Do you really think they are hiring incompetent/bad cpu architects and process engineers?
I doubt it. The issue is good enough vs the best.
Keep in mind an experienced senior engineer or team leader started out
as new hire out of school a decade or two earlier. Out of a population
of newly minted engineers more than half will move into managerial
or marketing roles or simply leave engineering within ten years. It is
a mentally tough job delivering results while keeping up with rapidly
changing technologies and many decide its not for them. A key feature
to keeping the best engineers 1) as engineers, 2) in your company is
fairness and rewarding them based on merit. This isn't simply a matter
of money. Engineers also get rewarded by challenge and the trust shown
to them working on the most interesting and ground breaking new things
in key roles and responsibilities. That is how you grow the senior folks
who ensure that things get done and that they work.
The danger of blathering on about the specific hiring and promoting
of minorities is the perception, often becoming real, that there is a
management thumb on the scale. When it is seen that a *competent*
minority gets a promotion over the *best* candidate who has the bad
luck of not having the favorite shade or naughty bits. That minority
person more than likely can do the job in a reasonably good manner
but the WAY this outcome occurred is extremely demoralizing and
corrosive to team spirit and trust in the company. Once the rank and
file feels the merit system is undermined there are going to be problems
with retention, work ethic, and decline in trust of co-workers. As teams
go so goes projects. As projects go so goes products. As products go
so goes competitiveness. As competitiveness goes so goes companies.
This is an extremely competitive business. Even with the best people
available success is far from assured but with average people odds are
your results will at best be average but more likely poor.
