...applications. He changed his name to Joe, applied to the same employers and received many responses.
That just tells me the company is using a software program that eliminates candidates based on various factors. It may be as simple as a first name, education, experience, whatever.
Let's say you are the VP of International Sales. You need to hire a top flight sales exec that can work the C-Suite overseas. Would you hire a sales exec with a first name of Mohammad? Everybody pre-judges and discriminates to a certain degree.While there MAY be a few, and I want to say VERY few companies who would deploy a software package that specifically kicks out FIRST names, your claim that they do so based on education and experience is plausible.
Software alone would not answer the drastic difference Joe, or Jose, is referring to. Word would leak i.e. whistle blower about the use of that program, again, specifically one that monitors first names and....voila!...instant PR problem and probable massive law suit. I am just not buying this guys story to the degree he is telling it. Sure, discrimination exists, but to be that blatant about it and expose the company to that kind of class action law suit is far fetched on any wider scale outside of a company here or there.
Today's stereotype is "If you want someone that will actually work, hire a Mexican"
and you are right, no major or even midsize company is going to risk the lawsuits that would come from this type of software excluding members of minorities. Every company already has minorities working for them, the chances of this not coming to light by a whistleblower from inside the company is near zero. Corporate execs aren't always the smartest people, but only an idiot would allow this kind of thing in their company.
Yes, racism in the workplace exists "Mary Jones" is much more likely to be hired than "Shaniqua Jones", but to claim that large companies are using software to exclude Hispanics on a large scale is just ridiculous. Now a program that excluded lazy, entitled white kids born to rich parents, yeah THAT would be a software package that would sell, as a matter of fact, sign me up as a client right now.