‘Preferably Caucasian’: Company slammed for ‘offensive’ LinkedIn job posting, apologizes

Image: LinkedIn via Twitter/@misshelenasue

An IT staffing and recruiting company based in Washington, D.C., United States recently drew flak after its job posting on LinkedIn specified the job candidate to be “Preferably Caucasian.”

The issue went viral after netizens took to social media to call out Cynet Systems, the company, for the questionable job posting.

Helena McCabe, a programmer, took a screenshot of the company’s job posting and shared it on Twitter last April 27.

“Hey @cynetjobs — what’s with this?” McCabe said. “Your job listing for a mid-senior level business development position’s top qualification is ‘Preferably Caucasian.’ How could you POSSIBLY think that’s okay?”

Uh, hey @cynetjobs – what's with this?

Your job listing for a mid-senior level business development position's top qualification is "Preferably Caucasian"

How could you POSSIBLY think that's okay? pic.twitter.com/DPWzpgXqqE

— Helena (@misshelenasue) April 27, 2019

McCabe’s tweet has garnered over 14,000 likes and over 8,000 retweets since the time of posting and it did not take long until Cynet addressed the issue.

Cynet apologized for the job posting via their official Twitter account on April 29 and explained the listing does not reflect their company’s core values.

“Cynet apologizes for the anger & frustration caused by the offensive job post,” they said. “It does not reflect our core values of inclusivity & equality.”

Cynet apologizes for the anger & frustration caused by the offensive job post. It does not reflect our core values of inclusivity & equality. The individuals involved have been terminated. We will take this as a learning experience & will continue to serve our diverse community.

— Cynet Systems (@cynetsystems) April 29, 2019

The company added they fired those responsible for the job posting, saying, “We will take this as a learning experience & will continue to serve our diverse community.”

A notice on the company website has also been put up in regard to the incident; Cynet took pride in its diverse team and noted that the company’s owners are Indian-Americans.

“Our workforce is over 60% minority, and we are certified as a diversity supplier by the National Minority Supplier Development Council,” they said.

The company added it is currently reviewing all existing and upcoming ads to ensure similar issues would not happen again. They are also looking for measures to help them catch offensive adverts before they go live online. JB

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