -- one with very high requirements, and one with just the bare minimum. Then accept applicants for interview from each based on the applicant's statistical propensity to exaggerate their abilities.

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exporectomy5y ago

What do you mean by "statistical propensity to exaggerate their abilities"? How can you measure that without already knowing enough to just select applicants directly without considering which ad they responded to or who exaggerated more?

kqrOP5y ago

There will be a great number of well-qualified women who do not respond at all to more demanding ads. Less demanding ads catch these, but also catch a large number of under-qualified men.

It's a precision-recall problem, and by selecting differently in the two situations I speculate that one could get more well-qualified candidates with less effort.

exporectomy5y ago

But how will you distinguish the well qualified female applications from the large number of under-qualified men? Surely not by their sex which is probably illegal and certainly unethical.

kqrOP5y ago

The legal question is definitely interesting, but I don't see how it would be unethical to use the most powerful set of signals available. The situation seems to me a bit similar to how grocery stores and cafes package what's essentially the same product under a large range of price points to let the more price-sensitive customers self-select.

If I find anything unethical, it's knowingly continuing the practise of writing job postings that put one group of people at a clear and documented disadvantage.

CyberDildonics5y ago

Or you could put out an honest job listing based on what you want and stop bamboozling yourself with sexist assumptions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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exporectomy5y ago

kqrOP5y ago

There will be a great number of well-qualified women who do not respond at all to more demanding ads. Less demanding ads catch these, but also catch a large number of under-qualified men.

It's a precision-recall problem, and by selecting differently in the two situations I speculate that one could get more well-qualified candidates with less effort.

exporectomy5y ago

But how will you distinguish the well qualified female applications from the large number of under-qualified men? Surely not by their sex which is probably illegal and certainly unethical.

kqrOP5y ago

If I find anything unethical, it's knowingly continuing the practise of writing job postings that put one group of people at a clear and documented disadvantage.

CyberDildonics5y ago

Or you could put out an honest job listing based on what you want and stop bamboozling yourself with sexist assumptions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse