Racial bias in the IB industry

Funny how SEO is supposed to be for the disadvantaged, yet the majority of people who get success from it happen to be middle class enthic minorities, not ethnic minorities with actual disadvantages.

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Funny how SEO is supposed to be for the disadvantaged, yet the majority of people who get success from it happen to be middle class enthic minorities, not ethnic minorities with actual disadvantages.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Actually these are the requirements:

1) Attended a non-fee paying school or fee paying school on a means-tested bursary
AND
2) At least one of the following indicators:
(i) The first generation of your immediate family to attend university
(ii) Have been eligible for free school meals or some form of income-related
financial assistance
(iii) Have been in care, a care giver or a care leaver

I don't see how that's middle class. Also these programmes aren't only for ethnic minorities they are for all people of low socioeconomic status.

It is a known fact that in the UK careers like Medicine and the sciences are dominated by Asians.. and the Corporate FInance and Banking is dominated by whites. Its been a pattern for years now and in my mind it wont change. Atleast non whites should be thankful that there are many career sectors in the UK where there are plenty of them and they have a good chance for them to make a career, in a majority white country. So we need to get over this mindset.

( speaking as a 1st generation British Indian)

Edit- I voted UKIP too for your kind information

That's correct but you'd be surprised at how many already middle class ethnic minorities are part of SEO

Posted from TSR Mobile

Actually these are the requirements:

1) Attended a non-fee paying school or fee paying school on a means-tested bursary
AND
2) At least one of the following indicators:
(i) The first generation of your immediate family to attend university
(ii) Have been eligible for free school meals or some form of income-related
financial assistance
(iii) Have been in care, a care giver or a care leaver

I don't see how that's middle class. Also these programmes aren't only for ethnic minorities they are for all people of low socioeconomic status.

Actually these are the requirements:

1) Attended a non-fee paying school or fee paying school on a means-tested bursary
AND
2) At least one of the following indicators:
(i) The first generation of your immediate family to attend university
(ii) Have been eligible for free school meals or some form of income-related
financial assistance
(iii) Have been in care, a care giver or a care leaver

I don't see how that's middle class. Also these programmes aren't only for ethnic minorities they are for all people of low socioeconomic status.

What's wrong with 90% of interns being white? The UK is ~90% white, surely that's a sign that the hiring staff aren't being discriminatory in the slightest?

The whole of the UK population is irrelevant. Only people who are interested in investment banking are to be considered.

You missed the most important thing, that all "black or minority ethnic origin" can apply. This is one of the problems of SEO, that their are a lot of people who are "middle class" went to grammer schools in bucks or essex etc. A reason for this is that, (a sad fact as well) on the whole they have more confidence in interviews, can express themselves in a clearer way (avoiding slang). Furthermore these candidates generally have grown up in a environment where they can fully concentrate on their studies. These are some of the major obstacles which face applicants who are from less affluent backgrounds.

Of course their are exceptions, I know a few people from seo, who have made it through the hard way and I have the up most respect for them but generally seo should be doing more to train people to communicate in a improved manner, giving support sessions on how to act in certain social situations etc. Rather than picking up these applicants who are more or less "middle class" and who wouldn't benefit as much as applicants who come from inner-city London, Birmingham etc.

in 2017, we don't all have equal connections or links to the industry.

most definiately.

for example if it wasn't for SEO, I wouldn't even know how to structure my CV properly for the banking industry. it was through SEO I was introduced to an SEO alumni who i went to set up a meet and sit down with, to help learn about the actual culture of the industry which i was able to translate on my CLs to display signs of research into the field.

if a person can find their own methods to learn to setup a strong app, which is in fact becoming easier, due to tools such as LinkedIn/WSO/M&I which i utilised quite extensively in my undergrad years, then by all means ofcourse he can get in (provided he passes the interviews).

SEO doesn't give you internships/grad offers, it simply offers the tools to balance the playing field with those who have industry connections. i spend alot of my time nowadays, supporting students on the SEO platform with regards to offering advice on CVs and Cover Letters which is the biggest hurdle (imo) for disadvantaged kids. with connections its pretty easy to know what a CV or CL for banking should look like, without it becomes pretty difficult. and there's no point discussing racial imbalances when most fail at the first hurdle by submitting a 2 page CV.

no-one 'needs' these organisations, but if you're a smart kid who's eligible to apply (which most people at top unis are).. it would be pretty dumb not to take advantage of the resources at your disposal.

note: i would consider these organisations to be like a family for the disadvantaged. the same way europeans stick together with regards to offering advice on applications/interviews, SEO can help introduce members to SEO alumni who also offer advice. so it's a family/friends type ordeal under a charity name.

Noob Q but what is an SEO

The whole of the UK population is irrelevant. Only people who are interested in investment banking are to be considered.

. It's really sad and I think that definitely more has to be done to improve the academic prospects of the poorer inner city kids.

do you have any reason to believe that the ethnicity breakdown of the people interested in IB is any different to the ethnicity breakdown of the whole population or are you just saying it for no reason

My point was that 90% of the population being white doesn't mean that 90% of IB applicants will be white. You can't just claim this to be true without some statistical evidence.

Also let's not forget that applicants who are even "middle class", with top cv's etc are still looked over when compared to applicants from independent schools with worse grades and achievements. This is where Seo does help, in getting these candidates through to final rounds. Personally I think that my best shot is through one of these disadvantaged schemes through Seo, even though I maybe don't really fit the type of candidate their looking for. Which is unfortunately the sad truth for many candidates of ethnic minority.

Which goes back to one of the main problems, once hr or whoever sees a name which is an ethnic minority, they generally have stereotypes in the back of their head, which are often of negative connotations, that even if I invite them to interview they won't perform as well as this other candidate who is "white" etc. This can and will not improve unless their ethnic diversity in their hr recruitment teams, as when looking for candidates they will tend to look for themselves in a person, someone they can relate to (this happens in all walks of life) and if in their back of their mind they can paint a picture of this candidate and relate him to x,y,z who came from this school, this uni and who are top performers within the bank, then they will go for the candidate who most resembles that person.

This exactly. It's not like they actively discriminate but its well documented and researched that people have biases towards people who are similar to them - its psychological. not to mention stereotypes are very real and even if you don't consider yourself racist you still hold them subconsciously (and it has been especially shown that people associate negative stereotypes with black people). i think its probably the biggest reason why minorities struggle to get into oxbridge. if you look at the admissions tutors they are even less diverse than the students. i was looking at the cambs economics department website and i couldn't find a single black staff member! at the end of the day if you have a bunch of white ex-public schoolboys choosing the students then whether they mean to or not they are going to favour the white public schoolboy applicants. combine this with the fact that if you have preconceptions on types of people this will affect how you perceive their performance, a kind of confirmation bias. this is worse at oxbridge where the decisions are made by individual tutors rather than collectively by departments or admissions committees, as no consensus needs to be reached and you have nothing to check your bias. like i honestly believe that (the large majority of) admissions tutors or employers don't intend to be racist in their admissions/employment practices but it doesn't change the fact that that's how it works. I didn't want to mention that middle class minorities are still disadvantaged (relative to middle class whites) bc of the "racism is over" types on this site but... oh and what you said about seeing peoples names reminds me of when people say "but race doesn't appear on the application" or something and I'm just thinking do they really think that if their last name is Malik or if it's Adebayo there are many options?

It also doesn't mean 50% will be white.