In the United States, federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against job applicants based on race, gender, and age. However, it is observed that some unintentional biases still affect the selection of personnel. A young woman is trying to create equal opportunities in employment with the application she designed.
“I learned coding at the age of 13. I studied software engineering at Stanford University. I worked at Microsoft for 5 years, I completed my graduate education at MIT,” says computer engineer Stephanie Lampkin, saying that her interest in technology stems from her aunt, who is a computer engineer. According to Lampkin, many black, Latino or other minority youth who achieve high success in academia or business may suffer from the 'impostor' syndrome. Fraud syndrome occurs when truly successful people feel that they do not deserve this success. Even if the person deserves his degrees from the most prestigious educational institutions, he says, 'Am I a fraud? Did I come here by cheating?' he begins to question his success and accepts it as 'normal' when he is discriminated against while trying to enter the business world. Lampkin draws attention to the fact that minorities suffer the most from impostor syndrome, and states that this situation causes them to consider it normal when they are discriminated against in employment.
Stephanie Lampkin explains that she faced the same experience when she tried to enter the business world:
“I was interviewed for a senior analyst position at a large technology company. While I was thinking that the last rounds of the interview were going very well, an official came and said that I did not have technical qualifications and that I was more suitable for sales and marketing. At that moment, an idea occurred to me.”
Lampkin's idea was to create the Blendoor app. The app allows job seekers to hide their name, age and photos. Thus, companies have no idea whether the applicant is white or black, or whether he is male or female. This provides an equal competitive environment for everyone. Elements apply by swiping the screen to the right. Employers also identify prospective employees they are interested in.
Stephanie Lampkin describes her most frustrating aspect of the job application process: “The most frustrating thing is when companies say they're trying hard to diversify their workforce, but that didn't happen. Companies attribute this to minorities not applying sufficiently. However, I know that many staff cannot get beyond the application stage.”
Experts from the National Economic Research Agency, who rolled up their sleeves to do a research on this subject, sent applications to job postings in Boston and Chicago. Employers favored white American names 50 percent more than those that sounded like black names, according to the study. For example, people who have names that suggest they are black, such as 'Jamal' or 'Kamilah' on the application form, lose their chances at the application stage, no matter how successful they are, and lose their jobs to 'James' or 'Kerry' who sound 'white'. it's getting caught.
With the Blendoor application, Lampkin is very pleased to have a platform where people like him are treated equally: “This is how the system works. If Silicon Valley and other industries brag about hiring staff on merit, then the workforce should not look homogeneous.”
The Blendoor app aims to change the face and diversify the workforce.
