Hispanic Hiring Boost? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does a applicant receive a hiring boost during regular OCI interviews if the applicant is hispanic? What if the applicant is a white hispanic i.e. has a hispanic last name but does not speak spanish or look like a "typical hispanic"?

ETA: if a boost does exist, how big of a boost is it?

[Anonymous User]

Bump

[CanadianWolf]

There are several diversity hiring fairs each year that you should check out. Doubtful that anyone can quantify Hispanic hiring boost. Best to catch a biglaw firm after it has been sued for discrimination if you fall into the plaintiff classification.

[abogadesq]

Unless you look like a stereotypical Hispanic (i.e. Mestizo), I don't think being Hispanic is generally helpful.

In fact, as a white Hispanic, I actually have a harder time when I put myself as Hispanic. Potential employers have looked at with suspicion and assume that I am either exaggerating my Spanish-speaking skills or flat out lying to make myself more marketable as a diverse candidate. This is in part due to a trend of non-Hispanic Whites embellishing their resumes by claiming Spanish proficiency when most of them only speak an extremely rudimentary level of fluency that they picked up in high school or college.

[Anonymous User]

Unless you look like a stereotypical Hispanic (i.e. Mestizo), I don't think being Hispanic is generally helpful.

In fact, as a white Hispanic, I actually have a harder time when I put myself as Hispanic. Potential employers have looked at with suspicion and assume that I am either exaggerating my Spanish-speaking skills or flat out lying to make myself more marketable as a diverse candidate. This is in part due to a trend of non-Hispanic Whites embellishing their resumes by claiming Spanish proficiency when most of them only speak an extremely rudimentary level of fluency that they picked up in high school or college.

I have a pretty spanish last name (not one of the super common ones like Garcia, Gonzalez or Rodriguez but one that is noticeably foreign and if you speak spanish immediately recognizable as spanish). Since my mom is white though I look pretty white. Will I really not get any sort of a boost with a noticeably spanish name and hispanic affinity groups i.e. hispanic bar association and latino law student group?

ETA: ^shows I'm not just some white guy trying to slide by as a fake hispanic, do you think there could be any backlash?

[Anonymous User]

Do you look hispanic at all? Or you got like a Marco Rubio situation going on?

[Anonymous User]

Do you look hispanic at all? Or you got like a Marco Rubio situation going on?

I do but not much. If the person knows I am hispanic and is familiar with white hispanics may hispanic features can be easily seen. But if the person doesn't know I am hispanic or isn't familiar with white hispanics they'd probably just think I am white.

As a person who is familiar with cubans and white hispanics in general, Marco Rubio looks like a typical white hispanic to me.

[abogadesq]

Unless you look like a stereotypical Hispanic (i.e. Mestizo), I don't think being Hispanic is generally helpful.

In fact, as a white Hispanic, I actually have a harder time when I put myself as Hispanic. Potential employers have looked at with suspicion and assume that I am either exaggerating my Spanish-speaking skills or flat out lying to make myself more marketable as a diverse candidate. This is in part due to a trend of non-Hispanic Whites embellishing their resumes by claiming Spanish proficiency when most of them only speak an extremely rudimentary level of fluency that they picked up in high school or college.

I have a pretty spanish last name (not one of the super common ones like Garcia, Gonzalez or Rodriguez but one that is noticeably foreign and if you speak spanish immediately recognizable as spanish). Since my mom is white though I look pretty white. Will I really not get any sort of a boost with a noticeably spanish name and hispanic affinity groups i.e. hispanic bar association and latino law student group?

ETA: ^shows I'm not just some white guy trying to slide by as a fake hispanic, do you think there could be any backlash?

Having a Spanish last name should prevent any "fake Hispanic backlash"; I mean, I don't think even lawyers are cynical enough to think someone changed their last name to sound more "ethnic" Regardless, I'm not really sure how it would be a net positive unless the employer wanted a Spanish-speaker. I would recommend looking at public sector employment.

[Anonymous User]

Unless you look like a stereotypical Hispanic (i.e. Mestizo), I don't think being Hispanic is generally helpful.

In fact, as a white Hispanic, I actually have a harder time when I put myself as Hispanic. Potential employers have looked at with suspicion and assume that I am either exaggerating my Spanish-speaking skills or flat out lying to make myself more marketable as a diverse candidate. This is in part due to a trend of non-Hispanic Whites embellishing their resumes by claiming Spanish proficiency when most of them only speak an extremely rudimentary level of fluency that they picked up in high school or college.

I have a pretty spanish last name (not one of the super common ones like Garcia, Gonzalez or Rodriguez but one that is noticeably foreign and if you speak spanish immediately recognizable as spanish). Since my mom is white though I look pretty white. Will I really not get any sort of a boost with a noticeably spanish name and hispanic affinity groups i.e. hispanic bar association and latino law student group?

ETA: ^shows I'm not just some white guy trying to slide by as a fake hispanic, do you think there could be any backlash?

Having a Spanish last name should prevent any "fake Hispanic backlash"; I mean, I don't think even lawyers are cynical enough to think someone changed their last name to sound more "ethnic" Regardless, I'm not really sure how it would be a net positive unless the employer wanted a Spanish-speaker. I would recommend looking at public sector employment.

I have decent grades at a lower T14 (top 40%ish idk exactly because they don't rank us) so I was hoping more along the lines of trying to get into a better firm than I normally would be able to. Mostly I am scared of striking out at OCI and I know a lot of big firms are scrambling to get their diversity #s up.

ETA: I think this mostly applies to better firms than I would normally be able to get into since my grades should get me BL (though not necessarily a great firm) but the less watched BL firms aren't under the same scrutiny to hire diverse applicants as a bigger firm like Latham or Sidley are for example

[CanadianWolf]

Attending a diversity hiring fair should put you in contact with the right firms in a receptive setting. Hopefully this will generate some more detailed information about these hiring events. Of course, your law school career services office should be able to get information about diversity employment fairs to you. I doubt that names & looks have much to do with diversity hiring; cross-cultural knowledge & language proficiency might, but some may simply be seeking another work horse who can check the right box on a census form.