Wells Fargo interviewed me just to meet its diversity criteria. I felt less than human when I found out.

credit:

https://www.businessinsider.com/wells-fargo-fake-job-interviews-diversity-feel-less-than-human-2022-6

In 2016 and 2017, Don Banks had two job interviews with Wells Fargo but never heard back.

The New York Times later told him he was among those interviewed to fulfill diversity requirements.

This is Banks' experience of those interviews, as told to Insider's Urooba Jamal.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Don Banks, a financial advisor from Monroe, Louisiana, about his experience of being interviewed by Wells Fargo and later learning the bank only conducted these to fulfill a policy of interviewing more diverse candidates. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2016 and 2017, I interviewed for financial-advisor roles at Wells Fargo. Both times, I had a general interview and was told I would be advancing to the next stage with the hiring manager.

The meetings were due to be on the phone and were scheduled, but never happened. I didn't receive any response after they didn't take place.

At the time, I thought those were interviews that just didn't work out. But later, The New York Times reached out to me and said someone had given them my name as one of the victims of Wells Fargo's false interviews. They told me someone — who remained anonymous — had knowledge about false interviews conducted by the bank for diverse candidates like me, which included other people of color and women.

I thought back on what happened, and it made sense why I never got a response.

It's frustrating to know that I was a part of this process; it made me feel less than human. How are we having this issue in 2022?

I thought I was an actual candidate Wells Fargo was considering
There were some opportunities at the company that were close to where I lived, and I was supposed to speak to someone about the next step.

I tried to call the recruiter back, but I was never able to get hold of them.

It made me feel very disrespected as a professional
Employers should at least value my résumé throughout the interview process. If you don't consider me as a candidate, that's fine — that's business, that's life.

But it's just not fair for an employer to drop me like that. That's not good business, and that's not being a good person.

This problem isn't just with Wells Fargo, but with other corporations as well. It's disheartening to know that other people have experienced this, too.

I did eventually work at Wells Fargo between 2018 and 2020, for a more junior position than I had been interviewing for in both 2016 and 2017. When I got laid off, they said it was due to COVID.

It's a relief that it is coming to light
I would like everyone who was part of this process to be held accountable.

There needs to be some type of punishment for this behavior — not just a slap on the wrist. And ultimately, I would like to see that people aren't victims of this going forward.

I hope that my story can help someone else in the future, whether it's those Wells Fargo is interviewing, or any other company. I hope it compels other organizations to check their procedures and practices to make sure that they aren't contributing to the same issues.

I hope the public sees the truth, recognizes this is a part of a bigger issue and, says, "You know what? We're not going to allow this."
When the scheduled meetings never happened, I didn't get any message about rescheduling or anything else.

Comment! It's anonymous!

23 replies (most recent on top)

We must look at the big picture here. It is entirely possible that the guy who was interviewed really is a sub-human.

Precisely why this equity BS has to end. Hire the best candidates, period! Develop talent with those in underrepresented groups. It will balance out soon enough.

@2hhk+1hrsQ8Y6

The fact that we look for specific "types" of people at all is inherently bigoted. Just hire the best candidate. It's simple, and the result is a diverse team, ALWAYS. Diversity is an end result, not a hiring strategy. When you make it the hiring strategy you're going to discriminate against people who have done nothing wrong other than be born as a (insert demographic check box here) which may not be en vogue at the time. Still discrimination, and being popular doesn't make it right.

I was in a meeting yesterday. The executive in charge is a black male. He said that hiring to meet these goals is more difficult than you would think.

He - a black guy himself - told us that it's almost impossible to find a black female engineer. He said that profession isn't one that that demographic gravitates to.

Again, this executive was a black guy himself, so he's able to say things that a white guy would get fired for. It was refreshing to hear.

