Merit is important, but other factors are clearly taken into consideration. I used to interview candidates for software engineering roles. Usually I would do an interview with another colleague, and at the end we'd give our manager a thumbs up or thumbs down for a candidate.
I recall one case where we interviewed a guy from an underrepresented group, and both of us gave a thumbs down. The next week I was surprised to see him sitting at a desk because he'd been hired. I approached the manager just to make sure there wasn't a miscommunication in our interview feedback, and he just sort of shrugged it off and said he thought the guy was a good fit. It wasn't a meritless hire--he was qualified, just not as impressive as some other folks we'd interviewed.
I can't really say I blame the manager. We were in a client-facing consultancy group, and some potential clients do like to see diversity on a team.
I think cases like this are much more common than either completely ignoring race or merit. Assuming your interview process matches my experience of software interviews, it's not that surprising that the manager might review the feedback with more detail especially since you use the awkward phrase "he was qualified, just not as impressive as some other folks we'd interviewed" and if I were the hiring manager and that was in the feedback I'd definitely consider collecting more information before passing on that candidate (this is based on both existing EEOC law as well as my personal morality opinions on diversity).
Merit is important, but other factors are clearly taken into consideration. I used to interview candidates for software engineering roles. Usually I would do an interview with another colleague, and at the end we'd give our manager a thumbs up or thumbs down for a candidate.
I recall one case where we interviewed a guy from an underrepresented group, and both of us gave a thumbs down. The next week I was surprised to see him sitting at a desk because he'd been hired. I approached the manager just to make sure there wasn't a miscommunication in our interview feedback, and he just sort of shrugged it off and said he thought the guy was a good fit. It wasn't a meritless hire--he was qualified, just not as impressive as some other folks we'd interviewed.
I can't really say I blame the manager. We were in a client-facing consultancy group, and some potential clients do like to see diversity on a team.
I think cases like this are much more common than either completely ignoring race or merit. Assuming your interview process matches my experience of software interviews, it's not that surprising that the manager might review the feedback with more detail especially since you use the awkward phrase "he was qualified, just not as impressive as some other folks we'd interviewed" and if I were the hiring manager and that was in the feedback I'd definitely consider collecting more information before passing on that candidate (this is based on both existing EEOC law as well as my personal morality opinions on diversity).