Recently, Beijing-based journalist Debra Bruno wrote a column describing how the search for diverse job candidates turned her into “a Facebook stalker” when she worked at Roll Call. When she ran the site’s internship program, she was told that one of the site’s three interns had to be a minority.
The criteria made her think about diversity in hiring, and her column stirred a lot of reaction. “Diversity is important,” she wrote, “but giving someone an advantage beyond his experience degrades the applicant and the hirer.”
In this week’s career chat, we talked with Bruno about the intersection of hiring and affirmative action. She went over some of the points she made in her piece, and responded to chat participants’ questions and feedback.
You can replay the chat here: