Ethical Concern Regarding Investment Banking Application

Hi everyone,

I recently found out that a close friend of mine applied to major banks as a certain racial diversity (even though he is of a non-diverse race) - he is close enough to pass as a member of the race. I don't want to turn this thread into a debate over the merits of affirmative action but my question is do banks have a way of finding out whether or not the applicant is truly diverse. If so, how likely is it and what would the consequences be? Additionally, I have heard of mentions of background checks. Do those relate to this in any way? Just for a background, this person used this to get into diversity programs and later into the banks. Just curious.

Thanks.

 

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I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.

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It's pretty hard to catch, almost impossible tbh. I'd say the bigger risk is just people looking down on you rather than losing the offer, which can be detrimental to your rep early on.

 

That's true. I think I'm the only one who knows he did it this way (at least among people outside of those who hired him). Do you think it's possible that people in the bank don't know that he applied through diversity recruiting or should they know? Just curious, thanks.

 

This sounds much more like a practicality concern than an ethical concern. Is it ethical to apply as a diversity candidate if you're not one? No. If you look like the ethnicity of the diversity candidate that you applied as will you get caught? Probably not.

I come from down in the valley, where mister when you're young, they bring you up to do like your daddy done
 

That's also true. I'm just confused about whether they even check since I'd say in this case if he said he is of that race it would be believable but not necessarily everyone's first guess if you were to ask.

 

why bankers get a bad rep 101. No there isn't documentation that says you are half/full whatever. You could be white living in Nigeria or black living in NYC, places you've lived don't determine whether you are a minority or not.

 

I agree, but like I said below it just made me curious as to whether they even check/how the process works. I was initially trying to convince the friend out of it but the way the friend pictured it made it seem as if it's there's no real risk.

 

I wasn't planning to snitch regardless. It just made me curious about the process itself. I was trying to explain to him that there are risks but the friend made a convincing point about how it's not even risky, so I was just curious as to whether they bother checking or whether there are even any risks since it seems as if there's no way for banks to know.

 

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