Re: HHHMMMNNN...
I work as Director IT and I hire for my company.
Had a help desk position open and we interviewed five qualified people. They turned out to be two white males, two black (male and female), and an Asian lady.
The Asian woman never showed even though she had confirmed by both phone and email. Subsequent attempts to contact her failed.
The black male came to the interview in jeans, crooked ball cap, and flash black T-shirt with gold chains aplenty. He had tattoos up the side of his neck and SUCK MINE tattooed between the knuckles of his hands. He had passed his A+ (barely) but otherwise had the basic requisite skills needed. The HR person sitting in on the interview had "concerns" about his appearance. We checked his job history and found he had grossly overstated the time he had been employed with another company by several years. The missing time had actually been spent at her majesties pleasure for a drugs offense.
The black female came in dressed professionally, presented herself well, and had the requisite skills. Previously checked her background / references and all seemed good. She had more experience as a receptionist than computers. Ten minutes into the interview her bejeweled iPhone buzzed. She picked it up, smiled broadly, tapped a few lines, and put it back in her purse. Same thing happened four times during the interview. When HR asked her for salary expectations, the salary range she named came close to mine. We mentioned her references were good and without prompting she volunteered that two of them were family. Her mother and auntie to be specific with different last names than her.
The first white male we interviewed had excellent references and had many IT / IS courses with high marks. On paper he was my first choice for the position due to the quals. He was ten minutes late, slouched in the chair, mumbled, had half open eyes, and looked like he'd come straight from a rave. He had ketchup down his shirt front from the bacon sarnie he'd grabbed on the run "because I overslept this morning."
Second white male was a half hour early for his interview. He had a bare resume and a few IT courses with above average marks. He said he was currently working two part-time jobs and hadn't had the time to take more training, but was willing to learn. He looked me in the eye when he spoke, his cell phone buzzed a few times, but it never left his hip and his salary request was reasonable. I got the feeling he was a genuine and trustworthy person. When HR asked him what his weaknesses were he said, "Well, as you've probably noticed, I'm ginger." Sense of humour. We hired him and he's worked his way up to being the IT Manager and today he runs things in my absence.
I don't give a damn what you look like, or what your personal situation is. As long as someone is honest, motivated, and willing to work then I'll probably hire them. What you look like is secondary to your ability and willingness to do the job we are paying you to do. I'm not your father, I'm not your counselor, I'm your boss, and I expect you to show up on time, do your job, do your personal business outside of company time, and admit responsibility when things go wrong.
Unfortunately for some, that is asking too much.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
