Good To Know: August 2022 🧑💻
A monthly round-up of things happening in hiring, D&I, and humanity.
Hey Everyone,
Welcome to Good to Know! If you are new here, I publish Good to Know on the last Tuesday of every month.
Unlike most posts, Good to Know is a round-up of things going on in hiring, D&I, and humanity with some of my comments. Its purpose is to showcase some of the great work others do and learn from them.
Back to school 🧑🏫,
Ben
🤓This week we have🤓
✍️What I wrote this month✍️
🏠Malcolm Gladwell Bungles WFH🏠
📈DEI jobs and training are booming, but do they work?📈
🐤Solid Tweets🐤
💥Quick hits💥
✍️What I wrote this month✍️
Should I hire for vibes?🧘 - Hiring for vibes has value, but be careful how you do it.
How Not To Be A LinkedIn Influencer😭 - The Crying CEO values attention above all else, and it shows.
Conscientious Hardos In Decline💪📉 - Conscientiousness is overrated. NASA agrees.
Google and Apple no longer require college degrees 🙅🏫
Want a job at Google or Apple but don’t have a four-year degree? No Problem.
Fun Fact: two of the best software engineers I’ve ever worked with didn’t have college degrees. In my limited experience, a Comp Sci degree makes you a worse engineer.
🏠Malcolm Gladwell bungles WFH🏠
Malcolm Gladwell made a comment about working from home. Those comments did not go over well.
There are lots of good takes on this. People have pointed out that he owns his company’s building (and leases it back to himself) and resurfaced clips of him saying he likes to write from his couch.
But Gladwell’s hypocrisy doesn’t bother me nearly as much as his assumption that being a part of something requires an in-person presence. We know it doesn’t!
Gladwell’s comments say a lot more about him as a manager than WFH culture. But we already knew he wasn’t that thoughtful of a leader.
Sorry to interrupt but do you need to get better at hiring? Subscribe below!
📈DEI jobs and training are booming, but do they work?📈
Noted sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev have done their research on the effectiveness of anti-discrimination programs. How effective were those programs? Well, not very. From the Economist,
On average, 20 years after these interventions [anti-discrimination trainings] were introduced, the group that benefited most were white men.
What does work? Cultural-inclusion training with a focus on increasing a diverse team’s productivity, mentorship, targeted recruitment, and cross-training.
🐤Solid Tweets🐤
Quick hits💥
Could unemployed men with criminal records solve the labor shortage?
I discussed my career (and the Eel Guy on TikTok) on the Whatcha Sippin On? podcast
And Finally📈…
Would you mind sharing Lying to Ourselves with a friend or colleague if you find the posts valuable?