Did you and/or your parents sacrifice so you could attend an elite university? It won’t matter if you’re hoping to get a job with a certain globe-changing “real estate and economic development” firm.
According to its official website, HR&A Advisors has customers across the planet:
We have offices in New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and Washington DC; a presence that allows us to serve clients all over the world.
From Brooklyn to London, Cincinnati to Medellín, we have guided hundreds of clients in transforming real estate and economic development concepts, and public infrastructure, first into actionable plans then into job-producing, community-strengthening assets.
We have served a diversity of clients – real estate owners and investors, hospitals and universities, cultural institutions, community development organizations and governments – since 1976.
The company “helps create more equitable, resilient, and dynamic communities.”
HR&A recently accepted applications for a directorship paying between $121,668 and $138,432 annually. But those in charge didn’t want to be unfairly impressed.
Therefore, per the position’s LinkedIn ad:
We ask that you submit a version of your resume that has your school information removed. There is no need to reformat your resume, and you should leave your degree (e.g. “B.A. Economics”). But please remove all undergraduate and graduate school name references.
It’s not a one-off victory for equity. From the New York Post:
A quick spin through a few other HR&A job postings confirmed that this policy extends company-wide as part of their “ongoing work to build a hiring system that is free from bias and based on candidate merit and performance.”
Does the specific school someone was accepted by and successfully navigated indicate anything meritorious? It appears not.
Merit isn’t what it used to be anyway: As reported by RedState’s Nick Arama last month, administrators at Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Technology “have been withholding telling the families and the public if students won National Merit awards for the past five years.” Such secrecy is part of the school district’s official strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.”
These days, it’s all about leveling the playing field — and, if needed, leveling the score:
Virginia University’s Storm of Skin-Based Equity Rains Down Upon Education
University Seeks Science Professor Who Can Be Anything but a One-Spirit Man With a Penis
The Post draws comparisons to HR&A’s equitable action:
Today, at least two-thirds of higher education institutions, including Harvard and Stanford, don’t require the SAT for admission. The American Bar Association recently announced it will drop the LSAT as an admissions requirement for law school. And now, some are calling for the prestigious MCAT to be scrapped as the gold standard for medical school admissions — all in the name of racial equity.
Relatedly, see “It’s Official: California State University Has Permanently Abandoned Standardized Testing.”
What’s the specific reason for not considering job applicants’ schools? If it’s racial equity, might that seem to suggest nonwhites are incapable of attending prestigious schools? Sometimes, it’s been previously posed, programs meant to “help” groups also appear to insult them.
Whatever the case, if you’re hoping to work for HR&A — and, likely, other future businesses — you might do well to save your money and attend the cheapest school your can find. Until, of course, degrees are no longer required — coming soon, in the name of equity.
-ALEX
See more content from me:
It’s Happened: A Trans Athlete Goes the Other Way, Beats a One-Armed Man
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Find all my RedState work here.
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