As an applicant early in my HR career, I never understood why my resume would be passed up for entry-level roles when I had little experience and pursuance of an HR degree. My experience and education were in line with the qualifications, however, once I began independent recruitment, I noticed corporations only wanted to hire applicants from Predominately White Institutes (PWI) mainly Ivy League colleges. Back then I knew something wasn’t right about that request but didn’t understand the implications of what was being asked.
My pursuit of an associate degree in HR from a for-profit institution that lost their “accreditation” and is now out of business put me in the crossfire of attending college at a lessor known institution and I was unable to transfer credits because of their type of accreditation. My personal example is extreme, however, hiring managers have discriminated against lessor known colleges including but not limited to Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU). The usage of Handshake while recruiting shows what colleges the company has contacted for attracting candidates; from my experience 100% of the time there were no schools that showed any type of diversity.
College Discrimination © 2023 by Osha Stevenson is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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