I recently got turned down from a pretty good opportunity in what felt like great interviews. I was a match for the role technically, & I feel, personality wise for the role. I've worked in multiple countries, with all kinds of people & never struggled to make friends, or work well with others.
This role had no reliance on diversity by the way, it's predominantly a technical role as an analyst.
The employer accidentally (I assume), let it slip in the email that they chose to hire candidates from a more diverse ethnic background as they felt they were more in line with what they were looking for, but that I was a “brilliant candidate”.
I've been struggling with unemployment for more than a year now after losing my dad in November 2020, it's been pretty rough & now I have a huge employment gap that I have to explain away every time.
Diversity hires are nothing new, I've dealt with them before & lost jobs due to someone having the diversity advantage over me (Straight white male). I'm not saying every job has been that, it hasn't… but through mistakes on the employers, I've seen who I've lost out to & their subsequent linkedin & lack of comparable skills many times before.
It kind of is what it is, 99.99% of the time I can't prove it so I just have to look at the other variables I can impact & ignore the discrimination.
This is the first time an employer has openly admitted it though, & I just want to know if I have any kind of recourse.
I'm in the UK btw.