I just finished reading Rochelle Newman-Carrasco’s AdAge BigTent blog post on the discriminatory hiring practices by some multicultural and general market ad agency executives.

I don’t have any first-hand experience with any of the situations she describes, but I’ve always noticed nationality-trends at certain agencies (e.g. agencies run by Mexicans tend to have a lot of Mexicans working there, agencies run by Argentinians tend to hire a lot of Argentinians, etc, etc.).

Do I think that there are discriminatory behavior driving these anecdotal trends? I don’t think so. I think it’s just human nature – if you were born and raised in Argentina, you have a natural affinity and connection with people from Argentina. Will that influence your hiring decisions? Of course – we’re all social beings (especially those of us who are Hispanic!)

As someone who does make hiring decisions, I can tell you that I often evaluate potential candidates for more than their experience. One thing I often do is evaluate how involved they are in social media (i.e. do they have a Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social networking profile? Do they blog? Do they Twitter?) For our agency, I want to hire folks that actually walk the talk when it comes to social media (a big part of what we do for our clients).

However, I could see some disgruntled candidate or labor attorney claiming that I am discriminating against older candidates based on a social media litmus test.

The intricacies of these matters are not so black and white, and there is definitely a slippery slope…

Kudos to Rochelle for starting the conversation.

Jose

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