I just went through a round of hiring. We interviewed the candidates that met the criteria ( white, Asian, black, female and male) and we hired the most qualified 2 black males, 2 white males, 1 female. Entirely based on skills, background and 2 rounds of interviews and we did it as a team. I would hope all groups do this!! We have a great team.

Wells Fargo needs an internal community of ultra hardcore right wing preservationists that can congregate and discuss issues.

Wouldn't we want to interview FEWER minorities if we wanted our numbers to look better?

Funny how people assume that these faux interviews are racism against black people or other minorities. I've been hiring a long time, and not one single time has the recruiter told me to hire a white guy. They always talk about targets and what specific groups are under represented. Never forget the time a recruiter told me to keep an eye out for a person that was Pacific Islander or Black, or (her words) better yet, both.

If some group is getting fake interviews, it's probably a bunch of white guys.

Not everything is racial.

Join the club buddy. I am white and have been ghosted many times through the years. Get a grip people.

if you require the outcome of an interview to tell you if you're a human or not, you have issues.

Well let's see, you have to have a pool of candidates, but you can't give everyone the job. So yeah, everyone that doesn't get the gig is going to feel like they got robbed. I hate to be the bearer to reality, but sometimes another person just interviewed better. I've been interviewed and not selected. Was it a grand conspiracy? Probably not.

I've been in one of these quota interviews before.

Sat down in the hiring manager's office and then a few minutes later the actual manager shows up. Sits down, and looks annoyed that he actually had to be there. I nearly walked out at that point but decided I was going to waste as much of those as-----s' time as I could. So I did.

Well if the board conservative troll feels the need to comment over and over that racism isn't a problem here, I'm sure it's true

Ugh... Everyone, regardless of demographics, have been token interviewees.

For decades, companies have policies around interviewing multiple candidates even if the manager knows who they want.

This isn't about a racial quota. It's a decades-old practice.

I've been on both sides. I've been the 'chosen one' once or twice, and I've been a token many more times. And yet in other times, I was simply a candidate like everyone else that interviewed, and maybe I got the job, maybe I didn't.

I guess today's unprecedented whining about all things demographic is a sign that we live in a posh society. Life has gotten so easy for everyone that folks are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find something to complain about

Decades ago, people didn't complain like this. They just lived their lives.

Unfortunately, these policies have led to bad behavior at basically every large company. Wells Fargo is easy to single out for it because of its reputation from other problems.

It's not a "race" problem, or a "diversity" problem. Or even a "Wells Fargo" hiring problem.

It's a MATH problem.

There simply is not enough qualified candidates within each and every little slice of catagorization that they want to divide people into. It's like requiring the company to find an Eskimo with a PhD and 15 years of swimming pool construction experience. They slice and dice it to the point where such people simply do not exist.

DE&I is stupid and counter productive. It needs to stop.

I agree "There needs to be some type of punishment for this behavior ", the senior manager who are mandating interviews based on race, s-x, se-ual preference (they seem to prefer bi------l women with long brown hair), need to be fired and their bonuses clawed back. They should mandate all interview should be base on meritocracy.

Wells Fargo usually preselects the candidate. Usually it is a contractor converting to full time.

Your diversity status got you the interview, I guess it qualified you for the position as well? Just getting a call on a resume with 100s applying in 48 hours of the posting shows the leg up you had getting a call for a position you were clearly unqualified for in the first place. Stop whining... You have more opportunity than others but you want equal outcome, not the way the world works. at least not yet.

Repeat thread…

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1hpi2BTw

Felt so disrespected that he applied yet a third time? Like WF is the only one to keep people dangling without any feedback post interview. Unfortunately that is the norm in corporate ‘Murica. Sounds like someone making up wokeness to get name in the spotlight…

“ I did eventually work at Wells Fargo between 2018 and 2020, for a more junior position than I had been interviewing for in both 2016 and 2017.”

So maybe during the course of the interview they realized you were not qualified for the higher level position?

Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Wells Fargo interviewed me just to meet its diversity criteria. I felt less than human when I found out.

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