news.ycombinator.com• Oct 13, 2023• 1 min read
Disney – DEI requires a history of privilegeFor background, I am currently a Principal Engineer at a close to FAANG level company, with 16 years of experience in the software industry and a college drop out. I had my own startup for 11 years, chased VC funding, managed and scaled software teams, and scaled software systems to millions of daily active users.I decided it was time for a change so I applied for some lead software engineering roles at Disney. Today I had a phone screening that lasted about 10 minutes. The second the recruiter asked about my highest form of education and I responded that I am a drop out, I could hear the hesitation in her voice so I asked if that was a deal breaker. Of course it was, but based on the years of experience they can see if I still map to the role.Unfortunately after she did the math my 16 years of experience with no degree only qualifies for a junior engineering role across all of Disney Engineering. To even qualify for a senior role, I needed 17 years of experience, and the lead role i a