White, Male IT Candidates

Well I think it really depends on where they work. If you work at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs your competition is a lot different than someone who is working at some no name bank or consulting firm. I dont think there are many engineering and IT companies that have the image of a bulge bracket bank or a big 3 consulting firm.

i wonder about this too. i don't work in IT, but i am a white male in a field that is typically pursued by non-white males (nonprofit). does that mean that being a white male might actually benefit me for once? possibly, but it's hard to tell. my guess is that it just one more (small) data point amongst other diversity factors such as:

- race
- gender
- age
- national origin
- socioeconomic status
- where you live / work / went to school
- what you studied in school
- current job function
- unique story
- extracurriculars

it seems obvious that the more times you punch the diversity card, the better for you, although the extent to which any of the above matter surely varies between candidates and takes on significance in relation to each of the other factors (another black box). i went to a public elite university (of the ilk of UCLA, UW Madison, etc.) and when i was considering b-school, i combed through the alumni database and contacted alums who had attended top MBA programs. there were surprisingly few. i talked to maybe ten people who attended m7 schools, and each basically said the same thing -- there were between 2-3 people from our school that attended that MBA program in their class. does that mean only 2-3 people were qualified from my school in any of those years? probably not, but i suspect that since these folks were less likely to have an elite work experience pedigree, they may have gotten a nudge from the adcom because they added a little diversity to the class. was it enough on its own? no. did it help? probably.

i mention this because i suspect that being a minority in your field in any respect is a good thing. if the schools are trying to choose between a slew of uber qualified people who look similar on paper, something as small as where you went for undergrad or what your race is could likely make enough difference to boost you in. i also suspect this is one of the reasons why so many people get interviews (back to the other thread) -- i think it's hard to say that many of those people have no chance, because there are just too many factors being evaluated to really definitely say who has a chance and who does not.

in the end, your specific demographic is like every other demographic -- it's a ratio problem where we have neither the numerator (number admitted who are like you), nor the denominator (total admitted for your field -- IT).